West Hill C. I.

School Library Information Centre

Good questions help you to get at the information you want.  You need to build your questioning skills so that you will be
able to ask questions that will get you useful information.  Words that will help you to start your questions are:    

	Who?
	What?
	When?
	Where?
	Why?
	How?

Asking Questions That Will Get You the Information:          

There are two types of questions:

simple questions that can be answered with:  

Yes or no
Very short answers
Facts

Examples of simple questions:

When was Roberta Bondar born?
What is her favourite colour?
Where does she live?

and

research questions that can be answered with:

Detailed information
Interesting ideas
Pointers to other questions and information

Examples of research questions:

Why did Roberta Bondar choose to become an astronaut?
How did Roberta Bondar get to go on a space shuttle mission?
What did Roberta Bondar learn through her experiments in space

Deciding what's important:

Once you have your research questions developed, it's time to look at them closely to find the keywords you will need
in your search for information. Go to the links associated with keywords for more help in this area.

Page adapted from S. Hughes' Research Process Helper