Focusing your topic

Please fill in the blanks.

1. Your research question or topic:
How can college students utilize learning experiences of writing in high school to
benefit students in college?
How can the writing experience from high school affect college students?

2. Rewrite it by filling in the blanks:

I want to study —how first year students use high school knowledge for their writing——
because I want to better understand —the differences between high school and college
strategies and techniques—— .
3. Can you state your topic in the form of a question?
How does ——high school writing— affect —college writing for first year students——?

4. Does your question generate more questions? Please write 3–5 questions your topic
brings to mind. Is high school writing easier? Does college writing help create an identity
for ourselves? What could writing as a college student teach us?

5. What does your topic question suggest to you about organizing your paper?
I need to start from the roots of high school learning and work my way up through
college writing as a first year student. I’ll start with high school writing and then college writing
and compare them both at the end.

6. Check anything on this list you think apply to your topic question.
 My question will generate a lot of information.
 My question will help me decide what information to use and what not to use.
___My question will lead me to new ideas but may not be able to be answered.
___My goal is to write a paper that will answer my question.
 My goal is to write a paper that will better help me and my readers understand
my question topic and its significance.

7. Rewrite your question in your own words, but make sure it is in the form of a question
Will high school knowledge of writing help first year students in college writing classes?
8. Who is the question about?
First year students
9. What relationship, phenomenon, situation, or aspect of the “who” is the question
about?
How what first year students have learned in high school affects or helps them in
college writing.
10. What kinds of information might you need to explore this question?
I need other students feedback, such as first year college students, by using a survey
and I could use my sources through research to find my information needed.
 11. Where might you find this information?
Social media and the library database.
12. How can this question help you organize your paper
I can break the question down into sections such as high school and college writing
and work my way to compare them in the end of my resesarch.