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ENGL 101 - English Composition I - Shepard

Developing a Research Question

Developing a Research Question. 1. Identify your topic: this is the starting place from where you develop a research question. 2. Refine by searching for background information: Before you can start to develop a research question, you may need to do some preliminary background research to see what has already been done on the topice and the issues surrounding the topic. 3. Refine by narrowing: Once you begin to understand the topic and the issues surrounding it, you can start to narrow your topic and develp a research question. Do this by asking the 6 journalistic question words: Who? Are you interested in a specific group of people? Can your topic be narrowed by gneder, sex, age, ethnicity, socio-ecoomic status or something else? Are there any key figures related to your topic? What? What are the issues surrounding your topic? Are there subtopics? In looking at background information, did you notice any gaps or questions that seemed unanswered? Where? Can your topic be narrowed down to a geogrpahic location? Warning: Don't get too narrow here. You might not be able to find enough information on a town or state. When? Is your topic current or historical? Is it confined to a specific time period? Why? Why are you interested in this topic? why should others be interested? How? What kinds of information do you need? Primary sources, statistics? what is your methodology?

Brainstorming Keywords