chapter 25-26 + research questions

25a

  • too broad: what are the benefits of higher tariffs on imported cars?

  • focused: how will higher tariffs on imported cars create new auto-industry jobs and make US carmakers more profitable?

  • enter research conversation

    • 1. identify experts and ideas in conversation

    • 2. identify gaps in conversation

    • using a sentence guide

25b

  • make debatable questions (how or why) instead of factual

  • too factual: what percentage of state police departments use body cameras?

  • debatable: how has the widespread use of body cameras changed encounters between officers and civilians?

25c

  • central argument of a research project is grounded in evidence, not opinions

  • personal opinion: do medical scientists have the right to experiment on animals?

  • grounded in evidence: how have technological breakthroughs made medical experiments on animals increasingly unnecessary?

  • testing a research question at a glance

    • does the question allow you to research a topic that interests you? is it a topic that will engage the readers

    • can you show. your audience why the question needs to be asked and why the answer is worth knowing

    • is the research question flexible enough to allow for many possible answers? can you articulate possible ways to answer it

      • (all answers should be yes)

26a

  • primary source: letter, diary, film, lab study, field research report, etc

  • secondary source: commentary, review, interpretation of a primary source

26b

  • use specific keywords and terms to focus the search

    • currency: current info and up-to-date statistics, news outlets, gov agencies

      • limit search to most recent year, month, week, or day

    • authority: you can lead to sources by experts that are cited in sources examined

      • site.gov- focus on government sources

      • filetype.pdf- locate reports and research papers available as PDF files

    • scholarship: library database

      • read abstract/intro and conclusion first

26c

  • scholarly books and articles have works cited that can be a shortcut to other useful and reliable sources

research questions:

  1. How much is dopamine release responsible for drug addiction when compared to other brain systems, and is it more important in fueling addiction than other brain systems?

    1. “dopamine release is the most important because of the reward system”

    2. prefrontal cortex is more responsible because decision making

  2. How do personality traits, when combined with biological factors such as brain chemistry, influence whether a casual drug use will develop into an addiction?

    1. personality traits influence a lot because “risk takers” are more likely to take more drugs and brain chemistry enable that

    2. it doesn’t influence, takes a whole lot more influence from the environment and

  3. How strongly do internal factors, low self esteem for example, predict drug use in comparison to external factors, such as the environment and peer influence?

  4. How could genetic testing predict addiction risk without oversimplifying external factors and complicated behaviors

  5. How does cultural differences challenge the stance that predicting addiction risk relies solely on biological and/or personality traits?