III. WHAT INQUIRY IS NOT

From my experience, many student papers are one or more of the following:

• topic driven
• descriptive
• solution oriented (a design project)
• editorial (position paper)
• thesis driven (dealing with only one possible answer)

Inquiry tries to avoid these by stressing QUESTION DRIVEN research on MORE THAN ONE possible answers. Also, one is trying to understand what is, or was, not what may be. An inquiry paper may discuss the implications of the findings for the future, but this is not the main focus.