Developing a Research Question
When writing a research paper, you will develop your question and bring together scholarly sources to support the argument you make. Oftentimes, finding your topic and refining it into a research question is a task all its own. How do you even get started?
Research begins before you start working on the paper, as figuring out what you are going to write about often requires some research in the first place. Developing a research question is an act of refinement, and there are several ways you can get started.
You can refine your topic by narrowing it down with further questions.
- Who – Are you interested in how this topic relates to a specific group of people? Can you narrow your topic through demographics (age, gender, sex, ethnicity, socio-economic class, etc.)? Who are the key people connected to your topic?
- What – What are some of the issues surrounding your topic? Do you notice any gaps or questions when reading background materials that have not yet been answered or explored?
- When – Is this your topic contemporary or historical? Is there a specific time period you could investigate further? What are the events or developments that led to your topic?
- Where – Is your topic tied to a specific region or place?
- Why – Why this topic? Why does it interest you? Why should it interest others?
- How – Do you need a particular kind of information source, such as statistics or primary documents?
You can also refine your topic by searching for additional information. This will give you additional ideas as you learn more about your topic and help you decide what you want to focus on.
- You can search the open web with Google to get a sense of what has already been done with this topic or current issues or questions surrounding it.
- You can look at existing research by looking at library databases such as Academic Search Complete or Google Scholar
Some additional considerations to keep in mind as you transform your general topic into a specific research question:
- The scope of the question needs to match the length of the assignment
- The question should not be too broad or too narrow
- How much time you have for the project
You can move from a general broad topic to a focused research question through asking questions to narrow it down and consulting an appropriate source for the necessary information.
Turning a Topic Into a Question
Research Help
Research is Messy
The "process" part of "research process" implies something orderly that can be followed from beginning to end. You think it looks like this, but can often look like this instead. Do not get discouraged. The steps of the research process often blend together, and we find ourselves bouncing back and forth often as our needs change or we encounter setbacks. You may need to return to this step later on, but your project will be stronger for it.
Don't Be Boring
Something about your research question should interest you or, at the very least, makes you curious enough to seek out an answer. It is much easier to motivate yourself when you have a topic that excites you compared to one that does not. A topic that does not excite you makes it harder to complete the research and a chore to write the paper. And if you are bored, your long-suffering professor is bored, which might not make for the best grade. So try not to be boring.