Research Process Worksheet

Research Process Worksheet Name: Topic:

Accumulating a collection of facts is essential to writing a paper on any topic. However, presenting facts alone is only part of scholarship. Scholarship on all levels, from elementary through university, also involves interpretation and analysis of the facts. In other words, “here’s what we know – what does it mean? Generating open-ended questions can lead you to forming your thesis, which expresses your point of view.

Keywords: Details (persons, places, facts and other vocabulary) about your topic that will serve as “clues” to guide further research Relation to Topic: Briefly explain how Keywords relate to your topic (NOT the definition of the Keyword). Essential Questions: Open-ended questions that help you go from developing ideas to developing a point of view (why, how, which?) Ideas / Interpretation / Analysis: A place to synthesize what you’ve learned from your research and put together your thoughts.

Example: Topic is Civil War

Keywords/ Relation to Topic Essential Questions Ideas / Interpretation / Analysis Concepts Slave owners were in favor of How much did the viewpoint of the Southern The Southern aristocracy exerted an Slave owners fighting to keep slavery legal aristocracy represent the viewpoint of the incredible amount of influence over the both from a “preserve the majority in the South? politics of the Southern states. economy of the South” perspective as well as a Which perspective was more important to The “southern ideal” of being a “preserve our aristocratic way wealthy slave-owners; preserving the member of the “planter-aristocracy” of life” perspective. Southern economy or preserving their own was so important to that it was a status status? coveted by most.

There is evidence to suggest that Southern secession resulted from a “what was best for me” mentality more so than from the advertised “what was best for us” mentality. Research Process Worksheet Name: Topic: Source:

Keywords Relation to Topic Essential Questions Ideas / Interpretation / Analysis