Many people skip this step, but it can save you a lot of time in the long run. Fully three-quarters of my questions come from folks who haven't done some background information searching to discover:
1) Who cares or is affected by the topic? (what kinds of experts study this? What populations are impacted? Who is coming up with solutions?)
2) What are the controversies surrounding my topic? (what are people arguing about?)
3) What kinds of things do people measure when talking about impacts? (instead of using words like 'effects' or 'impacts', which are vague, use specific measurables: 'graduation rates', 'recidivism', 'asthma')
