OnRamps History: For Instructors

A compelling research question provides structure to research. Your thesis statement can be thought of as the one sentence answer to this question; the rest of your paper or project is an explanation of that answer. A good research question:

• Contains parameters (boundaries). For example, "Why did witchcraft trials stop?" is a good start to a research question, but "How did agricultural developments in seventeenth century England lead to the decline of witchcraft trials in that country?" is stronger because it contains more parameters.
• Is controversial, meaning that there are multiple possible answers.
• Is interesting to you!

Your research question will help you determine what sources to use.

Inclination, leaning, prejudice, predisposition

A biased source is one in which the creator has a view of the issue at hand that had an effect on how they created the source. From the synonyms above, you can see that this can be to a small or large degree. Everyone has biases, and someone with a bias can still write a worthwhile source, but it is up to you to consider how much of a bias is present. Be aware of the biases inherent when an organization has a legislative agenda or is trying to sell something. 

Peer review is a process scholarly articles go through before they are published. Scholarly articles are sent to other experts in the field (peers) to ensure that they contain high-quality, original research important to the field. This is a measure of quality control other types of literature don't go through. 

If you can't tell whether or not a journal is peer-reviewed, check Ulrichsweb.

1. Log into Ulrichweb.
2. Type in the title of the journal.
3. Peer-reviewed journals will have a referee jersey ("refereed" is another term for "peer-reviewed") - example below