1. Craft of Research Chapter 3
From Topic To Question
Jin Guang Zheng, Tetherless World Constellation

2. Introduction Goal of the chapter Who should read
how to explore your interests to find a topic, narrow it to a manageable scope, question it to find the makings of a problem, then turn it into a problem that guides your research.
Who should read
if you are starting your first project, you will find this chapter useful.
Overview of the chapter
From An Interest To A Topic
From A Broad Topic To A Focused One
From A Focused Topic To Questions
From A Merely Interesting Question To Its Wider Significance

3. From An Interest To A Topic
Start by listing two or three interests you’d like to explore.
E.g. Semantic Web
Use library, internet, talk to professors, etc.
Find a topic interests you
Talk to professors, your advisor
Professors have more knowledge about the research field
Scan headings for topics that catch your interest
Use library, internet
Up-to-date references
Advanced research project: look first for what resources are easily available
Avoid start over

4. From A Broad Topic To A Focused One
Topic can be too broad to explore
Semantic Search, Semantic Similarity, Semantic Web Services, etc.
Narrow those topics by adding words and phrases of special kind:
Conflict, description, contribution, development
Move a step closer to a claim
Caution: Don’t narrow your topic so much that you can’t find enough data on it.

5. From A Focused Topic To Questions
Think what you do not know about the topic:
Ask questions:
who, what, when, where, but focus on WHY and HOW
Analytical questions: values of your topic, etc.
Record the questions
Identify the parts and how they interrelate
What are the parts of your topic, and how do they relate to one another?
How is your topic part of a larger system?
Trace its own history and its role in a larger history
How and why has your topic changed through time, as something with its own history?
How and why is your topic an episode in a larger history

6. From A Focused Topic To Questions
Identify its characteristics and the categories that include it
To what larger categories can your topic be assigned? How does that help us understand it?
Determine its value
What values does your topic reflect?
How good or bad is your topic? Is it useful?
Evaluate your questions
Matters of settled facts v.s. Invite deeper research
What, when, where, what v.s. How, why
Combine smaller questions into larger and more significant ones.

7. From A Merely Interesting Question To Its Wider Significance
Think about the significance of you questions
Why should this question also grab my readers?
So What?
Three Steps toward an answer
Name your topic
Add a question
Motivate your question

8. Name your topic
Describe your topic in a sentence as specific as you can make it
I am studying diagnostic process in the repair of cooling systems.

9. Add a Question
Add to that sentence an indirect question that specifies something that you do not know or understand about your topic but want to:
I am studying diagnostic processes in the repair of cooling systems, because I am trying to find out how expert repairers diagnose failures

10. Motivate your question
Introduce this second implied question with in order to help my reader understand how, why, or whether:
I am studying diagnostic processes in the repair of cooling systems
Because I am trying to find out how expert repairers analyze failures,
In order to help my reader understand how to design a computerized system that can diagnose and prevent failures.

11. Conclusion 4 steps toward your research questions Questioning is Good.
From An Interest To A Topic
From A Broad Topic To A Focused One
From A Focused Topic To Questions
From A Merely Interesting Question To Its Wider Significance
Questioning is Good.
Ask questions to professors, yourself
What are my interests? What topics are interesting?
Ask questions during each steps

12. Thank you for your attention !
Questions
Thank you for your attention !