Learning outcomes
- Explain how to define questions, source boundaries and deliverables before research.
- Complete the guided activity safely.
- Check that you can keep research focused.
Web Search and Research
Creating a Research Plan
Learn to define questions, source boundaries and deliverables before research and keep research focused in this beginner-friendly ChatGPT lesson.
Before you begin
Write the question, required date range and preferred source types before searching. Plan to open and verify important sources yourself.
Step-by-step instructions
- Open ChatGPT Search or Deep Research where available and confirm you are using the intended account or workspace.
- Turn a broad topic into five answerable subquestions.
- Pause and check privacy, permissions, source material, feature availability and any instruction that affects the task.
- Review the result carefully and confirm that you can keep research focused.
- Save only the useful, verified output and record one improvement for your next prompt.
Ian's practical tip: Start with fictional or non-sensitive information. Treat the first response as a draft, then verify facts, sources, calculations and permissions before using it.
Practical activity
Turn a broad topic into five answerable subquestions. Your expected result is to keep research focused.