Page 120 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade7_Flipbook

aCTIvITy 2.3
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Writing a Research Question
A research question is a clear, focused, concise, and complex question around which you center your research. Research questions help you focus your research by providing a path through the research process. Creating research questions will help you work toward supporting a clear thesis.
To write a research question:
• Think about your general topic. What do you want to know?
• Consider the purpose of your research. Will you be writing a paper, making a presentation, holding a discussion?
• Consider your audience. For most school research, your audience will be academic, but always keep your audience in mind when narrowing your topic and developing your question. Would that particular audience be interested in this question?
• Start asking questions. Ask open-ended “how” and “why” questions about your general topic to help you think of different areas of your topic.
• Evaluate your possible questions. Research questions should not be answerable with a simple “yes” or “no” or by easily found facts. They should, instead, require both research and analysis on the part of the researcher. Which of these questions can be considered effective research questions?
1. How did Abraham Lincoln get the 13th Amendment to the Constitution passed?
2. When was slavery abolished in the United States?
3. What book did Fredrick Douglass write during the abolitionist movement?
4. Why were slave narratives effective tools in working to abolish slavery?
• Hypothesize possible answers. After you have written your research question, use what you already know to think of possible answers or explanations. This will help guide your research.
2. Practice writing research questions about the influence of advertising on young people. Write at least five possible questions.
My Notes
Research Topic: The influence of advertising in the lives of youth
Research Questions:
Word CoNNeCTIoNs
Roots and Affixes
Hypothesis comes from
the Greek words hypo (“under”) and thesis (“a proposition”). A hypothesis is a guess or theory that an argument is based on. Notice the relationship between hypothesis and the word thesis, which is the purpose statement of an essay.
Unit 2 • What Influences My Choices? 93
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