Exercise 2.1: Finding the Questions


1. In the space below, write the title of your tentative topic (e.g. Internet addiction)
The American Civil War


2. Briefly state why you chose this topic.
Because I am interested in early american history and I beleave that although we will never will know all of the answers to why this happened, there is always something of value that we can still learn from this event.


3. Spend about five minutes listing what you already know (if anything) about your topic. For example, are you aware of any interesting facts, common misconceptions, your own assumptions, important people
or institutions involved, key schools of thought, the extent of the problem, current trends, etc.? I know that the civil war is a part of our history and that although it may seem to most that it was an atrouches act of fighting against our own people, (a type of genocide); I also know that we may never fully understand the real reasons that this happened. As for myself growing up in the state of South Carolina and seeing the war fields and playing on the cannons and turets that was used as watch towers to locate what was concidered the enemy, I have always wondered what it was like to live in those times, and why the war happened.



4.


Now spend at least fifteen minutes brainstorming a list of questions about your topic you’d love to learn
the answers to. Make this list as long as you can, and don’t worry whether every question is a good one. Who started the war; who fired the first shot; how did the people feel about fighting against there own people ; why did the South feel that it had to seperate from the north; why was President Lincoln killed, (was it because of the war or were there other out lieing causes efecting this outcome); who benefited from the civil war; what was the over all effect the war had on the people and the economy of America during the war.



5.


If you’re working in a computer lab (or generating hard copies of the exercise), your instructor may ask
you to comment on other students’ responses to Steps 1-4. Focus particularly on what your classmates
did in the fourth step. For each you view, do two things: add a question you would like answered about
the student’s topic, and mark the question you find most intriguing.




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