This post is designed to assist you in prewriting and organizing your thoughts for your research paper. Number each step and provide your responses directly after each number, labeled as shown below. (NOT A ROUGH DRAFT REMEMBER)
- Identify your broad topic from the document attached to the Week 10 Overview in the Course Content section of the class (Approved Topic List English 100).
- Example: Coffee
- Be sure that you have a popular culture angle. What is the impact on society AND is this a popular trend, or does it have something to do with the media, etc.? Check the list.
- Example: Popularity of Coffee in Western Society
- Ask yourself the 5Ws in regards to your topic. Be specific. Consult Google/Wikipedia for general information on your broad topic. Really. It's okay for now. Just don't use anything non-scholarly for your actual research. List your brainstorming answers.
- Example:
- Who?
- Coffee drinkers
- Age group (children, youth, teenaged, young adult, middle aged, elderly)
- Gender
- Social status
- Economic status
- Coffee shop employees
- Coffee workers in third world countries
- What?
- Organic coffee
- Fair trade
- Caffeine addiction
- Sugary coffee drinks
- When?
- Current day
- History (pick a starting point)
- Comparison between time frames (pick two)
- Where?
- USA
- Europe
- Third world countries where coffee is harvested
- Why?
- Causes (Why is coffee immensely popular?)
- Results (What are the health benefits/concerns of coffee consumption?)
- Treatments (Caffeine withdrawal treatments)
- Outcomes (Long term effects of coffee consumption)
- Mix and Match the Ws to develop a narrowed topic to transform into an open-ended research question.
- Examples of Narrowed Topics:
- Effects of long term coffee consumption on middle-aged Americans
- Caffeine addiction in American young adults
- Popularity of coffee in Europe and American for the past fifty years
- Impact of Fair Trade on the growth of coffee in Brazil
- Compose two or three open-ended research questions to select from when you begin your research next week. Make sure your research questions begin with "what," "how," or "why." No yes/no questions! Remember: your thesis statement will eventually answer your research question. If you are stuck, ask yourself what the impact is on society regarding your topic.
- Examples of Research Questions:
- What is the impact of long-term coffee consumption on middle-aged Americans?
- Why are American young adults addicted to caffeine?
- How has coffee become so popular in Europe and North America in the past fifty years?
- What is the impact of Fair Trade on the growth of coffee in Brazil?
Attachment:- Prewriting Example.rar