Developing Research Questions

A research question is the anchor that guides your research.  Research questions can be tough to get right and often change throughout the process of doing research.  Questions that are too specific tend to yield research that is narrow and/or superficial because the results are blind to deeper ideas.  Questions that are too open can lead to research that is vague and/or superficial because the results only skim the surface of the issue.  Getting to a "just right" question involves trying new research strategies and sometimes taking calculated risks.

Step 1: Review the rules for asking questions.

• Ask as many questions as you can.

• Do not stop to discuss, judge, or answer the questions.

• Write down every question exactly as you think of it.

• Change any statement into a question.

Ask yourself: What might be difficult about following these rules?  This helps you to anticipate pitfalls and persist through them.

Step 2: Ask questions.

Use the "question focus" provided OR develop your own.  Look at it and think about what questions you have.  Ask away!  Don't forget to follow the rules.  It helps if you list and number your questions.

Step 3: Improve your questions.

Closed-ended questions can be answered with a "yes" or a "no" or with one word/phrase.

Open-ended questions require an explanation and cannot be answered with "yes", "no", or one word/phrase.

Go down your list of questions and label each with a "C" for closed-ended or "O" for open-ended.

Ask yourself: What are the advantages and disadvantages of asking each type?  Try changing one question from closed to open and one from open to closed.

Step 4: Strategize.  Pick your best questions.

Look at your list and choose your 3 most important questions.  Draw a star next to the ones you chose.

Ask yourself: What are my reasons for selecting these questions as important?

Step 5: Reflect.

Decide how to use your questions.  Do you need to change them in any way before you can use them?  Do you need to conduct some additional research before you can change them?  Which one are you most drawn to?  Which one seems most practical as the foundation of a problem/solution research project?

Research Question Quality Criteria: FINER

Is your question...

Feasible: Is it within your ability to investigate?  Is it realistic?  Is there enough high-quality research available?  Is the research manageable considering your prior knowledge, interest, and/or reading abilities?

Interesting: Do you like it?  Will you be motivated to persist though challenge when reading research about it?

Novel: How does this question add to the research that has already been done?  Is there potential for new connections and perspectives?

Ethical: Does it deal with sensitive topics?  How will you handle these topics?  Are you able to acknowledge personal biases and set them aside when conducting your research and creating your final products?

Relevant: In what way does your question matter RIGHT NOW?  How does your research connect to current societal issues and problems?  How will your research move the academic community forward?

SPIDER, CLIP ??, SMART

🛑 Bad: How does social media affect people's behavior?
✅ Good: What effect does the daily use of YouTube have on the attention span of children aged under 16?

The first research question is considered bad because of the vagueness of "social media" as a concept and the question's lack of specificity. A good research question should be specific and focused, and its answer should be discovered through data collection and analysis. You can also hone your ability to construct well-worded and specific research questions by improving reading skills.

🛑 Bad: Has there been an increase in childhood obesity in the US in the past 10 years?
✅ Good: How have school intervention programs and parental education levels affected the rate of childhood obesity among 1st to 6th-grade students in the US?

In the second example, the first research question is not ideal because it's too simple, and it's easily answerable by a "yes" or "no." The second research question is more complicated; to answer it, the researcher must collect data, perform in-depth data analysis, and form an argument that leads to further discussion.

https://research.com/research/how-to-write-a-research-question