1. 10th Grade Research: Finding the Questions
Directions: Complete Steps 1, 2, and 3 on a piece of white paper.

2. Finding the Questions
Step 1: At the top of the paper, write the title of the Social Movement or person that you have chosen and how your person has effected this movement or society.

3. Finding the Questions
Step 2: Take a few minutes to briefly describe why you chose the topic.

4. Finding the Questions
Step 3: Spend five minutes or so and briefly list what you know about your topic already (e.g. any surprising facts or statistics, the extent of the movement, important people or institutions involved, key schools of thought, common misconceptions, observations you’ve made, important trends, major controversies, etc.)

5. Finding the Questions Complete Step 4 on an additional sheet of paper.
Step 4: Now spend fifteen or twenty minutes brainstorming a list of questions about your topic that you’d like to answer through your research. Make this list as long as you can; try to see your topic in as many ways as possible. Push yourself on this; it’s the most important step.

6. Finding the Questions
Step 5: Read your classmates’ topics and questions. For each topic, do two things: Add a question you would like answered about that topic that’s not on the list, and check the one question on the list you find most interesting. (It may or may not be the one you added.)

7. Finding the Focusing Question
Step 1: Write the one question that you think would be the most interesting focus for your paper on the top of a fresh piece of paper: This is your focusing question.

8. Step 2: Now build a new list of questions under the first one
Step 2: Now build a new list of questions under the first one. What else do you need to know to answer your focusing question?
Example: What specific role did Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. play in the Civil Rights Movement?
When did this movement take place?
How were things before Dr. King became involved?
What caused him to become involved?
Why was he so remembered over other leaders of that time?
What specific changes have taken place in the world because of him?

9. Writing the Research Proposal
In your notebook, write down a brief proposal that outlines your research plan. You can change your mind later (and you probably will), but for now you will make a tentative plan to use in the library.

10. Writing the Research Proposal
Focusing Question
Primary Purpose
Explore: What are additional questions that most interest you and might help you discover the answers to your research question?
Argue: What is your tentative main claim or thesis?
Analyze: What theory about your topic are you testing?

11. Writing the Research Proposal
What, if any, prior beliefs, assumptions, preconceptions, ideas, or prejudices do you bring to this project? What personal experiences may have shaped the way you feel?