Determine a General Topic.

The first step in writing an academic research proposal is to identify a general topic or subject area to investigate. Choose a sociological topic that interests you and that can be measured quantitatively.

Sociologists often answer questions in these general areas: aging, body image, criminology, culture, demography, deviant behavior, disability, disasters, economics, education, environment, ethnicity/race, families, gender, globalization, health, immigration, media, medicine, military, morality, non-governmental organizations, nutrition, pets, politics, religion, sexuality, social class, social networks, technology, urbanization, and work.

Use Google Scholar to thoroughly explore articles written on your topic so you may begin to narrow it. One way to narrow your inquiry is by combining several of the topics listed above, like “income” and “education”. Keep narrowing your topic of inquiry by replacing general words with more specific words. Household or individual income? What kind and level of education? What age? Immigrants or native-born? What location? Rural or urban?