Situation.

• Who will be the audience for your research project (4e)?
• Who will be interested in the information you gather, and why? What will they want to know? What will they already know?
• What do you know about their backgrounds? What assumptions might they hold about the topic?
• What response do you want from them?
• What kinds of evidence will you need to convince them?
• What will your instructor expect?

• If you can choose the purpose, what would you like to accomplish (4d)?
• If you have been assigned a specific research project, keep in mind the key words in that assignment. Does the assignment ask that you describe, survey, analyze, persuade, explain, classify, compare, or contrast? What do such words mean in this field?

• What is your attitude toward your topic? Are you curious about it? critical of it? Do you like it? dislike it? find it confusing?
• What influences have shaped your position (4d)?

• How long is the project supposed to be? Base your research and writing schedule on the scale of the finished project (a short versus a long paper or presentation, a brief oral report or a longer multimedia presentation, a simple versus a complex Web site) and the amount of time you have to complete it.
• How many and what kind(s) of sources should you use (13a)? What kind(s) of visuals - charts, maps, photographs, and so on - will you need? Will you need to do any field research - interviewing, surveying, or observing (13e)?