How to find a topic and question in a source - Finding a research question - Writing your paper

Student's guide to writing college papers, Fourth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2010

How to find a topic and question in a source
Finding a research question
Writing your paper

You may need to find your topic and question in relation to something you read, either because your teacher assigned a text or because you have found a writer or a work that interests you. In that case, look for surprises, puzzles, or disagreements. Or you can also look for ways to make the text itself your guide.

2.4.1 Look for Creative Disagreements

Nothing motivates us to argue more than disagreement, and our quarrels with a source often generate some of our best ideas. But your readers won't like disagreement for its own sake, and you don't want them to think you are merely disagreeable. But they will, if you set out only to show that a source is wrong, wrong, wrong. So look for creative disagreements, the kind that lead you to think hard not just about what your source says, but also about what you think in response. You'll know you've found a creative disagreement when you show not just that a source is wrong but that something else is right.

USEFUL FORMULA

Smith claims . . ., but I will show . . .

When you find a creative disagreement, you state your research question in terms of the difference between what a source says (in the first blank) and what you will show (in the second):

Smith claims that ___________ is true, but I will show that ___________ is really the case.

(In all of these examples, our generic name for the source will be Smith.)

Here are a few of the many ways you can create a research question based on your disagreements with a source, grouped by the kind of disagreement:

Kind

1. Smith claims that ___________ belongs in category A, but I will show that it really belongs in category B.

Smith claims that fringe religious groups are “cults” because of their strange beliefs, but I will show that those beliefs are no different in kind from standard religions.

2. Smith claims that ___________ is normal/good/significant/useful/moral/ etc., but I will show that it is really [something else].

Smith claims that organized religion does more harm than good, but I will show that it is the misuse of religion that does the harm, not religion itself.

(You can reverse all of the forms in this list: Smith claims that a religion is not a cult, but I will show that its beliefs are too strange to count as religious.)

Part-Whole

3. Smith claims that [whole] always has [part] as one of its defining features/components/qualities, but I will show that [part] is not essential.

Smith claims that competition is the essence of sport, but I will show that, even by her standards, competition is only incidental to the way most people actually play sports.

Change

4. Smith claims that ___________ is changing in a certain way, but I will show that it is really the same as it was.

Smith claims that the Internet will kill off newspapers, but I will show that news-papers will find ways to survive because people still want what only newspapers can offer.

5. Smith claims that ___________ is changing in a certain way, but I will show that it is really changing in a different way.

Smith claims that individualized marketing tools will let consumers get the products they want and need, but I will show that those tools will really let companies manipulate their customers more than ever.

6. Smith claims that ___________ is a stage/process in the development of, but I will show that it not.

Smith claims that alcoholics must hit rock bottom before they can commit to change, but I will show that new early intervention programs can save people before they bottom out.

Cause and Effect

7. Smith claims that ___________ causes ___________, but I will show that it really causes ___________.

Smith claims that persistent poverty causes crime, but I will show that it really causes despair, which sometimes leads to crime and sometimes does not.

8. Smith claims that ___________ is caused by ___________, but I will show that it is really caused by ___________.

Smith claims that the collapse of the banking system was caused by greed and a lack of government oversight, but I will show that the real cause was that financial instruments became so complicated that no one could evaluate their risks.

9. Smith claims that ___________ is sufficient to cause ___________, but I will show that ___________ is also necessary.

Smith claims that big-time athletics programs always debase the educational mission of a college, but I will show that athletics alone is not enough: there also have to be alumni and other stakeholders who are more passionate about success on the field than in the classroom.

2.4.2 Build on Agreement

If you find a source whose problem you care about and whose argument you find convincing, you can't create a paper out of that agreement alone. “Me too” is not a very interesting claim. But you may be able to build on that agreement by using the argument in your source as a model for a paper on a different, but closely related problem.

USEFUL FORMULA

Smith claims … about this, and I will show … about that.

