This exercise needs to be adapted for the subject area and level of difficulty of the course. It could be used early in the process of understanding a research task.

Give students hints about how to focus a topic for a particular assignment. Some of these hints may be useful to them:

• Make a list of possible focus points for your research. Use class discussions, texts, personal interests, conversations with friends, and discussions with your teacher for ideas. Start writing them down--you'd be surprised how much faster they come once you start writing.
• Invest yourself in the topic. Try to focus on something that matters to you. You'll do a better job with a topic that has some personal meaning, and it will make it much more interesting.
• Map out the topic by finding out what others have had to say about it. This is not the time for in-depth reading, but a quick scan of publications in your general topic area can help. Browse the shelves where books on the topic are kept and see what subjects are covered, what controversies or issues have been receiving attention. Search a database or index of articles on your topic area and sort out the various approaches writers have taken. Look for overviews and surveys of the topic that put the various schools of thought or approaches in context. You may start out knowing virtually nothing about your topic, but after scanning the literature may have several ideas worth following up.
• Transform your topic into questions. Do two things you come across seem to offer interesting contrasts? Does one thing seem intriguingly connected to something else? Is there something about the topic that surprises you? Do you encounter anything that makes you wonder why? Do you run into something that makes you think, "no way! That can't be right." Chances are you've just uncovered a good research focus. It can sometimes help to literally write down your tentative topic in the form of a question or set of questions.
• Draft a proposal for research. Write down what you want to do, how you plan to do it, and why it's important. You may well change your topic entirely by the time its finished, but writing down where you plan to take your research at this stage can help you clarify your thoughts and plan your next steps.

2. List key words that relate to your topic.

3. Go to the following areas to search for information on your topic and analyze what you find:

• PALS catalog
• Academic Index ASAP
• Reference Collection
• U.S. Government Documents database (or MLA, or Cambridge Scientific Abstracts . . .)
• Google search engine . . .

4. As you examine each resource, write down three things you discovered about your topic. Add new key words you found  your search.

5. Use your list to choose which concepts you want to focus on.

6. Now rewrite your topic in the form of a research question. Write a memo to your teacher explaining what your question is, why you think it is important, and what steps you will need to take in order to carry out your research.