Scope
Research question
Help me turn this broad interest [topic] into 3 focused research questions, with what kind of evidence would answer each.
Tech & Data · 15 prompts
The Research Assistant
Read faster, summarise accurately and think more critically.
15 prompts for research and reading: scoping questions, search strategies, summarising articles and reports, comparing sources, extracting data, critical evaluation, literature tables and briefing notes. For students, analysts, journalists and curious professionals.
What's inside
Every prompt in the PDF, listed by section.
Scope
- 01Research question
- 02Search strategy
- 03Background primer
Read
- 04Structured summary
- 05Explain the jargon
- 06Key numbers
- 07Compare sources
Evaluate
- 08Critical read
- 09Bias check
- 10Claim checker
Organise & write
- 11Literature table
- 12Synthesis
- 13Briefing note
- 14Interview questions
- 15Annotated bibliography
Sample prompts
Three of the 15, so you can see how specific they are. The PDF has the rest, plus a short introduction.
Scope
Search strategy
Create a search strategy for [question]: keywords, synonyms, Boolean strings, and the databases or sources to try.
Scope
Background primer
Give me a primer on [topic] for a beginner, flagging where experts disagree and what I should verify.