What do you care about, truly? You're spending three months with this topic, you have to have genuine interest or else you'll fizzle.
Some people research local topics that affect their families.
Some people research diseases that affect their loved ones.
Some people are obsessed with a topic that they are just driven to discover more about.
Your curiosity is the most important ingredient to this search.
Find out a little about your topic before you dedicate yourself to it. Take it on a few dates. Get to know each other. Start with Wikipedia to get a brief understanding of the different directions that this topic could go.
Better than a thesis, a research question keeps your mind open to all the differing facts, opinions and qualities of your research topic. Frame your topic in the form of a question to be explored. Use these leading questions stems for assistance:
How?
Why?
To what extent?
former I-Search research questions
Evaluate your Research Question
Is your research question clear?
With so much research available on any given topic, research questions must be as clear as possible in order to be effective in helping the writer direct his or her research.
Is your research question focused?
Research questions must be specific enough to be well covered in the space available.
Is your research question complex?
Research questions should not be answerable with a simple “yes” or “no” or by easily-found facts. They should, instead, require both research and analysis on the part of the writer. They often begin with “How” or “Why.”
Unclear: How should social networking sites address the harm they cause?
Clear: What action should social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter take to protect users’ personal information and privacy?
Unfocused: What is the effect on the environment from global warming?
Focused: What is the most significant effect of glacial melting on the lives of penguins in Antarctica?
Too simple: How are doctors addressing diabetes in the U.S.?
Appropriately Complex: What main environmental, behavioral, and genetic factors predict whether Americans will develop diabetes, and how can these commonalities be used to aid the medical community in prevention of the disease?