Asking questions
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Asking questions about your topic can help you generate ideas and survey your subject.
The most general types of questions are those asked by journalists when they’re gathering material for a story. Asking a journalist’s questions might help you get started and understand your subject.
Journalist’s questions
- Who?
- What?
- When?
- Where?
- Why?
- How?
One student, whose subject was the negative reaction in 1915 to D. W. Griffith’s silent film The Birth of a Nation, began exploring her topic with this set of questions:
- Who objected to the film?
- What were the objections?
- When were the protests first voiced?
- Where were protests most strongly expressed?
- Why did protesters object to the film?
- How did protesters make their views known?