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Developing & Researching Your Controversy

 Have you ever chosen a topic that is too broad for your assignment? Use this worksheet to identify arguments and narrow your topic. By the end, you may be closer to phrasing your topic in the form of a question that you will investigate.

 

  1.  Write down your topic

Example:  National School Lunch Program standards

 

  1.  Find background information. Search for your issue in both Gale Virtual Reference Library and Opposing Viewpoints in Context and answer the questions below.
  2. What are people arguing about? What controversies exist in your broad topic?

Example: Should the National School Lunch program change its standards to support local agriculture?

 

  1.  Who cares about this topic? Who are the stakeholders? Who has an opinion?

Example:  students, parents, USDA, administrators, teachers, doctors, nutritionists, U.S. government

 

  1. Use the keywords you have discovered above and organize them into a search. Here’s one way: 

Example:

The first column represents our main concept and alternate terms for it.

The second column represents the controversies and what people are arguing about.

The third column represents stakeholders.

OR

Concept 1

AND

Concept 2

AND

Concept 3

National school lunch program

Local agriculture

government

School lunch

Child hunger

USDA

School meals

Healthy food

farmers

School nutrition

Childhood obesity

teachers

Free and reduced lunch

Commodities program

nutritionists

 

 

parents

 

6.    The OR allows you to connect alternate terms so that you can search multiple similar terms at once. The AND allows you to connect keywords so that you can search more narrowly.

Here is an example:

             National school lunch program OR reduced lunch

AND    local agriculture OR organic

AND   USDA OR Department of Education

AND  opinion OR editorial

 

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Developing & Researching Your Controversy

  1. Write down your topic.

  1. Find background information. Search for your issue in both Gale Virtual Reference Library and Opposing Viewpoints in Context and answer the questions below. Email yourself useful results.

  1. What are people arguing about? What controversies exist in your broad topic?

 

  1. Who cares about this topic? Who are the stakeholders? Who has an opinion?

  1. Use the keywords you have discovered above and organize them into a search strategy.                                                      

OR

Concept 1

AND

Concept 2

AND

Concept 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                    

 

6.  Write down effective search strategies and email yourself articles you think will be useful.

 

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