Preliminary Research - DK pg 27

Page 27 DK handbook:
Why might my audience care about this topic? What might they already know about it?

My audience might care about this topic because it has been becoming more and more popular and controversial in recent years. There are many different viewpoints on this issue, and not many people even know what assisted suicide is, let alone all of the different issues and aspects involved with this issue. The term "assisted suicide" automatically brings out the interest in the audience because the term "suicide" alone draws a large emotional response from the audience.

How does this topic help me address the assignment's purposes? Will this topic expand my learning? How can I shape this topic into a purpose that will interest my audience?

The purposes of this assignment is to analyze visual rhetoric in terms of broad social issues, rather than just simply an advertisement or image. This specific topic will expand my learning because it will help me to understand better the true meaning of assisted suicide and how it affects the daily lives of so many people in today's society. I believe that this topic is very misunderstood by many people in today's society, so by me researching this issue, it will help me bring about more light and truth to the topic and I will be able to better explain to my audience what assisted suicide is and how it affects people in today's society.

Does this topic seem rich enough to help me write a paper of the length asked by the assignment? Does it seem complex enough for the assignment? What is happening locally/nationally/internationally around this topic?

There are many different viewpoints and aspects that need to be considered for this topic. Because there are so many different elements and issues that deal with this topic, I believe that it is definitely rich enough for me to write a paper of this length. This issue is definitely very complex and multifaceted because of all of the moral and ethical issues that must be addressed when talking about this topic. There is a lot of controversy about the use and legal issues of assisted suicide, so there is definitely a need to address the issues and discuss how it affects society.


Google Search:
Does it look like there is a lot of interest in this topic?
There is a lot of interest in this topic, and there are many different web sites and organizations that are devoted solely to this specific issue.
What are people's different positions on the topic? Do the web pages you visit suggest other, related topics, or other direction for research?
There are many web sites that post information both about pro and con assisted suicide. Google provides related searches that include "pro assisted suicide" as well as "assisted suicide debate." There are many web sites that appear through the Google search that discuss the laws and opinions surrounding this topic. There are many different web sites that discuss both viewpoints of assisted suicide and they discuss many different aspects of my topic.