STUDENT WRITING Teaching Students to Write Research Papers Beginning the Research Project

You should see your research project as an essay that responds to an interesting question. For an academic, one of the fundamental roles is asking questions. To initiate your project, you should begin by formulating a research question. Pose possible questions that are worth exploring and challenging. You should also choose a narrow question that can be answered fully within the page limits set for the assignment. You want to create a discipline-appropriate question that is interesting, significant, and pursuable.

Before beginning, consider:

• What is the research problem or question you intend to address?
• Why is it an interesting question?
• Why is it problematic?
• Why is it significant?