Context Because this class asks you to pose a research question that you explore

Context
Because this class asks you to pose a research question that you explore over the course of the semester, it’s important to ask questions that aren’t too broad (What is the meaning of life?) or too narrow (Where did I leave my keys?) to be researched with the time and resources we have. Creating a question to follow in your research process is critically important because the question will act as your guide or your compass as you navigate through all the information you’ll dig up in your research.  But what makes a research question a good fit for this class?
Research questions develop over time. What might begin as an overly broad or narrow question can evolve into an interesting, important, and researchable question.
Creating a Research Question: Where to Begin
It has some degree of interest for you — you’ll be working with it all semester.
It focuses on something about which research or data is available.
It has significance to an audience (this is what your exploration will contribute to — information for this audience).
It has general significance to us as a society or part of society. It has something to do with how we live, what we care about, or what might be important for certain people/audiences to know.
It is a question that leads to complex discussion, and might be answered in numerous ways.
It raises more questions – it doesn’t have a simple or direct answer, but doing research adds to the “conversation” about it and identifies  potential areas for future research.
In this exercise, we’ll model the process of taking general topics and figuring out what questions we might research within those topics.
Exercise
Individual, 20-25 minutes total
To begin thinking through questions you might explore, get out a piece of paper and do the following:
Take 3 Minutes: Make 5 columns using any 5 of these headings that seem like they might be interesting starting points:
Places
Trends
Technologies
People
Controversies
History
Jobs
Habits
Hobbies
Take 10 minutes. Under each column, quickly list any words or phrases that come to mind when you think of that heading. Think about what you know already and what you might like to know about the category. You might check your recent text messages or social media posts to remind yourself what you’ve been talking about lately.
For 7 minutes: Review your list and pick one item, word, or idea from each column that you find particularly interesting or have questions about. On other side of your paper, create five new columns using those 5 more specific ideas.
Take 10 minutes, as you did in step 2, to jot down anything that comes to mind when you look at these new more specific columns. What questions come to mind? What more would you like to know? Does the idea relate to your academic major, career, or other goals? What is most interesting – make a note of any related ideas or sub-ideas that come to mind?
You might also browse our list of Common Student Topics in ENC 1102 (in P1.5). What topic ideas strike you as interesting. What question comes to mind as you skim through each.
Chances are, each column now includes the beginning at least one viable research question. In each column, circle something that you wouldn’t mind learning more about.
For each of those five specific topics, list a question you might ask about that topic. What are you curious about? What would be interesting to explore? These five questions are all potential research questions you can pursue in this course.
Exit Ticket
Write two potential research questions from what you listed for step 6. Write one more question that pops into your mind from the list of common topics. Before submitting these potential questions, take a photo of your page so you can start to explore the ideas and also so you don’t forget. Put your name on the page and submit.