In the past, I have used critical questions to develop my topic and discover what the true purpose of my research needs to be. For example, in high school, I had to write a research project about VolksWagen advertisements. In order to even begin this project, I first had to figure out what exactly was going to be the purpose of my research paper. I began by posing a broad question and researching historical context on VolksWagen. Once I had a solid grasp on the history, I was ready to start asking myself critical questions. I thought, what inspired a new wave of advertisements? How did the new advertisements compare to the old ones? I allowed these critical questions to guide the remainder of my research.
To start off my current research project, I decided to try out another seemingly interesting strategy. For this project, I began by writing a free write. For this project, I want to research a topic that is related to writing. Since I have some prior knowledge on this topic, I began by writing about all the things I knew when it came to current issues about writing, especially in schools. Since I now have a sense of the ideals I will be working with and seeing as I continue my research, I can begin to limit these ideas and think critically about them. Personally, I found this strategy extremely effective because I was able to organize all the ideas that I had in my head. Now that these ideas are all in one place, I do not have to worry about forgetting them.