Note: This assignment is part of your Project 2 grade. Please take extra care with this assignment. This blog is worth 20% of your Project 2 grade.

In Unit 1, you did some preliminary research on your topic and now, in Unit 2, you’ve narrowed it down to a research question. As we’ve discussed, however, research questions need to be divided into smaller, manageable questions. For this assignment, you will find two sources that each work to answer questions you have–and that help you move towards an answer for your research question.

Step 0:

Review Instructor Feedback. Your research question will lay the foundation of everything that comes next.  If it isn’t appropriate, it can cause you significant trouble.  Therefore, you must review the feedback that you received on Writing Your Research Question.

Step 1:

Write your research question at the top of the post. Then below that, write out the questions that you developed previously (this will be the start of your blog).  Feel free to include any new questions that have occurred to you since then.   Do some research on the library webpage (Links to an external site.) or on Google or Google Scholar until you find sources that answer your questions a) in a way you can understand and b) that help you understand the large conversation better.

• Remember: you might see your blog posts as polished written texts with your instructor as the audience.You want to persuade your instructor that you are exploring effectively by demonstrating intellectual curiosity, rhetorical reading and an open mind. You will want to show that you are learning something new about your topic with each new blog post, and will ultimately want to show how the process has impacted your understanding of the issue and the focus of your research project. You’ll also want to revise your post so that it is well written and easy to follow.

Step 2:

Post a link to each source (I’m looking for 2 sources).  Then, below each link, include a rhetorical summary with each one of your sources. The Rhetorical Summary for Research Blogs Page provides you with the guiding questions that will help you write a rhetorical summary.

Step 3:

Reflect on your next steps. After you’ve answered the questions above for each of those sources, post a summary of what you feel you understand about your topic, what you are confused about, what questions you still have. You should also discuss:

• What questions do you have now that you did not have before? What might you want to research next? (You might consider Guidelines for Coming Up with Good Exploration Questions PDF
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  as you try to come up with questions to follow in your next post.)

• What do you understand (overall) about your research question and its potential answers? What aspect of the topic are you most interested in? You will have to start narrowing your research to a smaller sub-topic or question within your general topic. What ideas do you have for this narrowed focus? You might think about the article you’ve found most interesting or what major questions, problem or possible solution, you’ve found most interesting so far. 
• If you were going to explain this topic to someone, what are the parts you would be less confident explaining?