Using The Big 6™ to Conduct Research

Step 1: Task Definition

Developing an Essential Question and Focus Questions

Fill out and hand in the form listing your essential question.

An essential question is a question that requires one of the following thought processes:

a question that requires you to develop a plan or course of action.
a question that requires you to make a decision.

The essential question directs the course of your research. As such, essential questions are powerful, and commit you to the process of critical thinking through inquiry. Ultimately, the answer to the essential question will require you to craft a response that shows your understanding of the content. This new knowledge occurs by reading and analyzing different sources of information during the research process. Answers to essential questions measure your understanding of the material and the topic.

Examples of Questions

Simple Question: "What is affirmative action?" simply asks you to move information from one point (the resource) to another (your paper). By asking this type of question, you gain little understanding of why something is. It is also easy to plagiarize.

An Essential Question: "Is affirmative action necessary in colleges and universities to make up for past discrimination?"

This is a more powerful question than "What is affirmative action?" You need a brief overview of the past, information on affirmative action policies today, and competing viewpoints on the necessity of the program. Your viewpoint is important and must be defended by using various sources of information.

Focus Questions

These are the smaller questions that you need to answer in order to fully answer your essential question. We can break down the essential question listed above into several focus questions:

What is the history of affirmative action?
What are current policies in colleges and universities?
What are the benefits?
What are the drawbacks?
Are there statistics on the benefits and drawbacks?, etc.

These questions will help you focus your research, and could also serve as an outline. So choose wisely. Your essential question will lead you to better research and deeper understanding.

Your thesis

The answer to your question then becomes your thesis or topic sentence. Using the above example, just flip the question into a yes or no statement that you will then prove in the paper. Look at the pro and con examples below:

Affirmative action is necessary in colleges and universities to make up for past discrimination and under enrollment of minority groups.

Affirmative action is an outmoded response to past discriminatory practices and should be abolished.

Lesson Plan on developing an essential question.