A student may write a divorce term paper for a class in psychology, sociology, religion, or any of several other disciplines. The student should not attempt to write a divorce term paper without narrowing the topic somewhat; rather, he or she should narrow the topic as far as necessary in a direction that would be appropriate for the target discipline. For example, for a course in sociology a student could write a paper on how divorce affects the family unit or how divorce affects society; both of these examples discuss divorce through the perspective of groups of individuals.
Once the student has chosen to discuss divorce through the lens of a particular academic discipline, he or she has begun to narrow the topic in a way that will be immediately helpful in the beginning stages of research. The discipline through which the student discusses divorce will determine to a large degree how the student researches the topic. For example, divorce term papers for a course on therapy may require the student to evaluate personal experiences in observing marital therapy sessions, whereas divorce term papers for a course in religion may require the student to search that religion’s sacred texts for its opinions on divorce. Students should not stray too far from their target disciplines in their research, because divorce, having vast implications in many areas of human life, can become too large a topic and students can lose their focus easily. However, students should study divorce thoroughly within their target disciplines; if the student has narrowed the paper's topic sufficiently, he or she should not find it difficult to research and discuss adequately within the divorce term paper.
For most divorce term papers, the student must use current research on the selected topic, including recent statistics as necessary. The student must be sure not to use outdated sources; in a topic as currently relevant as divorce, even ten years can make a huge difference in the validity of a source.
