Associate Level Material
Appendix D

Research Plan

As part of your research plan, you must first draft a research question for your research paper that will guide the rest of your writing. A research question, which is more specific and focused than a general topic, is the question that your research paper will be answering.

For example, if your general area of interest is social security, a possible research question might ask, “How can low-income families save more money if the United States had a reformed social security plan that includes personal retirement accounts?”

As you develop a research question, keep in mind that you will need to research sources to support your topic. Do not pick a one-sided question that will limit your research. Instead, develop a research question that lends itself to further exploration and debate—a question you genuinely want to know the answer to.

Try to pick a research question that is neither too broad (covering too much) or too narrow (covering too little). It should be broad enough to be discussed in a short research paper.

Part 1: Complete the Research Plan

|What is your general topic or area of interest? | |
| |Addictions (such as to caffeine, drugs, or video games) |
|What is it about your general topic of interest that interests |I want to learn more about it and provide a response to those who are |
|you? |into it. |
| | |
|What questions do you have about the topic that you would like to|How do people get to be addicted? |
|investigate? List them. |How can they become dependent on (caffeine, drugs, or video)? |
| |How can they be set free from addiction? |
|Would any of the questions you listed make a good subject for a |What can you do to come out an addiction? |
|research paper? Pick or adapt one question and make it into a | |
|research question. | |
|Why do you think this research question will be appropriate for a|Because this subject has been in heart for years now, and I think it will|
|research paper? |me to really research the cause and the effects of this addiction while |
| |writing my paper. |
|How is your research question significant or relevant to a wider |My research question significant or relevant in the way that it will |
|community? |provide solutions to this addiction problems. |
| | |
| | |
|What background information provides the preliminary grounds for |Every addiction is dependency on something. |
|your research? | |