Research = A Question with No Easy Answer!
What do you want to know about a topic? Forming your topic into a question (or series of related questions) has several advantages:
- Questions require answers. A topic is hard to cover completely because it typically encompasses too many related issues; but a question has an answer, even if it is ambiguous or controversial.
Topic: Drugs and crime
Question: Could the liberalization of drug laws reduce crime in the U.S.?
- Questions give you a way of evaluating the evidence. A clearly stated question helps you decide which information will be useful.
- A topic too broad may tempt you to stash away information that may be helpful, but you're not sure how
- It is easier to know when you have enough information to stop your research and draft an answer.
- A clear open-ended question calls for real research and thinking.