It doesn’t happen often, but every now and then you find a “hole” in the Internet. That is, you search numerous times and come up with nothing―not one single hit that even comes close to what you were looking for.
When you can’t find information online, it’s sometimes because your search terms aren’t as detailed they should be. In the same way, poorly written research questions can lead you in the wrong direction entirely, often generating information that isn’t useful.
Here are three steps that can help you avoid Internet holes. Click each heading to learn more.
For the research assignment in this module, you’ve already been given a broad topic: you need to explore a culture that is different from your own. Now you just need to choose which culture to explore. It should be a culture that interests you but is also clearly different, at least in some ways, from your own culture.
Once you’ve chosen a culture to research, you’ll need to choose three or four parts of the culture as your main focus. Keep in mind that culture is a broad concept―it applies to how people think, live, believe, and behave. Someone’s culture can be reflected in what they wear and eat, how they view the world, how they treat others, what holidays they celebrate and why, the types of arts and crafts they create, and the daily activities they participate in.
Once you’ve chosen three or four aspects of a culture, it’s time to create research questions that ask what you want to know. These questions should all relate to the three or four aspects of culture that you intend to explore. Remember to make your questions open-ended. You can do this by beginning your questions using words such as how, why, and what.
Use what you’ve learned so far in this lesson to create your own research questions. Locate your file containing this module’s journal assignments, paste the prompt below at the end of the document, and label the entry with this lesson’s title. Then, type a response to the prompt.
Journal
Using the process described on this page, generate a set of three or four research questions about a culture you would like to understand more fully.
When you have written several good research questions, save your work and leave your journal file open so that you can continue adding to it throughout this lesson.
