WTUC

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Chapter 2 Finding a TopicLecture
notesbased on Lester Lester, JR. 2007.
Writing Research Papers a complete guide

• WTUC

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Finding a Topic

• Narrow a general subject to a scholarly topic
• Reflect on your personal experiences and
  knowledge (frame of reference)
• Examine one narrowed issue
• Have a serious purpose- one that demands analysis
  of the issues, argues from a position, and
  explains complex details
• Conform to the course requirements

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Generating Ideas

• Free Writing
• Listing Keywords
• Outlining
• Clustering
• Narrowing by comparison
• Asking questions
• Journalism questions/ 5Ws

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Exercise Restricting the Subject

• Relate to at least 2-3 personal experiences
• Working teenagers
• Dance
• Violence in the schools
• Health care
• Sports

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Exercise Narrow Focus of Research Topic

• Movie ratings
• Womens rights
• Rap music lyrics

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Writing Research Questions

• Raising questions about the subject can provide
  clear boundaries for the paper
• General questions examine terminology, issues,
  causes, etc. See sample on page 17
• Rhetorical Questions
• Comparison How does a state lottery compare with
  horse racing?
• Definition What is lottery in legal terms? In
  religious terms?
• Cause/effect (see p. 17)
• Process How are winnings distributed?

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Asking questions

• Framing questions according to academic
  disciplines
• Economics Does sports gambling benefit a
  college's athletic budget? Does it benefit the
  national economy?
• Psychology What is the effect of gambling on the
  mental attitude of the college athlete who knows
  huge sums hang in the balance on his or her
  performance?
• History Does gambling on sporting events have
  identifiable tradition?
• Sociology What compulsion in human nature
  prompts people to gamble on the prowess of an
  athletic or team?

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Acceptable? Too broad? Opinionated

• Living with aids
• Too broad
• Religious bias in selected nursery rhymes
• Acceptable
• Pollution levels in the Kaohsiung area
• acceptable
• Immunization
• Too broad
• Country music is for hicks!
• Opinionated
• Abortion is murder
• Too sensational

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Topics in Marketing
http//www.quirks.com/market_research_topics/
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More topics here

• http//www.rockresearch.com/hottopics.php
  (Business/Marketing)
• http//gatorball.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/top-10-r
  esearch-topics-for-education/ (Education)
• http//www.socialpsychology.org/social.htm
  (social psychology)
• http//www.cpl.org/Research/PopularTopics/Employme
  nt.aspx (employment)

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Formulating Research Questions

• Once you have focused your topic so that it has
  an appropriate scope for your assignment, time
  frame, and length requirements, you need to
  formulate a research question(s). To do so,
  determine the most important questions that you
  want to ask and answer.Consider for example
  these possible research questions developed from
  the broad subject area of bilingual education
  Should bilingual education be extended to
  monolingual children? What teaching methods
  work best in bilingual classrooms? For what
  reasons do people send (or not send) their
  children to bilingual schools? Are children who
  are placed in bilingual programs more successful
  in later grades than those in English-only
  programs?A research question will give you a
  sense of direction. Frequently as you do your
  research and take notes, you will have in mind a
  tentative response to your question.

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Assignment 1

• On your wiki, create a page called research
  topic
• On that page, you write down at least 5 possible
  general topics that interest you
• Out of the 5 topics, narrow them to 1-2 topics
• Google your chosen topic and see what sub-topics
  appear
• Localize your topic. Can your topic be applied in
  local context? If so, how?

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Thesis Sentence, Enthymeme, or Hypothesis

• A thesis sentences advances a conclusion the
  writer will defend
• An enthymeme uses a because clause to make a
  claim the writer will defend
• A hypothesis is a theory that must be tested in
  the lab, in the literature, and/or by field
  research to prove its validity

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Thesis sentence samples
subject

• Chat rooms and online matching services enable
  people to meet only after a prearranged
  engagement by email.

Focusing agent
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A good working thesis

• A Good Working Thesis, p. 16, Keys for Writers a
  Handbook, Ann Raimes, 2nd Edition, US Houghton
  Mifflin (1999)narrows your topic to a single
  main idea that you want to communicate
• asserts your position clearly and firmly in a
  sentence that makes a claim about a topic
• states not simply a fact but an opinion
• makes a generalization that can be supported by
  details, facts, and examples within the assigned
  limtations of time and space
• stimulates the curiousity and interest in readers
  and prompts them to thing, "Why do you say that?"
  and read on.

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• A strong, thought-provoking, or controversial
  statement
• Bilingual education has not fulfilled its early
  promise.
• A call to action
• All inner-city schools should set up bilingual
  programs.
• A question that will be answered in the essay
• What can bilingual education accomplish for a
  child? It can lead to academic and personal
  development
• A preview or reflections of the structure of the
  research
• Bilingual education suffers from two main
  problems a shortgae of trained teachers and lack
  of parental involvement.

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Enthymeme
claim

• Hyperactive children need medication because
  ADHD is a medical disorder, not a behavioral
  problem.

Stated reason support the claim
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Hypothesis

• Theoretical hypothesis
• Discrimination against young women in the
  classroom, known as shortchanging, harms the
  women academically, socially, and psychologically.

Student will produce a theoretical study by
citing literature on shortchanging.
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• Class size affects the number of written
  assignments by writing instructors.
• Claims one variable changes, so does another
• It could be tested, examined, and correlate class
  size and assignments
• Requires field research

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Assignment 2

• Now, look at your topic, or if you have already
  written your thesis statement, look at it again
  and compare it with the guidelines above. Does it
  meet the guidelines? Should you edit it and make
  it better?
• Create a page on your wiki (Thesis Statement),
  and post your working thesis statement there
• Make sure to add LINKS to your SIDEBAR
• Use the name of the page when you create LINKS
  (you can do this by dragging the name of the page
  to where you want it located on the page.)

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Deadline

• Research questions and thesis statement must be
  in by 9/24/2013