Curiosity is the key to asking great questions in research!
You need the power of curiosity to select a research topic, formulate research questions, and persevere through your project or paper. Interest in your topic will help you maintain focus and commitment. Even if you have a topic assigned by your instructor, you still need to find an area that you want to explore within that topic. Asking open-ended questions will help you if you have to select a topic, focus a broad topic or respond to an instructor-assigned topic.
If the entire research topic and subject is of your choosing or your topic is too broad, start with "Understand Your Assignment" box below and complete all sections on this page. If you have already chosen your focused research topic or have one assigned to you, start with the box labeled "Forming Research Questions." If you don't have an existing assignment that you are applying to learning these information literacy concepts, choose one from the list under the tab "Additional Information" within this Information League tutorial.
Read your assignment carefully and make sure you understand it.
Ask your instructor if you have questions.
*It is in your best interest to clarify your assignment with your instructor, rather than your classmates or other college staff.
Make sure you know what the requirements are, such as.....
√ Due dates?
√ Types of sources required or not allowed?
√ Number of sources required?
√ How many pages?
√ Formatting requirements (margins, font, headers, etc)?
√ Required citation style?
√ Special requirements?
Scroll using the arrow to watch one or both of these videos.
Scroll using the arrow to watch one or both of these videos.
1. Choose something that interests you. If you are having trouble, look through your class notes, search the CQ Researcher database, or search some of the news links listed below.
2. Make sure your topic meets the assignment requirements.
3. Be creative. Find a topic that hasn't been written about over and over.
4. Focus your topic so it is not too broad. You can narrow a topic by using the five W's: Who, What, When, Where, and Why?
5. If you are finding very little information when you explore, your topic may be too narrow. Try expanding the topic by:
Use reference and overview databases, such as CQ Researcher or Gale eBooks, listed below. You can also use the listed news links to generate ideas:
Now you are ready to think about your topic in the form of research questions. You will use these research questions with 3 areas of your research process:
This task takes you from merely having a topic idea and really examining what you know, what you need to know, and what is important to include in your paper in order to educate or convince your audience and fulfill the requirements of your assignment. Your research questions will not be "yes" or "no" questions, but open ended and look like:
You won't be answering all your questions now - your final product (paper, presentation) will ultimately answer these questions. Forming research questions is just a good method for planning and organizing your current knowledge and gaps in knowledge.
Source Consulted:
Ennis, Kathleen. "Develop Research Questions." Research Guides, MJC Library & Learning Center, 22 Mar. 2018. https://libguides.mjc.edu/researchquestions.
Use the link below, "Form Your Research Questions," to answer 3 basic questions and then choose and create research questions unique to your topic. As previously mentioned, these questions help you in three areas of your research paper or project: the flow and structure of your paper (outline), searching for information (sources) and checking to ensure you wrote about all relevant subtopics or questions (writing). If you have a research topic from a course assignment, use that for this task. If you are going through the Research and Information Literacy tutorial without the use of a current research assignment, use a suggested topic from the "Additional Information" tab within the Information League guide.
