Chapter 5 from the Bedford Book of Genres focuses on creating a research proposal. In order to do this, you must first narrow down your topic, which may be difficult because of the internet’s unlimited number of sources. The chapter goes through the steps that should be taken to choose a topic and eventually create a research proposal. The second step of the process was to “Explore Topic Ideas through Preliminary Research: Ask yourself, Who’s Saying What?” I think this step is crucial because a lot of the time I choose a topic to research and then later realize that I’m not really interested in the topic, it’s too difficult to write about, or it’s boring. This step encourages students to conduct a little bit of research before committing. For example, the book says to “ask yourself some questions”. By questioning your potential topic, you can uncover the facts and areas that you need to define. It is also possible for you to understand how this topic functions in society and the opinions of others on the topic. After researching, you will be able to form your own opinions and arguments. This chapter is important because we will be doing a research paper for Project 2 and deciding your topic is the first step.
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