When thinking on an appropriate topic for my research paper, I wanted to choose one that I could relate too on a more personal level. In order to do this, I had to delve into everything that I am interested in and try to think of a problem it faces in the world today. When you actually try to do this, it's harder than it seems, but during my process, an idea struck me. Half of my family lives in Germany and in order for us to see them my family and I have to travel, by airplane obviously, and especially in recent travels I have noticed my parents continually complaining about the cost of traveling. Now we are a family of five, but from the early 2000s up until now, the price of us all flying has gone up exponentially. This is what initially sparked my interest. If the amount of airlines has increased and if the price of gas has decreased, why has the cost to fly gone up? Because I have such a personal interest in this topic, I consider myself a stakeholder. The airline industry has not only restricted me and my family but has also restricted millions of other people from flying more often every year. There are also many other stakeholders, those affected by the rising cost and those who are implementing the issue. After contemplating the topic, I felt that it was one that I could really research and uncover the truth about.  But before I could start my research, I had to define my question more specifically. I knew the question would begin with "why" or "how" but I needed to specify a time frame; if I didn't, then my sources would be so spread out that my findings could end up not being able to relate to one another. I have been traveling since I was a young kid, but it wasn't until my later years that I recognized the problem. In turn I decided to focus on the past 5 years of the ticket cost/airline correlation.  I would later see that this would help my search results and pinpoint better sources. 

Now, coming into this project, I have to admit that I did originally have bias. Because this affected me personally and the way I came across this topic was in a negative way, it was hard to have a neutral viewpoint. However, in order to become more neutral I had to set aside my personal beliefs and rely solely on the facts that I would find in my research. Bias is a hard thing to not come across, most sources that you find, always have a bit of bias. While I was researching I tried to find more scholarly articles and articles that were written by people who have worthy credibility. Websites that were blogs or articles written by average people were ones that I definitely stayed away from since those were filled with only that one person's perspective. One thing that I learned is that when you are searching for articles, you not only need to search the article itself but also search the author/writer. An author's bio can tell you a lot about the person and the website the article is found on. Many of the sources I originally had, I had to throw out because the author/writer did not have enough credibility that I could rely on to use as evidence in my paper. The scholarly sources were the ones where I found the least bias. These articles were written by noted people who rely mainly on statistics and facts that they gathered directly from another source, given citations and references. However, obtaining a plethora of sources allows me to have a variety of point of views and "answers" to my question.  But there is still a lot of information that I have yet to uncover.  I know that the cost of tickets is not just something that airlines randomly came up with, but that there are a lot of factors that go into charging consumers. The airline industry also has their own costs that they have to pay for, which is what could be widely the reason for the rise in ticket prices. As a consumer I want to believe that the reason for the up in price is simply because of an economic correlation and not just because the airline industry wants to make more money. As I am finding more and more sources I am uncovering a big role that the government is playing in this issue. Unbeknownst to me, the government and the airline industry work together closely; there is a great political influence over the airline companies. This uncovering is something that I might delve more into and make a main point in my argument. I also hope to uncover more of the consumer's point of view. How this issue is affecting people around the world, and is it affecting businesses and their traveling plans for their employees?

Ultimately in this research paper I want to find answers. Not conspiracies or potential theories, but the exact reason why ticket prices for commercial airlines has risen in the past five years? With what I have already researched I am more than confident that I can write 8-10 pages on my topic. With the amount of stakeholders that are involved with this issue, there are many different directions I can take this paper. The airline industry is a vast concept that has many branches off of it. This problem is not just one centered in the United States but is involved worldwide. Since I am still in the midst of research, I am collecting as much information as I can on my topic. If I limit myself in the beginning, there might be valuable information that I could miss out on. Once I have collected all the information that I believe is enough, then I can revise and edit down exactly what I need and depending on my findings, specify my topic even more. On the spectrum of scope, complexity, and controversy, I believe my topic falls high on scope, center on complexity, and in between high and center on controversy. In this argument I will most likely focus more on scope and controversy due to the fact of where I want to take my argument. As I continue my research, I hope to find articles that show different arguments on my topic. The more variety I have will allow me to be introduced unbiased and then pick my side for argumentative purposes.
