Research starts broad and becomes more focused as it continu

Research starts broad and becomes more focused as it continues, and you can expect some confusion in the beginning as disparate and seemingly unrelated information pops up. But keep in mind your ultimate purpose: provide the necessary information and focus for your advocacy projects.

Here are some examples of preliminary research questions:

• What is cyberbullying?

• How common is it?

• What are people doing about it?

The first type of research and research questions are preliminary and often very broad because

many of you do not yet know very much about your topics. This first set of preliminary research

questions is meant to help you develop an understanding of the topic and the important

conditions that exist within it. In your attempts to answer these basic research question you will

inevitably begin to discover more about your topics, which will then allow you to move on to the second type of research questions, which will ultimately become the questions you will use in

your Literature Review.

Research questions are an initial step in the research process because they allow you to take a closer, more specific look at your overall topic. The goal is to eventually focus your research on a very specific aspect of your topic that you can work with in your next project, the Documentary Film. Developing focused and unbiased questions at this stage in the process will help you get there. Research questions take on two forms: the preliminary and the focused.

Your research will provide you with an understanding that no one else will have. By the end of this course, you will be an expert in your topic. For this reason, it is your responsibility to decide which area/aspect of your topic needs further research.

These questions are vast and broad: impossible to answer in the length of an essay, if at all. Then why start with these questions? Because they will help you understand your topics better, which will in turn, will allow you to enter into the conversation with more ethos, or credibility.

Remember, the preliminary research questions are rarely the research questions you will ask in your literature review. Instead, they are intended to help you learn enough about your topic so that you know what questions/directions will best serve your

intent.

You will also want to consider a particular scope/perspective that will help you generate productive questions. For example, are there laws deal with cyberbullying? Are there psychological traits shared by cyberbullies? Are there physiological effects (physical harm) to victims of cyberbullying?

To develop more specific and meaningful questions, consider what questions experts have asked about your topic, as well as what has been discovered. If a question has been answered, then consider what others are saying about this answer. Are there disputes/contradicting information? Is there a new question to investigate?

Now, be sure to go to the Week 6 DB and submit your answers to some preliminary research questions.