Based on information from: Szulecki, Diane. "How to Write a Research Question for Research Papers." EHow. Demand Media, 27 Mar Web. 18 Apr

 Choose a general topic for your paper if you haven't already been assigned one. Your topic should be broad so that you can narrow it down to examine a specific issue relating to it. Example of General Topic: Skin Cancer  If you're not very familiar with your general topic, do a little reading to get an idea of the issues that relate to it.

 Conduct a preliminary search for information relating to your topic. Use search engines and the Internet to get a general overview on how many resources are available about your topic.  If there seems to be enough information, search for articles and books on your school's academic database or library catalog to make sure that you have enough sources to work with for your general topic.

 Based on your preliminary research, narrow down your topic to something appropriate to the length requirement of your paper. After preliminary reading, you may want to consider creating a bubble web for your general topic to help you narrow it.  You won't be able to find enough information on a topic that is too specific, but a very broad topic will yield too much information to work with. Example Narrowed Topic: Causes of Skin Cancer

 Think about your narrowed topic and write down a list of relevant questions that interest you. Use your brainstorm web to help you write these questions.  Write one broad question and several more specific questions. Use scratch paper so you can write questions first as they come to you and revise as necessary.

 Refine your research to locate information relating to your questions.  Use online databases and the Internet to get a general overview on how many resources are available to answer your questions.  Refine questions as necessary.

Narrowed Topic: Causes of skin cancer General Question: Is skin cancer avoidable? Specific Questions: 1.What causes skin cancer? 2.Are tanning beds safe? 3.What are the best ways to prevent skin cancer? Name

 General Question: 1. Are puppy mills a form of animal abuse?  Specific Questions: 1. What are puppy mills? A.What is the purpose of a puppy mill? B.Why do people operate puppy mills? C.How many animals are bred in puppy mills? 2. What are the long-term problems with puppy mills? 3. How can a dog buyer avoid puppy mills? 4. Are the conditions in puppy mills a form of abuse? 5. Are there laws against puppy mills?

 Broad Question Are puppy mill owners animal abusers?  Specific Questions 1. What is a puppy mill? 2. What is the history and/or origin of puppy mills? 3. What kind of people run puppy mills? 4. How many animals are affected? 5. What are the long-term health and ramifications for dogs born in puppy mills? 6. How can a person detect a puppy mill? 7. Why is keeping breeding dogs in puppy mills a form of abuse? 8. Are there laws against puppy mills?

Requirements, Resources, Tips and Suggestions

 Any.GOV or.EDU is acceptable .COM,.ORG, and.Net must acceptably answer the five W’s. That means the following criteria is available: Who: A reliable, expert author What:Information that is consistent with other resources When:Current dates of publication Where:A reliable, non-biased sponsor Why: Useful information

 Not allowed as a resource: Wikipedia, YouTube, blogs, and nonprofessional websites, which include many.COMs and. ORGs.  To create a citation, use EasyBib at For high school and college papers, you should create a citation for each page within a website that you use; for this assignment, you may create one citation using the URL for the Website’s main page.

 When you are within an online database, if you are given a choice to search for only full text articles, take it.  When you find a source on the Internet or through an online database, be sure to remember the steps you took to get there, so you can come back to it again if you need to do so! Don’t just copy and paste a URL because it will rarely take you back to where you were on a database that required authentication to get there initially.  If possible, yourself a copy of the articles.