| Few tasks cause college students more anxiety than | | | | Fill in those blanks so you have complete sentences. |
| writing research papers. In many cases, the real | | | | The result will be a potential research paper question |
| problem is not the writing but coming up with a good | | | | about a topic that has at least a little bit of interest for |
| topic to write about. | | | | you personally. |
| If you wonder where to find good research paper | | | | Develop six potential topics a week in each course |
| topic ideas, you are halfway home. Wondering is | | | | you are taking. You don't have to have one topic for |
| where good topics begin. | | | | each six categories, but aim for a variety. |
| For your college classes, you don't pull topics out of | | | | When you start out using this strategy for generating |
| the air. You write papers about the class subject: | | | | topics, you may write questions that are answered |
| marketing in marketing class and astronomy in | | | | directly in your class materials. As you practice the |
| astronomy class. In those classes, or any others you | | | | technique, however, you will get better at developing |
| take, research papers answer a question. If you are | | | | questions that probe beneath the basic facts. Those |
| taking a class in which you must write a research | | | | are the kinds of questions that can turn into research |
| paper, your first task is to discover questions that a | | | | papers. |
| research could answer. | | | | Record your questions in a paper journal or tuck them |
| As you do your class assignments and participate in | | | | into a document you keep in an online depository, such |
| class discussion, keep a list of things you wonder | | | | as a Google document, rather than scribbling them on |
| about. To help you focus, use the journalists' famous | | | | whatever is handy. That way you'll have an entire list |
| "five W's and an H" to raise questions that are not | | | | of potential topics when you need them. |
| answered in the class readings and discussions: | | | | By systematically looking for topics for research |
| I wonder who... | | | | papers in the courses you are taking, you'll find you |
| I wonder what... | | | | have a wealth of research paper topic ideas from |
| I wonder when... | | | | which to choose. You may also find that wondering |
| I wonder where... | | | | opened your eyes to a whole realm of knowledge |
| I wonder why... | | | | that you might otherwise have missed. |
| I wonder how... | | | | |