Week One continued: The Original Question

Original

⋅rig⋅i⋅nal
  /əˈrɪdʒənl/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [uh-rij-uh-nl] Show IPA
–adjective
1. belonging or pertaining to the origin or beginning of something, or to a thing at its beginning: The book still has its original binding.
2. new; fresh; inventive; novel: an original way of advertising.
3. arising or proceeding independently of anything else: an original view of history.
4. capable of or given to thinking or acting in an independent, creative, or individual manner: an original thinker.
5. created, undertaken, or presented for the first time: to give the original performance of a string quartet.
6. being something from which a copy, a translation, or the like is made: The original document is in Washington.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/original

A research paper on Pixar is NOT original unless you ask something that hasn't been asked before. Every semester I challenge students to come up with something I haven't had to sit through already. After 13 years of this - it is more of a challenge than you might realize. Can you do it? Can you come up with an original question on a topic that is uniquely you that the Professor hasn't heard before?? What are some examples of original questions? One student set out to find out for his thesis if the Roman Coliseum would have had a roof? Not totally original but original to his work and no other student has used that question before or since. A graphic design student set out to find out about Dada's influence on graphitti - it took awhile to get to that question, but he started with a subject a lot of students considered and found an original question to research that wasn't overdone. Start thinking this week about your research subject and we'll discuss next week.