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i.e. racial, ethnic, religious identities, gender identities, 1st gen student / immigrant, borough or state of residence, country of origin, family structure, oldest/youngest/middle child, only child, homeowner, renter & etc.

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ENGL 120.20 Research_Project Assignment Fall 2025

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They_Say_I_Say ch03_The Art of Quoting 5e

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ENGL 120.20 Research_Project Assignment Fall 2025

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ENGL 120.20 Research_Project Assignment Fall 2025

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⁕ Trust the language you have. You do not have to “sound smart.” You can sound like yourself on the page.

⁕ Take a walk, stretch, do a 5-minute exercise. Engage the body in some way and walk away from your desk.

⁕ Dictate using a voice recording app. Think out loud. It can be messy, imperfect, playful, unrestrained.

⁕ Journal into an idea or a question. Journaling allows you to write through and into something. Allow yourself to explore all avenues, threads, possibilities.

⁕ Talk to a trusted friend about your ideas (specifically one that encourages you).

⁕ Try not to edit while you write. Edit when you have a few paragraphs or pages first. Make revision your last step.

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If given the option to choose your own research paper topic, you will want to choose a topic with a couple of things in mind: Choose a topic that is relevant and current: There needs to be a reason why you need to research this topic at this particular point in time.

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A good research topic isn't about the answers you find: it's about the questions you ask. Asking the right research question can help you narrow your topic to a manageable scope for your project, find keywords to look for sources, and eventually find a more nuanced angle on your topic.

How Broad is Too Broad? How Narrow is Too Narrow?
We are often told to narrow our topic early in the research process. While having a narrow research question can be beneficial to making sure the scope of our research process is manageable and will create a workable thesis, we may often make these questions so narrow that we ignore other-sometimes more interesting-approaches to the topic. For example, say your initial research question is: What are the ways women are discriminated against in the workplace? Some initial reading would show that this question is way too broad, yet you may want to keep it a little broad in your initial stages of research.

On the other hand, your initial question could be too narrow, such as How long is maternity leave in New Jersey?

In either case, your background reading on the topic may lead you to a specific profession (STEM fields for example), or a particular issue within the topic (maternity leave). If you are interested in gender and the workplace, you might ultimately ask a question like
one of these:

What can colleges do to recruit more women into STEM fields?

How does the perception that women will need maternity leave at some point influence inequality in hiring practices?

These questions may lead to narrowing down even further into a specific issue, such as specific types of discrimination in STEM fields.

Changing Your Research Question Throughout the Process
Whether your professor gives you a question to research, or you produce your own research question, you should keep it flexible enough to allow you to change that question throughout your reading process. Your reading should help you think about different approaches to your topic.

Activity: Using a Reading to Choose a Research Topic

Research Toolkit by Wendy Hayden and Stephanie Margolin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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A good research topic isn't about the answers you find: it's about the questions you ask. Asking the right research question can help you narrow your topic to a manageable scope for your project, find keywords to look for sources, and eventually find a more nuanced angle on your topic.

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“What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say?” —Audre Lorde

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“I get to spend my life attending to the world. I get to be present.” —Ada Limón

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What is something you wish more people knew about? Think about the lesser-known histories or experiences within your community. What often goes unacknowledged? What is hidden, distorted, or suppressed? You can start with, “I wish more people knew about _______.”

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ENGL 120.20 Syllabus Fall 2025 (updated 10_6).docx

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When you think of your community/communities what comes to mind? What does it look like? What sounds do you hear? What does it taste like? What do you smell? Is it soft, hard, cold, hot, prickly, humid, windy, or still? What movements do you feel?

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What are some of the values you inherited from your family of origin? Think about all the beliefs that shaped who you are today. Are there any beliefs that you hope to pass on? Are there any beliefs that you disagree with or wish you could change?

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Use JSTOR or reputable news/magazine sources

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Use JSTOR or reputable news/magazine sources

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⚠️ Remember: LLMs are NOT search engines and they will fabricate sources and information. Google Search AI is also deceptive sometimes.

Library databases are technologies that you pay for already. Use them!

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Add your name to your research board.

Click Share > Add jyeun@hunter.cuny.edu as a collaborator.

Set permissions to Reader.

Once you've done this step, you may delete this section.

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“It is literally neurobiologically impossible to build memories, engage complex thoughts, or make meaningful decisions without emotion.”

—Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Ed.D.