Librarians are available to help you with your research and information needs. See the Library's Frequently Asked Questions for answers to commonly asked questions, submit your own question, or contact a librarian.
Let's first look at the requirements laid out by your instructor and then work on defining an appropriate research question.
Remember: You are not alone. You can always contact your instructor or your Merritt College librarians for guidance.
Ask Yourself | Example answers |
What are the deadlines? | Due date for a draft, an outline, the final paper? |
What type of paper? |
Descriptive/Informative = detail key aspects of the topic, teach others about it Argumentative/Opinion = take a stand on a topic and justify it with evidence Compare/Contrast = describe similarities and differences between topics or concepts |
What types of sources? | Scholarly sources, popular sources, news, videos, ... |
What is the scope of the project? | 5 page paper, 5 minute speech, ... |
Within these requirements, you want to choose a topic that interests you. When you care about the topic you will invest more time and effort in your research and become more creative and convincing in your writing.
To start you want to learn more about your broad topic. You are learning about many different aspects of your broad topic.
Reading to develop a research question is different from reading to answer it. Focus on the main ideas and arguments
While you're doing your background research, don't be surprised if your topic changes in unexpected ways - you're discovering more about your topic, and you're making choices based on the new information you find. If your topic changes, that's OK!
You can get an overview about your broad topic in