edit Why Use Worksheets?

When writing a paper or even a thesis, it may be useful to work through these questions. Once you have answered them in writing you may find it much easier to formulate your paper.

You might also find these worksheets a good way of focused Freewriting.

These questions are designed for theses, but you can narrow them down to apply to an essay or research paper. For instance you may find you don't need the Methods questions.

edit Why Bother?

• What interests you about this topic is...

You may have your own way of dealing with this question. You might find it especially useful to treat it as a free association.

edit I Wonder...

• Write down a list of questions relating to the topic that you might want to consider in your thesis.

Write down all the questions that come to your mind, whether they are big or small, important or silly. Just write them as you think of them and don't stop till your well of questions is dry. Remember, no one will see this list besides you!

edit Interlude

Using the worksheets above, you should now be brainstorming and working your way towards a working thesis, or at least a topic. Discuss your ideas with your friends, with your advisors, with your parents and your dog. Once you've got a sense of what your topic will be, it's time to move on...

edit The Big Question

• What is your question? (or) What you really want to know is... (or) If you were to try and phrase your topic as a question it would be...

• How or why is your question complex?

• How will you reckon with these complexities? (This doesn't mean that you have to clear up the complexity, simply recognise and account for it)

edit What's So Big About My Big Question?

If you reread your Big Question you will notice that it derives from a tension. You have made two or more observations that don't perfectly align. This is what you will consider in this worksheet. This can form the basis of your introduction.

• On one hand you observe that...

• But on the other hand...

• Why is this discrepancy interesting?

• Other scholars will be interested in your Big Question because...

The last two questions may overlap. You can answer them together if you wish

edit Working Towards a Literature Review

• Who else has tried to answer your Big Question, or a related question?

• The question they asked was:

• They approached their question in this way:

• They answered (or tried to answer) their own question by saying:

• However this point remained unanswered or overlooked or misunderstood:

• You will address that gap in this way:

edit Working Towards a Methods Section

Methods are the tasks you will undertake to answer your Big Question. They may include library research, fieldwork, interviews, etc.

• Your tasks will be (be specific!):

• The tasks that you could potentially also use are:

• Why are you choosing some tasks and not others?

• What are the terms you need to define?

• Think of your methodological challenges. How might others dispute the way you are approaching your question? What are some of your own doubts about how you plan to approach your question? Be honest.

• How would you respond to, or deal with the challenges raised in the previous question?

edit Working Towards Individual Chapters

By now you will have a rough outline of your thesis or paper and will know what you plan to discuss in each chapter or section. This worksheet will help you ensure that the chapters are focused but complete.

• What is the question this chapter/ section discusses?

• What are the other questions you may need to address in this chapter or section?

edit Working Towards a Conclusion

Congratulations! You've nearly got your first draft down. Now is the time to tie together your life's work into a dramatic and convincing conclusion.

• To what extent have you answered your Big Question?

• What remains unanswered?

• Why is it still unanswered?

• What, if any, are the methodological implications of your research? For instance, how does it affect how we frame questions in this field and the methods we use to address these questions?

• What are the other implications of your work? For instance, does it change how we should consider earlier research, or how we read a passage? Are there implications for specific policies or practices? Etc.

edit Saving for the Future

• Write down the ideas that you will not be able to use in this paper, but which are interesting or might be useful for a future paper.