Tuesday's (7-26-11) Work

Because a good research question is so important, I'm devoting the next 24 hours to making sure you have a good, workable draft of a question. Some of you got a start on this on the blog over the weekend and on Monday, and now it's time to weed through all your potential questions and choose one you'd like to focus on for the rest of the semester. To do this, I'd like you to go to Google Docs and, in your individual folder, write about the research question that interests you most. Remember this is a question that must be related to reading, writing, researching, or learning, and it must be a question you don't already know the answer to. In your document, which you can create right there in your individual folder or upload from Microsoft Word, I want you to do the following:

-Write your research question at the top. Remember to phrase it as a question and to be as specific as you can at this point in your thinking.
-Write about why you were drawn to this question. What issue(s) is at stake in your question, and why do you find yourself needing to search for answers about it? This should take at least 1/2 page, maybe more, because I want you to give me as much info as possible so I can give you the most useful (and quick) feedback that I can. Remember that context plays an important role in everything we read, write, and research, so I need you to provide me with enough context that I can understand why you're interested in the question and what you're hoping to learn.
-Write about who you imagine to be impacted by your question. A number of you have questions which clearly have ramifications for yourself, but who else is involved in the issue(s) at stake in your question?

If you're finding it difficult to come up with a research question, you can always 1) read back over others' ideas for research questions, both in my initial blog post about research questions and in your peers' potential questions in the comments section; and 2) look back over the readings we've done. All the readings address areas of dissonance related to questions about what counts as "good writing," "good reading" and "good researching." Is there a question related to one of these ideas that you could start with?
[Due: by end of day, Tuesday; I will give you feedback starting Tuesday evening and running through Wednesday morning]