Who, What, Where, When, How and Why

Sometimes it's hard to focus on studying something, even if its something you want to do. One reason is that its difficult to put yourself into a "learning" mindset. You want action, excitement or even just flavor. No matter how well written, the reproductive habits of single cell organisms is only going to have so much excitement to it.

One thing that might help you is to start thinking in terms of who, what, where, when, how and why while researching a topic. Its just a simple way to organize your thoughts, so you make sure you are grasping the point of your resource.

Who - Who can be a person, place, thing, idea, animal, cell, etc. Pretty much its what you are studying. But who can change throughout your studies. At one point who might be single cell organisms. It could then become more specific, and be an amoeba, or change entirely and be a plant cell. Always make sure you know who you are studying.
This is very important with first person accounts, where the importance of your words is that you were there to witness an event, not that you have the best grammar in the world. Always make sure you know what pronoun refers to what person.

What - What is the activity that the who is doing, causing, or being involved in. The cell divides, the horse gallops, etc. This gets a bit funny if your topic is an idea or a non-active item, since it may not be as obvious, but there will still be a what. This will show you the importance of a topic. After all, horses are great, but if you only learn they exist, not very interesting.

Where - This is the location of your subject. Is it a concept in the mind of 15th century philosophers? Or is it an insect in a stream? Maybe it's the Pacific Ocean, which would be between the west coast of North and South America, and East coast of Asia and Australia. This may seem to be important for all topics of study, but where can be as simple as a cell that is in a plant.

When - Similar to where. Did this idea develop in the 20th century? Was the ship used in 1492? At what point in the cycle of a cell's life does it reproduce? This lets you reference what you learn, and put it into a semblance of order in your mind. Knowing that WWI comes before WWII is rather important. So is knowing the time a philosopher lived.

How - What causes the topic to take place. What makes it work. This is an extremely complex question in many cases. The previous 4 can usually be picked out rather easily. How is much more detailed. What are the steps of single cell reproduction. How does a horse move in order to gallop, or even how does a horse develop the necessary energy to gallop. How does existentialism effect literature? This is a question that drives invention, philosophy and science.

Why - I've been through Why before. The big thing about why is that it takes what you've already learned, and pushes you to the next step. When you watch a show on guns in the West, and you ask yourself why did that gun become preferred over other guns, you now have the new avenue to go study. Often your why question will introduce a few new who, what, where, when and how questions.

As you study a subject, keep a notebook. Make notes based on the 6 questions, such as who - single cell organism, what - reproduction, where...
Or, if you've bought your book that you are using, write in it, circle the who's in red the what's in green, or highlight the info. Write your full why question in the margin.

Well, that's it for now.
Happy New Year!!!