You have started your research paper, but one problem has emerged. You need to write a superb research question, but as a first-time researcher, you have no idea how to do that. Many scholars feel this way.
Fortunately, it is not as challenging a feat as it may seem. In fact, you can find some resourceful and baffling methods to craft an excellent research question for your work.
We will get to it, but first, let us shed some light on the significance of writing one. A marvellous research question explains the subject matter of your paper and sets a clear direction for your work to help your readers easily understand it.
It also highlights the aims and objectives of your research. Before you start writing your paper and normally prior to conducting your research, you must put together a succinct thesis statement to establish the goals of your study.
A dissertation writing service can help you craft one, but this piece will also highlight the salient features of a powerful research question.
A research question is the core statement that your research intends to address. A clear research question helps you identify the direction of your dissertation and declares precisely what you set out to clarify, which provides a direction and goal to your study.
A research question underscores the precise aim of your study. Thus, a robust one is necessary to guide your thesis.
Here are six features of a research paper that guarantee it is a solid one.
Students typically select one question to direct their progress in a thesis. The response then develops their thesis statement, which is the core stance or declaration that their research will insist on. This may hold true for a smaller research project, such as a final year project or optional thesis.
However, a larger research project, like a PhD dissertation or master's thesis, may require several research questions. But they must be clearly linked and circle back to a core challenge.
Composing an appealing research question is no difficult feat. You can easily create it. Just follow the below-mentioned steps.
Think about what your study aims to find out and then formulate your question around it.
| Aims of Your Research | Research Question Examples |
|---|---|
| Explaining and Discovering | How has A handled B? |
| What are the traits of C? | |
| What are the reasons for the occurrence or spreading of D? | |
| How has E modified over time? | |
| Describing and Experimenting | How does X give birth to Y? |
| How does X correlate to Y? | |
| How has X influenced Y? | |
| What are the effects of X on Y? | |
| Examining and Acting | What are the upsides and downsides of X? |
| How impactful is Z? | |
| How can Y be enhanced? |
How To Use Your Research Problem to Formulate Your Research Question?
| Example Research Problem | Example Research Question |
|---|---|
| Low birth weight can lead to autism in the child. | How can mothers ensure their children are born with a normal weight to prevent autism in them? |
| Generation Z are increasingly preferring to start their own business or do freelancing rather than working a 9 to 5 job. | What are the core causes behind Gen Z’s increasing preference for entrepreneurship or freelancing over getting a 9 to 5 job? |
Now you may be wondering what research type should be used for different types of research questions. Well, you can use any type, but the formulation of your question should be a determining factor in your choices.
Research questions lay the foundation of your entire dissertation, so you must carve out some time to fine-tune them. We have devised some standards for you so that you can ensure your questions measure up to them.
Your main question should be related to your research problem to ensure your study is centred on one linchpin. In case of a larger project and several questions, make sure all of them link to your core objective.
Choose a question that can be responded to utilising qualitative or quantitative data, or by going through research papers on the subject matter to create your statement. If you can't access such scholarly sources, reconsider your question.
Don't use subjective words such as bad, good, worse and better. These give ambiguous standards for responding to the question. Here is an example:
Not every topic is researchable, i.e you may not have access to the resources required to conduct research on it. Or you may not have sufficient time to cover the whole topic. In such a case, try shortening the scope of your topic to make it narrow enough to perform research on.
Every word of your research question must be definite enough to understand easily. Technical language, ambiguous words or too-wide ideas should therefore be avoided. Here is an example:
We aim to closely look at a challenge or issue without the need to necessarily find a solution or method to solve it. Therefore, you must focus on informing your reader rather than giving them commands. Even if you are researching a practical issue, strive to raise awareness instead of finding a definite way out.
Here is an example:
Your research question should not be one that can be answered with a yes or no. Such questions offer no area for examination or explanation. Here is an example:
Your research question should be simple so that its answer can be found using easily accessible resources like the internet, books, etc. A robust question demands fresh information like surveys, creation of several sources and new understanding and justification before finding a response.
As we have already mentioned that you must undergo some reading about your topic before devising your research question. Try writing one that acknowledges a challenge or gap in the already-researched domains in your subject.
Your question should add some value to an existing debate in your discipline or in society, broadly speaking. It should provide information that other scholars can continue researching.
Your question should be highly unique because it is of no use trying to find an answer to a question whose answer somebody has already found out through their research. To make it original, try looking at some phenomena from a different angle or add a particular location.
A powerful research question should be plausible, engaging, fresh, moral and related. Some frameworks to create one include PEO for qualitative research and PICOT for quantitative research, which aids in guaranteeing concentration and coherence.
Here is the step-by-step process to follow if you want to develop a robust research question.
A research question sits at the cornerstone of the complete research process and sets direction for extent, techniques and evaluation of a study. There are different types of research questions, which include qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods. All of them demand different methods and designs.
There are different ways to formulate research questions that vary in their types. You need to devise articulate and accurate statements which shed light on correspondences, explanations or comparisons within a research if you are writing quantitative research questions.
If you find it challenging to craft one for your paper, our experts can “write my dissertation” and its research question.
On the other hand, qualitative research questions tend to be exploratory and flexible and intend to find out, describe or elaborate phenomena. The last one is mixed-method questions, which include both qualitative and quantitative aspects, which require extensive and integrative techniques.
