Research questions

Last week, you were asked to start thinking about the topic you’d like to choose for your annotated bibliography. You can refer to the list of possible research topics if you need help thinking of a topic.  If you haven’t yet done any background research on the topics you are considering, you should do that now.  This is the point in the research process when it is acceptable to use Wikipedia or other general reference works like encyclopedias and almanacs. 

Choosing your research topic is the next step.  Remember that you will be working with this topic for the rest of this class, so you should choose something that you find interesting.  It is recommended that you choose a topic you would like to investigate related to your major.  The next step is to do some brainstorming about your topic. Brainstorming will help you think about your topic from different angles and consider different aspects of your topic.  There are a number of different brainstorming methods, like asking questions about your topic, outlining, and creating concept maps using websites like  bubble.us and Mindmeister.  You can use any of these tools, or you can just put pencil to paper and let the ideas flow.  

The last step this week is to consider and write your research questions and reflect on the process. The  Writing Your Research Question Worksheet will lead you through the process of creating research questions.  You must create at least three research questions that are open-ended; address a controversy, issue, or problem; and address your topic in a way that you can take a stand. Writing an open-ended question is sometimes a challenge so take a look at the How to Ask an Open-Ended Question handout before you get started.

Then, you will reflect on the process of doing background research and refining your topic.

This is just to prepare and continue working on the final assignment. This is just what the instructor expects. What is highlighted in red is the assignment for this week. I have attached a file of the Writing Your Research Question Worksheet that is to be used for this week’s assignment. All I need is research questions. Please use the worksheet provided.