1. Have you formed an intellectual question? In other words, have you constructed a question that will require a complex, thoughtful answer?

2. Is the question provocative? Startling? Controversial? Fresh?

3. Will you be able to answer this question adequately in a few pages? Or is the question impossibly broad?

4. If the question seems broad, how might you narrow it?

5. Does your question address both text and context? In other words, have you considered the historical and cultural circumstances that influenced this text? Have you considered what other scholars have said about it?

6. Will your reader care about this question? Or will she say, "So what?"