Notes 3/20/12 : From Topics to Questions

• Your research paper is an ongoing conversation btw writers and readers that creates a community
• Begin with your passion!
• Look for a heading that might interest you, print journals in library, ect
•  a braod topic
• The stuff of textbooks and encylopedias
• good number of thumb--if you can state it in 5 words it is too broad
• this is a Topis Area

• It is important to narrow the  topics because it helps you see gaps, puzzles, and inconsistences
• Moving to a narrow topic
• use descriptive words (conflict, description, contribuation, development)
• these indicate a relationship

• step 1: name your topic:  I am trying to learn about_____.
• step 2: now add a question: I am studying ____ because I want to find out ____.  (This indicates why this topic area is of interest to you)
• step 3:  Why is your topic area or question important to anyone but you? What are the ramifications of your question?  Who will they effect?
•  
• high School Vs. College Reports
• High school-
• addressed a topic
• endless facts
• accumulation of notes, summaries and descriptions
• conclude something like... thus we may see many differences and similaries between...
• good news--find topic, find data and assemble the data

• College-
• college report falls short if a researcher asks no specific question worth asking
• if there is no question, then he can offer no specific answer worth supporting
• Without an answer to support she cannot select from the data that is relevant

• Best Way Forward:  formulate a question or questions that points you to specific data to answer your questions!
• Getting to the questions
• if you do not ask a focused question then you cannot be focused
• start with the bascis
• write down the questions that you find in your research (dont stop to answer them)
• how does it fit into a larger deveopmental context?  Why did your topic come into being?
• What is its own internal history? How and why has the topic itself changed through time?

• Breaking your questions down
• thin about the impact of academic disiplines?
• What other areas does this affect?---problems rarely just affect one discipline
• what is the historical basis?---How did we get to here (the problem)?
• What is the scope of the problem?

• How does your topic fit into the context of a larger structure? ---systems diagram
• How do its parts fit together as a system?
• How can your topic be grouped into kinds?
• Ask what if?  and other speculative questions
• Ask questions that are built on agreement and disagreement
•  
• Evaluate your questions!
• Avoid the following questions:
• their answers are settled
• their answers would be merely speculative
• the answers are dead ends or irrelevant

•  Stop and think time!
• Time to re-examine step 3---time to reconsider what your research will help your reader understand better

• Significance of questions:
• you need to ask yourself, so what?
• beyond your own interest in its answer, why would others think it a question worth asking?
• think about it like this...
• what would be lost if you dont answer the question?
• how will not answering it keep us from understanding something else better than we do now?