How to write a research question

How can you write a good research question?  This seems like a simple question, but I often find that students who have a hard time with the empirical research assignment start by having a hard time writing a good question.  In this video, I review a few points to keep in mind as you decide on a research question.  To put the bottom line up front, it is often easiest to start by thinking about the outcome or effect you are interested in first, then think about what might cause that effect.  Then ask a why or how question.  Why do some protests lead to a democratic transition, but not others? 

Where to start?

So how do you start thinking of a good research question?  I usually recommend starting with the outcome (the effect, or dependent variable) you are most interested in.  Are you interested in the level of freedom in a country? Covid response? Economic policy?  Internet regulation?  Think through what topic you would like to learn more about.

Then start thinking about what might cause change in that outcome.  Does the level of state capacity impact the level of freedom?  Does regime type influence Covid policy?  Etc.  What is important is that it is possible for there to be more than one answer to the question – you need variation on both cause and effect.  For example, regimes can be democracies, dictatorships, or somewhere in between.  Covid policies could involve lots of surveillance or little, vaccine mandates or not.  You will work on defining your terms more carefully later, for now just make sure there isn’t an obvious answer to your question.

What vs Why vs How 

Another way to think about this is asking a why or a how question.  There are three types of questions we tend to ask in empirical research.

What questions establish the facts about a new issue.  For example, what do American citizens think about the state of democracy in the U.S.?  This is actually my favorite kind of research, but I want to steer you away from it for this project.  Doing original research on factual questions takes more time and resources than you have in this class.  Most of you will not be able to get past learning what other scholars have found out about an issue – an essential first step to a research project, but not the last one.  So if you have an amazing original question that no one has studied before, try to think of something related to that for this paper, then ask that your original question in a senior thesis.

How questions focus on causal mechanisms.  They focus on the way a cause leads to an effect.  For example, how does economic development lead to democratization?  A question like that would have you look at a country’s class structure, level of education, number of protests, etc.  If you are interested in studying a well-established relationship (like the correlation between development and democracy), looking at these mechanisms or pathways might be a good option for you.  But this is often the focus of qualitative research on single countries – detailed analysis of historical events in a case study.

Why questions are the most straightforward questions to ask for this type of research.  Why are some countries more democratic than others?  Why do some countries have bigger social safety nets than others?  This allows you to propose one answer while still considering other possibilities.  For example, you could set up a research design to test the relationship between economic growth and democratization that would rule out potential cultural and institutional variables.

Two cautions

First, don’t get too caught up on what vs why.  For example, it’s best not to start with a question about why one thing causes another.  For example, asking why Muslim majority countries are less democratic than other countries.  There are two problems here: one, you are putting your proposed answer in the question.  You are assuming a causal relationship (and probably some other things) and seeking to prove it, not testing whether you are right. Try to shift your question to more general variables.  For example, what is the relationship between a country’s religious tradition and democracy.  While technically this question starts with what, it is about a relationship between variables.  This type of question removes the bias in the first question and sets you up to compare different potential causes of an effect.

Second, don’t be too original.  While in general, I prize originality, for this particular paper – for a student trying out empirical research for the first time – I recommend you study something that has been studied before.  In the past, students who had amazing original research questions often have had a hard time conducting literature reviews on the topic.  I will go into more detail on what that is later, but for now I recommend that you do a quick library or Google scholar search to see if there is other research on your topic.  Ideally, you will find a few relevant articles that will help you complete future assignments.  If you can’t find anything at all, you might want to consider modifying your question.

Talk to me

Finally, I would just like to emphasize that coming up with a good question is really the foundation of a strong paper.  If you are having a hard time, or are interested in doing something more original, please come see me during office hours – I would love to discuss.