Assignment #2 - Creating Solid Research Questions

Question about Audience

• Why will my readers care about this issue? The U.S. has the highest number of broadband subscribers in the world, yet is extremely slow compared to other countries with the fastest speeds.
• What will my readers want or need to know about this issue? What is slowing the internet down in the US. What technology are they using which is different than the fastest ones.
• What do my readers already know about this issue? That internet is faster in European and Asian countries.
  
• What do I want my readers to learn about the issue? I want my readers to be able to learn why the internet is so slow in the U.S. and what we can take from other countries to improve our broadband speeds.
• If I am trying to persuade my readers of something, how easily will they be persuaded? They will easily be persuaded because research and statistics don't lie when numbers are involved and they can see what they are doing wrong.
  
• What will my readers use my writing for? They will use it to learn how they can make improvements to their network.
  

Narrowing Research Question

• Time-- The time will have to start in the early 1990's since that it was countries like South Korea began their massive strides in internet. 
• Place—US compared to Asia.
• Population-- internet subscribers
• Viewpoint-- social

Defining Key words and concepts

• What are the key terms of your question? internet download speed
• What are the central concepts in your research question? improvement

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Broaden and narrow vocabulary

• Check key words and concepts—Are there related items to these words/concepts? Can we categorize parts to narrow even more? No

Questions about research

• Is the question easily and fully researchable? Yes
• What type of information do I need to answer the research question? What different types of technology are other countries using? Is there enough funding to research improvements in Comcast.

• Is the scope of this information reasonable (e.g., can I really research 30 online writing programs developed over a span of 10 years?) Yes I can see the development since the 90s since that is when the major improvements in the fastest in the world were starting to take off.
• Given the type and scope of the information that I need, is my question too broad, too narrow, or okay?
• What sources will have the type of information that I need to answer the research question (journals, books, Internet resources, government documents, people)
• The types of sources that I will use will include journals, internet resources and government documents.