Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
Common Core State Standards, Grade 8, Writing · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026
What W.8.7 Means in Plain English
Eighth graders often write their own research question, like why the local river turns green every August, and answer it from several sources. Each source should spark new, focused questions, such as whether farm runoff feeds the algae, that open more than one path to follow.
Seventh grade (W.7.7) answers a question from several sources and raises related questions. Eighth grade adds a question the student came up with and follow-up questions that branch in several directions. Grades 9 to 10 (W.9-10.7) add sustained projects, narrowing or broadening the inquiry and synthesizing sources.
W.8.7 I Can Statements
I can turn something I wonder about into a researchable question.
I can answer my question using several sources of different kinds.
I can write focused follow-up questions that open new avenues to explore.
W.8.7 Worked Example
Both students were told to pick their own question. One picked a definition; the other picked a mystery.
Prompt
Choose something you have wondered about and turn it into a research question. Write a short research plan: your question, the sources you started with and the new questions those first sources raised.
Not YetMy research question is: What is algae? I will look it up online and write down the facts. I think I will find out a lot.One definition answers the question, so there is nothing to investigate. “Online” is not a source anyone could check, and the plan raises no follow-up questions, so the research has one avenue and it ends after a single search.
Meets the StandardEvery August the Millbrook River turns a cloudy bright green, so my question is why it happens then and not in June. I started with the county’s water-quality reports, a state environmental agency page on algal blooms and a short interview with the ranger at Riverside Park. The agency page explained that algae feed on nitrogen and phosphorus, which raised my first follow-up question: does fertilizer from the farms upstream wash into the river after summer storms? The ranger mentioned that dogs are kept out of the water during blooms, which opened a second avenue: are some blooms toxic, and how does the county test for that? A third question came from comparing two years of reports: why did the bloom start two weeks earlier last summer?The question grows out of something the writer noticed, and it is narrow enough for a short project. Sources of three kinds feed it, a report, an agency page and an interview, and each one generates a related, focused follow-up that opens its own avenue: the cause, the danger and the timing.
Moves to Use
Start from something you noticed and ask why or how about it.Test the question: if one search answers it, it is too small.Use sources of different kinds, including a person you can interview.Write each new question down the moment a source raises it, and note which avenue it opens.
Common Mistakes with W.8.7
A question a dictionary can answer
“What is algae?”
Try this: Have students run one quick search on their question, and if the first result answers it completely, rewrite it as a how or why question.
Follow-up questions that drift off topic
From a question about river algae to “What is the biggest lake in the world?”
Try this: Require each follow-up question to name the source that raised it and the part of the original question it explores.
Only teacher-assigned questions
Every student researches one of five questions written on the board
Try this: Give students a wonder list a week ahead and let them shape their own question in a two-minute conference before research starts.
What makes the strong response’s question self-generated?
It comes from something the writer noticed, the river turning green every August, rather than from a list of assigned topics.
Name the three follow-up questions and the avenue each one opens.
Whether farm fertilizer washes into the river (the cause), whether some blooms are toxic and how the county tests for it (the danger), and why last summer’s bloom started earlier (the timing).
Why is “What is algae?” a weak research question?
A single definition answers it, so it needs no investigation across sources and raises no further questions.