- Autorxs: [[Wayne C. Booth]], [[Gregory G. Colomb]], [[Joseph M. Williams]]
- Publicado por: [[[University of Chicago Press]] 
- Año de publicación: [[1995]] + reeds.

## Chapter 3: From Topics to Questions
### Subject: 
- a broad area of knowledge
### Topic: 
- specific interest within an area. 
- specific approach to a subject:
	- 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
-