But in business and government, in law and medicine, in politics and international diplomacy, no skill is valued more highly than the ability to recognize a problem, then to articulate it in a way that convinces others to both care about it and believe it can be solved, especially by you.
But to make your research matter to others, you have to say more than”Here is something I find interesting”. You have to show them how solving your problem helps them solve theirs.
We solve a conceptual problem not by doing something to change the world, but by answering a question that helps us understand it better.
We solve a practical problem by doing something (or encouraging others to do something) to eliminate or at least mitigate the condition creating these tangible costs.
Put in general terms, a practical problem is caused by some condition in the world that troubles us because it costs us time, money,respect, security, opportunity, even our lives.
Everyday research usually begins not with dreaming up a topic to think about but with a practical problem that if you ignore it means trouble.
That‘s how a lot of research begins—not with a big question that attracts everyone in a field, but with a mental itch about a small question that only a single researcher wants to scratch. If you feel that itch, start scratching.
A topic is an approach to a subject, one that asks a question whose answer solves a problem that your readers care about.
The Craft of Research, Third Edition | 
