The topic of video games was not easy for me to settle on. I had multiple feasible topics in my head that I was thinking about writing about. To narrow the topics down, I thought about which ones that I already knew background information about, and that only left a couple for me to choose from. The ILP's helped me to figure out which of those two topics that I really wanted to write about. The other topic I was thinking about had to do with sports, but it was difficult for me to find an article on it, and so I decided that my paper would be about video games and how they affect the brain. 

The reason that I chose to make an argument about video games is because I have a personal connection with them and I am passionate about the subject. I have been playing video games since middle school, and I have played all types of games whether they were action games, puzzle games, or sports games. I personally love video games and do not think that they negatively affect me or others that play them. There are many other out there that disagree with my opinion, and this inspired me to want to research about the side that I support. I have had nothing but good times playing them, and I have met some of my closest friends through the games that I play. I also picked this topic because I have a good amount of knowledge on video games, and this knowledge has allowed me to understand some of the information in the articles that would have been more difficult to interpret had I not played video games before. 

Because I am a buyer and player of video games, I am a stakeholder in the argument that I am trying to make. They do affect my emotions sometimes while I play them, and this leads me to have a biased point of view on the topic. For me, video games helped me to be happier in rougher times of my life, so they have always had a positive influence on my brain and emotions. There are plenty of ways to keep this bias out of my paper and research however, such as finding unbiased and reliable sources and writing in an unbiased tone. Another way that I can avoid having bias in my writing is to clearly address the opposing sides of the argument and to be aware of my bias while I am writing. If I am aware of my bias, then it will be easier to make the paper less objective and more informative about the topic.

There is a lot of information about video games that I do not know, but I am excited to research and learn more about them as much as I can. I would love to find some iformation or studies on older people that play video games. Most studies and articles talk for the most part about kids or young adults playing video games, and I think it would be interesting to find some information about how the games affect the minds of people who haven't grown up playing video games like my generation has. Another thing that I would be interested in researching for this paper would be information about why people play video games. I want to know if the reason people play the games can change the way the mind reacts to them. For example, if I played a game to let out stress, would my mind work the same way then as it would if I was playing to be competitive. I really just want to learn and know everything that I possibly can about video games.

In this paper, I want to provide evidence to the reader about how video games can affect the brain, and my research is going to help to support and further my argument. By the time the reader finishes reading my paper, I want him or her to feel informed on not only the side of the argument that I will be presenting, but also some of the counter arguments that can be made against other sides of the argument. The reader should learn multiple details to back up the argument presented in the paper. The thing that I am worried the most about with this paper is not being able to write enough to fit into eight to ten pages. I feel like it is a good topic for a paper but it's just hard for me to write more than a few pages without being repetitive though, and I think I will definitely be able to gather enough information for the whole paper from my research. It has been extremely easy to find studies and scholarly articles for this topic, but it has been harder to find information to use as the primary text for my paper. 

I found multiple agreements and disagreements for my argument while researching and trying to find sources. I found one source that includes a study with results showing that video games make people more social and interactive with others due to the fact that there are chats in many games where gamers can communicate with each other. Another agreement on this topic is in a scholarly article written about video games and effects on brain activity. There is evidence suggesting that video games can improve attention span, coordination, and reaction times. There is also evidence in this article that indicates that stimuli affected by the games can improve the speed at which the brain learns. One of the disagreements that I have found is that one article suggested that video games can cause aggressive behavior in players due to anger caused by the controls. Another disagreement against my argument that I found revealed that video games can cause antisocial behavior in people that play them. Even though I have found these disagreements, I have also found counter evidence that can refute the points that these articles have made.

At this point, my research question seems like a valid question and I think it will not be difficult to form a thesis, but as I do more research, I may need to narrow the question down t a more specific question depending on how much and the types of information that I can find. On the spectrum of scope, this topic is pretty broad. It is specific to video games, but there are many different types of video games that can be discussed. It is not the most complex topic to argue about, but some of the words concerning neural studies of the brain can be difficult to interpret and understand. My research question is an extremely controversial topic, and there is sufficient evidence to argue any side of it. The arguing part of my paper should not give me trouble at all. 
