Creating Research Questions

CREATING A RESEARCH QUESTION

Preparing to write a research question

Begin with supporting questions, or what we call "skinny" questions - often begin with "when", "who", "where", "how many".

These are factual questions that will give you background on your topic.

What makes a good research question?

• you don't already know the answer to the question

• it has more than one possible answer

• aim for "fat" questions - cannot be answered in one word or sentence, make you think of other questions, often begin with "why", "how", "which"

• avoid "skinny" questions for your main question

What Makes a Good Investigation Question?

A good investigation question is

• Focused on a specific aspect of a larger topic (not too big!)

• Researchable and open-ended

  • NOT a yes/no question

  • NOT a question where you can find the answer by doing a simple search online

• Interesting to you