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 you found something that piqued your interest, or, perhaps you have your own topic that you would like to explore this quarter. Now is the time to start thinking about what you might like to research - don't worry, there is still time to change your mind if you later discover your original topic just won't work for you.

Your tasks for this discussion are to, 1) Share your topic with your Research Pod members; 2) Come up with a general statement of purpose (see sample below); 3) Write a preliminary (very rough) thesis that will serve to focus your research over the next week; 4) Finally, comment on your group members' topics, statements of purpose, and thesis/hypothesis statements. Do you believe the research topic is workable? Is the statement of purpose clear? Is the thesis/hypothesis focused, or perhaps too broad? This is not an exhaustive list of questions, but merely some suggestions to get you started.