Turn Your Topic into a Research Question
Dig into your topic to find the question
Once you've narrowed your topic to something workable, you need to restate it as a question. A question requires an answer, and research is all about the search for answers.
Here's an example:
| Broad Topic: | global warming |
| Focused Topic: | global warming and world health |
| Possible Research Questions: | How will changes in the world climate increase health risks for people worldwide? What should the U.S. government do to prepare for an increase in climate-related diseases? What is the role of the World Health Organization in response to increasing diseases? |
Once you have a research question, break it into even smaller questions:
| How will changes in the world climate increase health risks for people worldwide? |
| What climate changes are expected? |
| What diseases are most sensitive to climate change? |
| What areas of the world are most at risk? |
| What statistics are there to prove that health risks are increasing? |
| ... and so forth |
You can see that research is basically a quest to find answers to the questions you are asking!
Here is the same activity as above, using the "sticky note" technique:
