Barnard: Research Methods/Religion Lab: Research Questions

Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research. 3d ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. pp. 35-67. link to ebook

Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers. 8th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. pp. 12-23. link to CLIO record

From an interest to a topic to a research question to a working hypothesis. Questions must be answerable with resources at hand (e.g., time, level of expertise, available sources).

Booth, p. 51: 

1. Topic: I am studying ________________
2. Question: because I want to find out what/why/how __________________
3. Significance: in order to help my reader understand __________________

Exercise: Put your topic into the topic, question, significance format outlined by Wayne Booth. Keep this in front of you while you conduct research and work on your paper.