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Modern Languages and Literature

Print and electronic resources for modern languages and literature.

Forming a Research Question

1. Name Your Topic

    Try describing your work in a sentence. For example:

    - I am studying Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

2. Suggest a Question

    Question something about your topic that you do not know or that you want to understand.

    - I am studying Ruth Bader Ginsburg because I want to find out her reasoning behind her famous dissent in the Burwell v Hobby Lobby case.

3. Motivate the Question / Find Rationale 

     Explain what you hope to get out of your research.   

- I am studying Ruth Bader Ginsburg because I want to find out her reasoning behind her famous dissent in the Burwell v Hobby Lobby case, so that my readers might understand her role in advancing women's rights in the United States.


Source: Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., & Williams, J. M. (1995). The craft of research. 
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, p. 56