Research Question Part II

Every research project begins with a research question and a tentative thesis. For this project, your question will be one about your chosen topic as it relates to the natural sciences. Having come up with a question, you will search the library’s databases for related articles. When you have found and skimmed at least three promising articles, you will come up with a tentative thesis that answers that question. It is always important to begin with a tentative thesis so to guide your research, note-taking, and synthesizing of the material.

The next step will be to research further to make sure you have three scholarly sources that will provide a thorough answer to your research question and prepare a list of Cited References for the three articles. Next, you will take careful notes on your three sources, making sure the information you are collecting helps you answer the question you have asked. Although most notes should be taken in your own words, remember to use quotation marks when you copy material directly from a source. (NOTE: CSE style discourages the use of direct quotes; likewise, since the aim of popular science writing is general accessibility, direct quotes are also discouraged from that vantage point.)  ALWAYS note the page number where you found your information whether you have noted it in your own words or in a direct quote. Based on your notes, you will turn in summaries of your three sources, each of which begins with a CSE-formatted reference.

The summaries should provide all the information you need for the final paper, which will answer your research question in a manner accessible to the general public. All papers in this course will require an outline, a rough draft, and a final draft, The final paper should be about 800-1,000 words, and sources will be cited with CSE citation-sequence style.