2 Defining a Research Question
What is a research question?
“Developing a Research Question” by the Laurier Library
Research is an attempt to give an original answer to a question you develop (or one that’s assigned to you). In college writing, an important part of research is consulting what other scholars before you have said about your topic. You incorporate their ideas into your writing by pointing out where you draw on others’ work, and where you differ. In this way, research is essential to building your own arguments in the service of answering your research question.
Developing a specific research question can be challenging. The less you know about a topic, the broader your initial question is likely to be—and you may not realize that your question is not yet specific enough to be useful in research. As you do research, you will have other, more specific questions to choose from. That’s why we talk about developing a research question. It’s an ongoing process, and you can expect your question to change more than once.
When it comes down to it, three key practices are involved in developing a research question:
- Imagining narrower topics about a larger one,
- Thinking of questions that stem from a narrow topic
- Focusing questions to eliminate their vagueness
As you practice coming up with research questions, remember that a strong research question:
- Addresses a specific and credible observation
- Connects to at least one specific conversation
- Uses specific key terms
- Requires analysis of exhibits
- Is open-ended (i.e. there is a range of possible answers)
- Is answerable
Regular questions vs. research questions
Most of us ask questions and seek answers every day. Are research questions any different from most of the regular questions we ask? Yes.
Generally, our everyday questions have quick answers. For example, I bet you could easily find the answers to these questions — and I bet you have answered questions just like them many times:
- What time does the grocery store open?
- What other movies has that actor been in?
Even questions that seem more academic, if they can be answered definitively using a single source, don’t make great research questions. For example, it might take a little more digging to figure out how many languages are spoken in Jackson Heights, Queens, but that doesn’t make it a great research question. A good research question asks how or why. (And a good research question takes a lot more effort to answer, but we’ll get to that in the next sections!) In this case, a stronger research question might ask, How have the languages spoken in Jackson Heights, Queens, changed over time, and what factors drove that change?
Here are some more examples of regular questions and research questions:
Regular Question: What time is my movie showing on Friday?
Research Question: How do “sleeper” films end up having outstanding attendance figures?
Regular Question: What film won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2017?
Research Question: How did the mistaken announcement of La La Land as winner of Best Picture in 2017 become a focal point for conversations about whiteness and heteronormativity in the Oscars?
Regular Question: What can I do about my insomnia?
Research Question: How do flights more than 16 hours long affect the reflexes of commercial jet pilots?
Regular Question: How many children in the U.S. have allergies?
Research Question: How does poverty affect a child’s chances of developing asthma?
Exercise
Adapted from Choosing & Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research by Teaching & Learning, Ohio State University Libraries, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
