STEP 1:Online conversations tend to revolve around puzzles or problems, so you want to start by Identifying a problem that concerns you or a puzzle that intrigues you. This will be your topic for the rest of this course, so make sure that you choose something that you are truly passionate about.

Your research topic must have multiple perspectives or ideas. This means that you need to be thinking about this issue beyond two clearly defined sides (for or against). Most real-world situations are more complicated than that because they impact peoples lives in various ways based on age, gender, culture, geographic location, race, occupation, religion, income level, education level, etc.
Since we will be working with this topic for a large part of our semester, you should select a puzzle or problem that you find especially interesting – one that you want to engage with and learn more about. This issue should connect to your personal experiences, current life, or future goals.The more you care about this issue, the more rewarding the rest of the semester will be!
Note: You must pick a new topic–not the same topic as Module 1

STEP 2: Find two current news articles or Op-Eds related to that topic (an Op-Ed is an opinion article published in a newspaper).

Importantly, the articles you choose to use for this assignment should represent either some aspect of the topic you are most interested in or provide background information. In other words, don’t just pick two random articles about a topic that you like–the articles should demonstrate something about the topic and why it interests you.

STEP 3: Read the articles or Op-Eds and respond to the following:

Part A:
1.What is the specific puzzle or problem that you are interested in researching?
2.Why are you interested in this puzzle or problem? In what specific ways does this topic connect to your personal, academic, professional, or cultural life?
3.Why is this issue/topic important beyond your own life? For example, why is it important for society to solve this problem or understand this issue?
4.A strong research topic will have multiple perspectives/ideas to explore. What are some of the potential perspectives related to your research topic? (How does this relate to the two articles you are posting?)
Part B: (Respond to the following for each source)
1.What is the name of the article or Op-Ed that you found, who is the author of the piece, and what are the main topics/ideas explored in this text?
2.What perspectives does the author of the above text seem to privilege or prioritize in their text? Relatedly, what perspectives seem to be left out of this particular text?
3.Identify a 1-2 sentence passage that seems especially significant to this source. Quote the sentence(s) and then explain why you have selected this passage.
4.What questions do you have after completing this reading that you might want to explore in your research?