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8 Big Questions

Think through "8 Big Questions" you have for your class or research project. Things that you want to learn about that are related to your curiosity and passion. Why are you here? Why are did you choose this research project, topic, etc? What kinds of curiosities do you have that will motivate your learning and research. This will help you get to your “Big Questions.”
Think big, push yourself to get creative with these questions; balance the tension between specificity and broadness. You want questions that are specific enough that you know if it is answered and broad enough that it will have use for you beyond knowing a specific date, the name of an author, etc.
These are hard to answer questions, things that could likely motivate your research for some time. A good open-ended question will guide your learning.
Two examples of big questions from students I have taught in the past are:
“What is the relationship between religion and trauma and how do we use or not use that relationship to make the world better?”

“A lot of religions have a connection between their beliefs and nature and the natural world. Do those connections exist within Quakerism and if so what are the religious based Quaker beliefs on nature?”
Here is how Tiago Forte describes big questions:
They are probably hard problems without simple answers. The answers are probably very different depending on the person or situation. They are “high context” problems. Answering them would unleash huge value for yourself and others.
The purpose of this exercise is not only to clarify them for yourself, but to help you formulate and frame them in a way that makes it as easy as possible for others to help you.

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Progressive Summarization and Big Questions

Think of your big questions as the filters you will be reading everything through. If the questions get at your passions, curiosities, etc. then they will help you find the valuable “nuggets” in the readings as you go.
👕 Your questions are like clothes hangers that you hang your notes (i.e. resources that get you to an answer) on.

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Write your big questions here:


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Next: 👉
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