Developing strong writing doesn’t happen overnight. The same could be said about creating a good research question. As a student, there will likely be a point where you’ll have to write a research paper. Research papers tend to be extensive in length and require a lot of, well, you guessed it, research! Knowing how to develop a research question is the first step to writing a successful research paper.
Developing a research question takes time in itself, as well as multiple additional considerations. Before we jump into how to create your perfect research question, let’s define what a research question is and what makes one strong.
As the name implies, a research question is the question you ask that you will then answer through research.
Most research papers tend to be lengthy, so it helps to come up with a research question that can open the door to a lot of information. At the same time, you don’t want to be too open with your question because then it becomes harder to write a concise and focused paper.
With this in mind, a good research question should have these attributes:
Clear: The question shouldn’t require additional explanation because it is easily understandable. Your audience may range from people who are very familiar with the topic to those who may know nothing at all. You’ll want the question to be understood by all those who read your paper.
Focused: The question should be narrow enough such that the research paper gives you enough space to fully answer the question. If you ask something too general, you’ll have trouble fitting the data and response into a constrained paper.
Researchable: You should be able to conduct interviews, surveys or leverage past data and information to answer the question.
Feasible: You are able to answer it in a given timeframe and with the resources you have available.
Concise: You can pose the question as one that is short and to the point.
Complex: There is enough information and data to be able to write an entire paper on the subject to answer the question.
Arguable: As the writer, you should be able to take a stance on the topic and argue why it’s right.
Relevant: It should relate to the subject you’re studying or the major you’re pursuing.
Why Does Your Research Question Matter In The Research Process?
Think about it like this — a research question is the foundation and basis of all the work you put in to write a research paper. It helps to narrow and focus your findings to answer something specific, rather than going off topic and writing all about irrelevant information.
Types Of Research Questions
Depending on your subject matter or area of interest, one type of research question may better suit your
needs. If your prompt is open-ended and you get to choose your own research question, you can select from these common types of research questions:
Descriptive: These research questions answer when, where, why or how something happened. They will require data and statistics around an event or phenomenon.
Comparative: A comparative question studies the differences between one thing and another.
Correlational: This type of question asks how one thing is related to another.
Exploratory: An exploratory question is used to better understand a topic.
Evaluation: Also known as program evaluation, this is a question that aims to answer what something is and why it’s done that way.
Action: This type of question evaluates what happened and how an action may be improved.
6 Steps To Develop A Research Question
Based on your subject matter and the research paper prompt, you may have a clear idea on what type of research question to ask.
No matter what type of research you will conduct, formulating your research question can consist of these steps:
1. Choose Your Topic
Start by choosing your topic. Maybe you’ve been guided as to what you will research. But, if not, you’ll want to pick something that you are actually interested in learning about. To be able to narrow in on a specific question, you’ll want to start broad and then conduct preliminary research.
2. Do Some Early Research
Early research will help you to check if the research question is feasible. You can start by looking online at the topic and see what others are researching with regard to that subject matter.
3. Consider Your Audience
When creating your question, you’ll want to think about your audience. Since it’s likely to be academic, you need to frame your question formally.
4. Ask Questions
As you learn more about your topic through early research, you can ask yourself questions like how and why things are the way they are.
5. Evaluate Your Question
Only after you’ve started posing questions can you evaluate their merit. You can check to see that your question upholds the characteristics of a good research question (i.e. concise, clear, feasible, etc.)
6. Start Researching
Once you have your question ready to go, think about the best ways to answer it. Begin researching the type of information that exists or create your own experiment or survey to collect data, if possible.
Sample Research Questions
Here are some examples of broad research questions, compared to their better, more focused alternatives.
Broad: “How has climate change affected animals?”
Focused: “What effect does rising sea levels have on the food chain of marine animals?”
Or
Broad: “Does social media negatively affect people?”
Focused: “How has Instagram affected teenage girl’s emotional states?”
Or
Broad: “Do men and women have different results from working out?”
Focused: “Do men lose weight faster than women when working out daily?”
Ask a friend or colleague to proofread your paper before submitting
Your Research Question Is the Foundation
When you create a concise, focused, and arguable research question, you are setting yourself up to be able to write a strong research paper.
In most academic settings, you will be required to write a research paper. This is especially true when it comes to earning your secondary degrees in college. Developing a research question is one of the most important steps in the entire writing process.
Remember to take your time, and don’t be afraid to ask for feedback!
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