{"id":"search-col-narrow-fast-fashion-question","audience":"college","category":"ai-search","track":"research","technique":"context","title":"Narrow a vague paper topic into a searchable question","free":false,"task":"Your Environmental Studies professor said \"is fast fashion bad?\" is too vague and told you to pick one country and use data from 2020 on. Turn your notes into exactly 4 numbered lines labeled Question:, Place:, Years: and Search terms:, where Search terms: gives exactly 3 phrases in quotation marks. Plain text, under 80 words.","materialLabel":"Your topic notes (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"ENVS 240 - research paper topic notes\n\ncurrent topic: \"is fast fashion bad?\"\nprof's comment on my proposal: \"Too broad. What, where, when?\"\n\nstuff I'm into:\n- I worked at a thrift store in Vancouver last summer, we threw out SO much\n- read that Canada sends a lot of used clothes to landfill\n- resale apps (like ThreadSwap, ReWear) - do they actually keep clothes out of landfill or just make people buy more?\n- documentary about garment factories in Bangladesh (sad, but not really my angle)\n- maybe microplastics from polyester? (seems like a whole other paper)\n\nwhat I want to find: numbers on textile waste going to landfill, and whether resale apps change it\n\npaper: 10 pages, due Dec 8, needs 8+ scholarly or government sources\nlibrary has: Academic Search, GreenFile, Statistics Canada tables\n\nmy first search attempt: \"fast fashion bad environment\" - 2 million results, mostly listicles from 2017","rules":[{"type":"numberedItems","count":4},{"type":"maxWords","max":80},{"type":"plainText"}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Leaving out the professor's rules","why":"The AI narrows the topic its own way, often to a global question with no date range.","fix":"Add: \"One country, data from 2020 on.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Not saying your angle","why":"The AI picks the most common angle, like factory labor, instead of what you care about.","fix":"Add: \"I care about textile waste to landfill and whether resale apps help.\"","checks":["r0"]},{"title":"Getting a list of topic ideas","why":"The AI brainstorms ten possible papers instead of one question you can search.","fix":"Say: \"Exactly 4 lines: Question:, Place:, Years:, Search terms:.\"","checks":["numberedItems","maxWords"]},{"title":"Loose search terms","why":"The AI gives long keyword lists you can't paste into a database.","fix":"Add: \"Search terms: exactly 3 phrases in quotation marks.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Getting markdown back","why":"AI bolds labels and adds headings.","fix":"Ask for \"plain text, no bold.\"","checks":["plainText"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Gives the professor's rules","patterns":["one country","2020","professor"]},{"label":"Says your angle","patterns":["landfill","resale","textile waste","thrift"]},{"label":"Names the 4 labels","patterns":["question:","place:","years:","search terms"]},{"label":"Asks for quoted phrases","patterns":["quotation","quotes","\\b(3|three)\\b.{0,20}(phrases|terms)"]},{"label":"Asks for plain text","patterns":["plain","no bold","no markdown"]}],"hint":"A searchable question names one thing, one place and one time span. Give the AI your angle and your professor's limits.","rubricLabels":["The Question line asks about textile or clothing waste going to landfill and whether resale apps change it (not factory conditions or microplastics)","The Place line names Canada (one country only) and the Years line says 2020 or later","The Search terms line gives exactly 3 phrases, each in quotation marks, about textile waste, landfill or clothing resale in Canada"]}