1. Developing a Research Question PLAN AHEAD TO SAVE TIME AND EFFORT

2. Choosing a topic  1. Choose a topic that interests you. - "e.g., something about pollution"  2. Be a little more specific about your topic. - "e.g., water pollution"  3. Be a lot more specific about your topic. - "e.g., “causes of water pollution”

3. Narrowing a Topic  Use the topic that was selected using the “Choosing a Topic” process. You may need a little research for this one!  1) Make one or two more words more specific to make the topic as precise and as specific as possible.  Example: " Industrial waste and water pollution.”  2) Add a few words to make the topic more specific and turn the topic into a complete sentence.  Chemicals and metals in industrial waste cause of water pollution  3) Create a claim statement that can be argued and supported.  Example: Water pollution from industrial dumping of chemicals and metals harms marine life and can cause cancer in humans.

4. Research Questions Develop research questions. These questions:  determine where and what kind of research you will look for.  identifies the specific topics the paper will address.  keep your paper focused so that the topic is neither too broad nor too narrow.

6. Assignment  Choosing a Topic  Choose two topics in which you might be interested.  Find three websites, articles, books, etc., on each topic to determine that there is information on that topic.  Write down a citation that gives source information.  Research Questions  Choose one of the topics researched as your working thesis.  Complete the questioning worksheet to determine what you want to discover next.