Associate Level Material ‘James Reed’
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 for which you genuinely want to know the answer. Try to pick a research question that is neither too broad, which covers too much, or too narrow, which covers too little. It should be broad enough to be discussed in a short research paper.
|What is your general topic or area of interest? | |
| |Cancer: Lung Cancer |
| | |
|What is it about your general topic of interest that interests |This particular type of cancer strikes me the most because my |
|you? |grandmother passed away from lung cancer so it’s been a very |
| |close topic of mine due to the fact that I’m a smoker. |
|What questions do you have about the topic that you would like to|I would like to investigate different things like what causes |
|investigate? List them. |lung cancer, what are the symptoms, what are ways to prevent and |
| |treat this disease? |
|Would any of the questions you listed about the topic make a good|Yes. What are some ways to prevent or treat lung cancer? |
|subject for a 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 there are so many people out there that has this deadly |
|research paper? |disease and need to know about it and all the resources and help |
| |centers that they can be apart of. |
|How is your research question significant or relevant to a wider | |
|community? |Lung Cancer or any other type of cancer is very important to |
| |anyone because it’s one of the most deadliest disease in the |
| |world. I’m sure the wider community will be more than interested |
| |in learning and hearing some of the information. |
| | |
|What background information provides the