Writing and developing a thesis statement is an important part of a writing process. The following is a proposed thesis statement for my argumentative piece based on a template laid out in Bruce Ballenger's The Curious Researcher

Based on research pertaining to the validity and scientific nature of the intelligent design theory, evidence suggests that a broader spectrum of theoretical teaching in public schools is a more effective educational system in its creation and cultivation of student's world views.

Writing is about creating a conversation with an audience. With regards to intelligent design, the following is an example of information that would be covered in my research paper and how it would relate to a conversation with the audience. For this blog our audience will go by the name of Dave.

Dave		Kevin
What’s the big idea about this topic? Why should I care?		The debate over the origins of the earth are extremely important because choosing which side you might sit on will have a big impact on your worldview and understanding of life. Today science argues that the world came to be through a state of evolution and chance and that any other belief is foolish because it cannot be proven scientifically. For this reason there is a very big call for only the theory of evolution to be taught in public schools. The problem is that science cannot truly prove evolution any better than it can prove creationism or intelligent design. For this reason, I believe that children should be taught the theory of intelligent design in public schools and be allowed to make a decision on which they accept for themselves.
What is the importance of a worldview?		Our worldview effect affects our beliefs on metaphysical matters including morals, social issues and supernatural beliefs. Most people understand intelligent design to be a “toned-down” version of creationism and a way of allowing God to be taught in schools, but, although an understanding of God is a very important factor for intelligent design, it is about more than that.
What is the difference between intelligent design and creationism?		Intelligent design is a broad theory which, in essence, encompasses a number of other theories including creationism. Creationism is based on the belief that God created the earth in seven days as laid out in the Genesis account. Intelligent design, on the other hand, is a scientific research based theory which believes that a number of things in science point to the fact that the natural world must have had a designer with a higher form of intelligence. It does not necessarily teach creationism.
Should Darwinism and evolution still be taught in schools along with intelligent design?		As a Christian, it can become easy to wish that only intelligent design was allowed to be taught, or even better, if only creationism was allowed, but the issue today is not necessarily about which theory is correct. The issue is rather that Darwinism and evolution are taught to be fact while creationism and Intelligent Design are taught to be completely incorrect. The argument is that we should be teaching students about both options, including the idea that neither can be argued as more evident than the other, and allowing them to make up their own minds.

In conclusion, intelligent design should be taught in public schools because of the fact that it relates to a students worldview and merits as much legitimacy as any Darwinist or evolutionist theory.

I decided to change the topic of the research paper that I will be doing to explore the question: Should intelligent design be taught in public school classrooms?

With this in mind I am following an exercise laid out in Bruce Ballangers, The Curious Researcher, which makes use of general, web-based search engines to explore a topic further.
I personally felt that Google and Yahoo! were extremely popular and almost acted as default browsers for most people, and so I chose to use the less popular options of Ask.com, Bing and Lycos.
My search inputs were:

• Intelligent design in public schools
• Intelligent design vs. Creationism
• intelligent design vs. Darwinism

These are some of the better sources I found through these various searches:

Ask.com

 - "Intelligent Design and Science Education." Intelligent Design and Science Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2013.

Using Ask.com I came to the Discovery Institutes website for intelligent design, intelligentdesign.org, and found their link to the public school policy that is currently in place regarding this theory. The website is a secular site yet it supports the idea of teaching ID in public schools. It gives a lot of information on the current system and the attitude of most science departments is the public school system. The Discovery Institute is one of the leading forces tempting to get ID education incorporated into the schools system and I believe that they are a credible source.

Bing

 - Engber, Daniel. "Creationism vs. Intelligent Design." Slate Magazine. N.p., 10 May 2005. Web. 04 Nov. 2013.

Using Bing I found an article published by Slate Magazine on the difference between creationism and Intelligent Design. The article was fairly informative and laid out the basic differences between the two theories. it is unbiased and I believe that the information and publisher are credible.

 - Petrescu, Anna. "Intelligent Design Versus Creationism." Articlesbase.com. Articlesbase.com, 24 Mar. 2010. Web. 04 Nov. 2013.

I also found an article published in Articlesbase which addresses the same topic, Creationism versus Intelligent Design. This article was a more in depth than the previous one and gave more information, making a more significant argument. Again I found that the author was a credible source.

Lycos

 - "The Origin of Avian Flight: Comparing Explanations from Darwinism and Intelligent Design."Evolution News & Views. N.p., 11 Apr. 2013. Web. 04 Nov. 2013.

Using Lycos I found an interesting article published in Evolution News and Views on the comparative views of the origins of a birds ability to fly between the theories of Darwinism and Intelligent Design. The article was biased and one sided, as I would have expected, examining points made by ID theorists and simply writing them off because of their status under Intelligent Design. It did however offer some good insight into the Darwinian view which I believe will be helpful and, regarding Darwinism, I believe that this publisher is a credible source.

I think that this technique is helpful because it certainly can turn up some good research information.I found that Bing was very easy to use and navigate and that it brought up the greatest number of useful sites whereas Lycos was harder to use and rendered far less useful hits.

Overall, I am please with the results I got.