The first task in doing research is to formulate a problem for study. The author refers to this phase as selecting a topic, but problem is a better term to characterize the focus of research. One may write a paper on a topic, saying any number of things about it, but research tries to find information to solve a problem or answer a question.
Research is an investigation or an inquiry to find something out.
A problem takes a topic or some aspect of a topic and rephrases it into a question. For examples of problem formulation read carefully chapter one of the text, Varieties of Social Research . The topic is the effect of women s entry into the labor force. Focusing on household work specifies the topic. To do research, one has to have a clear idea of the problem to be addressed.