Begin Your Research: Research Questions

Authoring Research Questions

Tutorial from Niche Academy

The following embedded tutorial covers information from two parts of this guide, Background Info and Research Questions. The tutorial is provided courtesy of an MCC Library subscription service called Niche Academy.

Crafting Your Research Question

Crafting Your Research Question: After conducting free writing, outlining, and background research, you should develop a clear main research question to guide your thesis and research paper. This question may also be referred to as your topic statement or research topic.

For informative papers, the research question can be broader, while papers involving analysis, cause and effect, comparison and contrast, or argumentative positions require a more specific question.
 

Examples of Research Questions or Topic Statements

Stronger Questions

• Informative: What were the three main accomplishments of Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency?
• Cause and Effect: What are the reported effects of time change on physical health?
• Compare and Contrast: Which school discipline strategy reports better outcomes - corrective or supportive discipline? 
• Problem - Solution: How are colleges addressing the retention of male students of color?
• Argumentative or Position: Is the primary cause of obesity in America the lack of access to affordable healthy food?

Weaker Questions

Questions that are too broad need to be narrowed because the topic will be overwhelming with so many aspects or it will be difficult to find information that covers such a broad area. Questions that are too narrow need to be expanded because very little information will be available or your discussion will be very brief.

• Too broad - Was Lyndon B. Johnson a good president?

• Too broad - Is time change harmful?

• Too broad - Are college retention efforts successful?

• Too narrow - Does Daylight Savings Time contribute to people being late for work?

• Too narrow - Does HEB offer more sales on junk food or healthy food?

• Too narrow - What are the outcomes of supportive discipline practices in 5th grade?

Forming Several Research Questions

Now you are ready to think about your topic in the form of research questions. 

Why More Research Questions?

You will use these research questions with 3 areas of your research process:

• Outlining: Use the questions to decide the flow of your paper: introduction, main arguments, and conclusion.
• Searching for Information: Your research questions will determine what you look for in a library database or search engine.
• Writing: The research questions will be your checklist to make sure that you found the sources to answer your questions and conduct more research if there are some gaps.

Formulating research questions is essential as it enables you to thoroughly examine what you already know, what you need to discover, and what is vital to include in your paper. This will help educate and convince your audience while meeting the requirements of your assignment. Your research questions should not be simple "yes" or "no" questions but rather open-ended inquiries. Here are some examples of how to frame your research questions:

1. What do I already know? 
2. What do I need to find out? 
3. Why is this topic controversial or important? 
4. Who is concerned about this issue? 
5. What are the causes, effects, reasons, or solutions related to this issue?
6. Based on what I already know, what do I think about this issue?

When Do I Answer My Research Questions?

Keep in mind that you won't be answering all these questions immediately. The final product, whether it's a paper or a presentation, will address these research questions. The purpose of formulating research questions is to plan and organize your existing knowledge while identifying any gaps in understanding. For example, let's consider the topic of "Media Violence" with a narrower focus on "Video game violence and its impact on teenagers."

Example: Media Violence 

Source Consulted:

Ennis, Kathleen. "Develop Research Questions." Research Guides, MJC Library & Learning Center, 22 Mar. 2018. https://libguides.mjc.edu/researchquestions.