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

How and when to start over
Engaging sources
Writing your paper

We have urged you to create a storyboard with a working hypothesis and a few reasons to guide your research. But some writers start with an idea so vague that it evaporates as they chase it. If that happens to you, search your notes for a generalization that might serve as a working hypothesis, then work backward to find the question it answers.

5.6.1 Search Your Notes for a Better Answer

Use the strategies described in 2.4 to look for questions, disagreements, or puzzles in your sources and in your reaction to them. What surprises you might surprise others. Try to state it in writing:

I expected the first mythic stories of the Alamo to originate in Texas, but they didn't. They originated in . . .

That surprise suggests a potential claim: the Alamo myth began not as a regional story adopted for national purposes but as a national story from the start. Now you have a promising start.

5.6.2 Invent the Question

Now comes a tricky part. It's like reverse engineering: you've found the answer to a question that you haven't yet asked, so you have to reason backward to invent the question that it answers. In this case, it might be Was the Alamo myth developed primarily to suit national needs, or was it developed for regional purposes that were then adapted to the national context? It may seem paradoxical, but experienced researchers often discover their question only after they answer it.

5.6.3 Re-categorize and Re sort Your Notes

If none of that helps, try re-sorting your notes. When you first chose keywords for your notes, you identified general ideas that could organize not just your evidence but your thinking. Now re-sort your notes in different ways to get a new slant on your material. If your keywords no longer seem relevant, review your notes to create new keywords and reshuffle again.