Choosing a Topic and Forming
a Research Question
Introduction
Choosing and narrowing a topic
Forming a research question
Talk About It
Your Turn
Tech Tools in this presentation
• Yippy
• Ask.com
Introduction
I want to write a
research paper
about soccer, but
there are so many
topics I could write
about!
Joe needs to focus on just one topic that he really
wants to learn about. Then he can come up with a
question that will guide him as he does his research.
Introduction
basics
teams
rules
tricks
Introduction
One way to break a broad subject down into topics is
to use a Thinking Map™ .
From your map, choose the topic that is most
interesting to you.
SOCCER
equipment leagues rules famous Olympic
countries
players soccer where soccer
is played
Narrowing a topic
The topic for a research project should be just the
right size:
• not so big that you
can’t cover all of the
information well
• not so small that
you will run out of
things to say
Narrowing a topic
If the topic you’ve chosen is too big, you should
narrow your topic.
soccer
Famous
Players
David Beckham
Pele
Mia Hamm
Tech Tool: Yippy
Another way to narrow down a topic is to use a search
engine such as Yippy.
Yippy groups similar
Web sites into clusters.
These clusters can show
how your subject might
be broken down into
topics.
If you click the plus sign
beside a cluster, Yippy
will narrow the topic
even further.
Tech Tool: Ask.com
Another search engine, Ask.com, also can help you
narrow down your topic.
When you type in your
topic, it suggests
additional topics that
you might try.
On the first page of your
search results, Ask.com
lists possible ways to
narrow your search,
expand your search, or
search on related topics.
Forming a research question
Researchers often form a question that asks specifically
what they are looking for. A good research question
• is clear and specific
• can’t be answered with a
simple fact found in one
source
Poor research question:
How many kinds of sharks are there?
Good research question:
What types of sharks live off the coast of California?
Forming a research question
Are these good research questions?
What is a soccer ball made of?
No. Too narrow. Can be
answered with a fact from
one source.
Should soccer be taught in public school?
No. Not specific
enough.
Yes, this is clear and
What are the basic skills a specific. The answer
soccer player should know? requires collecting
and analyzing
information from
multiple sources.
Forming a research question
Keywords are the most important words in your
research. What are the keywords in this research
question?
What are the basic
basicskills
skillsa asoccer
soccer
player
player
should
should
know?
know?
When you begin to
look for information
to answer your
question, you can
use the keywords to
start your search.
Tech Tool: Ask.com
Let’s take another look at Ask.com.
You can begin to
look for answers
to your research
question by
entering it in
the Ask.com
search bar.
Forming a research question
A focused topic and a specific research question are
the start to a winning research project!
Talk About It
Discuss these questions with your classmates.
1. Is this a good research question? Why or why not?
What should schools do to help students make good decisions
about nutrition?
2. If you decided that
it was not a good
research question,
how would you
change it to make
it better?
Your Turn
Use a piece of paper or a computer to follow these
steps:
1. Type or write down a broad subject that interests you.
2. Use a Thinking Map™ to break the subject into topics,
and then narrow one of the topics.
3. Use one of the search tools in this lesson to break
down the same subject into smaller topics and then
narrow one of the topics.
4. Did you come up with different ideas by using the two
methods? Tell whether the Thinking Map™ or the
search tool was more effective for you, and why.
Your Turn
1. A subject that interests me is:
2. Thinking Map™ :
3. The search tool that I used was:
4. Different ideas that I came up with are:
The tool that I found more effective was:
It was more effective because:
The End