When you build on agreement, you apply the problem and answer of a source to a different object of study. You state your research question in terms of how you can show that what Smith has shown to be true about one thing is also true (or not) about another:

Smith claims that ___________ is true in the case of ___________, and I will show that it is/is not true in the case of ____________.

In one typical case, you replay the research of a source on a new subject. Suppose Sue reads an article about how med students learn and it interests her because she is premed. The article makes the following claim:

Medical students learn physiological processes better when they are explained with many analogies rather than by just one.

This result is interesting because it surprises her: Wouldn't it be confusing to get many different explanations rather than one good one? So she wonders, Could this be true of all professional students? And with that she has her research question. She starts with the general pattern:

S. claims that [many analogies are better than one] is true for [med students], and I will show that it is also true for [engineers].

Then she adds her own details:

In his study of medical students, Spiro shows that complex processes are learned better when they are explained with many analogies rather than just one. In my paper, I will show that the same principle of learning applies to engineering students.

Another typical case is when you read an essay that analyzes a creative work in a way that you find convincing, so you apply it to a different work. Suppose John is a gamer who finds an interesting article arguing that the computer game Age of Empires II has racist tendencies in the way it defines its characters. John is persuaded by that analysis, so he uses it as model for his paper analyzing other computer games:

S. claims that [racist characterization] is true for [Age of Empires II], but I will show that it is not true for [three other computer games].

In his study of Age of Empires II, Golumbia shows that there are elements of racism in the depiction of the characters. In my paper, I will show that there are several popular games that do not exhibit the same tendency to harmful stereotypes.

This approach involves lots of borrowing, but as long as you fully acknowledge the source, you are in no danger of plagiarism. Your paper may be less original than if you had thought up the problem yourself, but that is rarely a problem for beginners. In fact, professionals create research questions in this way all the time.

2.4.3 Look for Surprises

When you work from agreement or disagreement, you build on the argument of your source text. But you can't do that if you are working from a text that does not make an argument or if what interests you is not its argument but how it is put together. In that case, rather than ask whether you agree with the text, look for what seems puzzling, confusing, out of place, or otherwise a surprise.

When you look for surprises, try the three-step approach we call E-S-P:

E: When I first read this text, I expected to find ___________.

S: So I was surprised when instead I found ___________.

P: I have a problem because my old understanding of this text/author/ argument makes sense only with [what you expected], not with [what you found].

This kind of problem gives you four ways to create an argument:

✵ Figure out how you have to change your understanding of the text:

At first it made sense to understand the text [the way you did], but I will show why we should really understand it in a different way.

✵ Figure out how and why you were wrong to expect what you did:

At first it made sense to expect the text to do [what you expected], but I will show why that is based on a mistaken understanding of the text.

✵ Figure out how and why what you found actually fits in:

When the text did not do [what you expected], I first thought that I was wrong to expect it. But I will show that [what you expected] would have fit perfectly.

✵ Show that the text would have been better, or at least more consistent, if the author had done what you expected rather than what you found:

At first it seemed surprising that the text did not do [what you expected], but I will show that it would have been better if it had.

Among the advantages of this approach is that it gives you an easy way to create a context that shows why your question is significant: you can use what you expected to set up a contrast that defines your question. Here is a compressed version (to learn how to expand it, see 13.1):

In view of the position Gonzalez takes on amnesty, education, and other issues concerning illegal immigrants, it would be natural to expect that he would favor, or at least not oppose, English-only legislation. But in fact, his fifth chapter not only criticizes English-only movements but makes a strong case for a multilingual society. In this paper, I will show . . .

WORKING IN GROUPS

Bounce Ideas Off Friends Rather Than Sources

You can use your classmates for all of the above strategies for finding questions in sources. Ask your writing group, or friends if you don't yet have a group, for their ideas about your topic. They may have ideas that are interesting but in your view wrong, that are in your view right but not properly developed, or that just plain surprise you. If so, plug their ideas into the appropriate formula and you have a candidate for a worthy research question.