asking a question, the answer of which would solve a problem that my readers care about
How to pick a topic:
start with what most interests you
you do not have to be an expert on it, you do want to become one
make a list of interests that you would like to explore
choose one or two by:
skimming the subheadings of your topic in general guides/reference books/specialized indexes
look for online/paper encyclopedias or other reputed online references and check out the bibliography at the end of the entry for your general topic
find ideas in blogs
find what interests other researchers
skim latest issues of journals in your field (not just articles but conference announcements, calls for papers, reviews)
investigate which resources are particularly abundant in your library.
How to go from a broad topic to a focused topic
a topic: a starting point for your research (topos) from which you can head off in a particular direction and narrow it down from broad to focused
a topic is too broad if you can state it in four or five words: "Free will in Tolstoy"
a topic must be narrowed down by adding words and phrases, specially those deriving from "action" words: "The conflict of free will and inevitability in Tolstoy’s description of three battles in War and Peace
lacking these action words make your topic a static claim, and these do not lead anywhere: "There is free will in Tolstoy’s novels".
adding the "action" words transform these claims into something a reader could be interested in: "The conflict of free will and inevitability in Tolstoy’s description of three battles in War and Peace —> In War and Peace Tolstoy describes three battles in which free will and inevitability conflict.
these claims may seem thin but get richer as your project progresses.
caution: do not narrow down your topic so much that there is no information available regarding it
How to go from a focused topic to questions
beginners’ mistake: to collect any information available on the topic, which could produce a report on the topic, but does not provide an answer to any specific question, which should be the aim of a serious researcher
Thus, the best way to begin working on your focused topic is to formulate questions that direct you to the information you need to answer them
Make an inventory of possible questions:
start with standard journalistic questions: who, what, when, where
focus, however, on how and why
to engage your critical thinking, ask about:
Topic’s history:
how does it fit in a larger developmental context?
how has its internal history developed?
topic’s composition
how does your topic fit in a larger structure?
how do its parts fit together as a system?
Topic’s categories
how can your topic be grouped into kinds
how does it compare/contrast with others like it?
Turn positive questions into negative ones
ask what if and other speculative questions: what if your topic never existed, dissappeared etc.
ask questions suggested by your sources (once you have done some reading about the topic):
build on agreement
extend the reach of someone’s claim
ask questions that might support the same claim with new evidence
ask questions analogous to those that sources have asked about similar topics
ask questions that show disagreement
ig you are an experienced researcher, look for questions that others ask but haven’t answered yet: conclusions usually contain open questions, new research ideas etc.
Evaluate questions:
look for questions that may help you look at your topic in a new way.
avoid this kind of questions:
their answer is settled —> questions with how and why may lead to further thinking on the topic
their answers would be merely speculative
their answers are dead ends
Once you have a few promising questions, try to combine them into larger ones that could be potentially interesting to readers
The most significant question: So what?
Once you have a question you that holds your interest, it must be interrogated in a deeper way
why would others think your question is worth answering?
what will be lost if you don’t answer your question?
You may not have an answer to "so what" at the beginning of your project, but you must work on this questions throughout your project
3 steps to achieve an answer to the "so what" question:
name your topic using nouns derived from verbs:
say what yoy are writing about
I am trying to learn about… the causes of the disappearence of large North American mammals…
add an indirect question that indicates what you do not know or understand about yout topic
because I want to find out who/what/when/where/whether/why/how
here you state why you are pursuing your topic: to answer a question important to you
I am trying to learn about the causes of the disappearence of large North American mammals because I want to find out whether they were hunted to extinction
answer so what? by motivating your questions
here you find out whether your your questions could interest not just you but others
add a second indirect question which explains why you asked your first question:
in order to help my reader understand how, why or whether…
I am trying to learn about the causes of the disappearence of large North American mammals because I want to find out whether they were hunted to extinction in order to help my reader understand whether native peoples lived in harmony with nature or helped destroy it.
this indirect question should seize your reader’s interest
if it touches on issues important to your field, even indirectly, then your readers should care about its answer.
Chapter 4: From Questions to a Problem
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