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STEP ONE: Developing a Research Question
So why ask a research question? To answer it! Ok, joking aside, you ask a research question so you can find an answer. You might already have a hypothesis about the answer or you might have absolutely no idea. Both are fine; the research question gets you started on your topic and helps you focus what you’ll be writing about. The answer to your research question should be what becomes your thesis statement, the main point of your entire essay.
1. Topic – Remember, the topic is the big broad idea.
Education
2. Narrowed Topic – There are many topics, often called sub-topics, within a larger topic. For instance, history can be divided by place, time, culture, event, and more.
Distance education
3. Even more narrow – You're getting to the “so what” about the topic—what about your subtopic are you looking at most closely.
Impact of distance education
4. Add the why – What about the topic are you looking at in particular, the part that you want to discuss?
Benefits of distance education
So now you can develop that research question:
What are the benefits of distance education?
Now it’s your turn. This is a great time to look ahead to the instructions for the Week 2 assignment—you can get started on developing your topic right here! So, take a moment to look over those instructions and then come back this notebook.
How did it go? Do you have an idea to write about? Remember it doesn’t need to be perfect, just something to get you started. Let’s give developing a research question a try by filling in the template below:
1. Topic
Click or tap here to enter text.
2. Narrowed topic
Click or tap here to enter text.
3. Even more narrowed topic
Click or tap here to enter text.
4. Add the why
Click or tap here to enter text.
5. And now your research question:
Click or tap here to enter text.
You want to make sure you have some keywords to focus on for your library search and you want that questions to be open-ended. Open-ended mean that the question can’t be answered with a yes or a no. For instance, “is the sky blue?” can be answered with a yes or a no. But “why is the sky blue?” is more complicated and can be researched.
STEP TWO: Utilizing Keyword Searches
The library database has information not available on the web, but the search function isn’t the same as a web search. Many internet search engines gather data and use an algorithm to “guess” what a user is looking for. You notice how you start typing something in the search bar and your search phrase automatically pops up? That’s the algorithm at work.
The library database is much simpler. It uses keywords to find results—that’s it. You can narrow those results down in a few ways but, bottom line, the library database will search all of its databases (or the ones you select) or the word or word combinations you set.
So, where do these keywords come from? Well, you get to pick them and that’s a good thing, but it can be a challenging thing as well. Getting to choose your own keywords puts you in charge, which is really cool. But finding that just-right combination of words that gives you the search results that will be most helpful to you takes some trial and error. That’s normal, but it can be frustrating. It can help to think of finding these keywords as a puzzle—try to make a game out of it!
Ok, let’s practice developing some keywords on your own. Remember this is just for practice.
Topic: Benefits of distance education.
Possible Keywords:
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Let’s try a few other topics just to get those keyword juices flowing.
Topic: Social responsibility in cybersecurity
Possible Keywords:
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Now try generating some keywords for the topic below.
Topic: Uses of technology in health care
Possible Keywords:
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Last, try creating some keywords from your research question for the Week 2 Assignment.
My Topic:
Click or tap here to enter text.
Possible Keywords:
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Keep a list of the combinations you use and note the results. I don’t know how many times I’ve been timed out of the library without writing down my keywords and then I have to figure out which combination got me the results I really need.
This last page can be used for future assignments in future classes – please save it!
Topic:
Click or tap here to enter text.
Narrowed topic:
Click or tap here to enter text.
Even more narrowed topic:
Click or tap here to enter text.
Add the why:
Click or tap here to enter text.
My research question:
Click or tap here to enter text.
Possible keywords:
Click or tap here to enter text.
ENG122 Week 1 Research Notebook
