Working with Your Topic Exercise

This exercise is intended to get you thinking about your topic. What do you already know? What are the questions YOU have about this topic? Why is it interesting to you?

  • Consider a research topic of interest to you.
  • Pose your research topic as a question.
  • Where would you look to find background information on your topic or define terms relevant to your topic?
  • After reading through some background information, talking to an "expert" and gathering what you already know, refine your question, being as specific as possible. Write out your refined question and use it as you proceed through the tutorial.
  • What are the key concepts in your revised topic "question?"
  • What are some synonyms (alternate, narrower or broader terms) you might use to represent these concepts?