Creating Questions to Form a Thesis

What do you want to know?

What do you need to know (to understand what you want to know)?

Main Question-Example

Topic: bottled water

Sample Question(s)

1. Where do bottled water producers get their water?
2. What are the safety standards for bottled water & how do they differ

from tap water standards?

3. Why do so many people drink bottled water?

Finding secondary questions (sub-topics)

Look at how your sources divide up the subject

Look at book or website tables of content

What information do you need to know to answer your main question?

What information do you need to provide background or context for answering your main question?

Sample starting secondary questions for #1= Where do bottled water producers get their water?

• Who sells bottled water?
• Where are they located?
• How do they get the water to customers?
• What do they pay for transportation?

Sample starting secondary questions for #2= What are the safety standards for bottled water & how do they differ from tap water standards?

• Who makes safety rules for tap water?
• Who makes safety rules for bottled water?
• What safety concerns do they check for?
• How do they check for safety?
• What consumer groups monitor the testing?

Sample starting questions for #3= Why do so many people drink bottled water?

• What percentage of people drink bottled water?
• Why?
• Do their reasons make sense? (based on facts?)
• Where do they get their information?
• What effect does advertising have on consumption of bottled water?