Often research assignments will include some preliminary steps to encourage you to starting thinking and planning early in this big project. Look at your assignment sheet for any preliminary steps your own instructor has required. Then follow the questions below.

I'm supposed to have a "Research Question." What is that, and where do I get one?

A genuine research project begins with question of curiosity: "I wonder what that means, or where it came from, or how it was made, or what it's good for?" Researchers in science, medicine, or social science all try to solve problems and answer questions. Although a literature research project uses different methods and materials than these more scientific forms of research, the process still begins with a question:

1. Why did the author use that word? Dress the character in those clothes? Refer to that philosopher? Set the story in a Puritan community?
2. Why are there so many botanical images in this group of poems? What does the pattern of boom and bust in this 1890's novel represent? Why do children always seem to kill their parents in these short stories?
3. Why must the second son in the family in this novel leave home, while the first son gets to stay and work on the farm? Why can't this woman in 1870 just leave her unfaithful, violent husband and get a divorce?
4. Why does this short story by Malamud remind me so much of the paintings by Marc Chagall? How does Prokovief change the story of Romeo and Juliet in his ballet from Shakespeare's version?

These kinds of questions can lead a reader to additional kinds of information to help understand the text. Or they can lead to the ideas previous readers have offered in interpretive essays about the text. Or they can lead to new discoveries of ideas and influences and meanings that previous readers have missed altogether.

In the box below, brainstorm a list of questions that you are genuinely curious about in the text you will be writing about. Aim for at least 8-10 questions. You can narrow the list later through personal reflection and discussion with classmates and instructor.