What is a good research question?

…Creating a research question is a task. Good research questions are formed and worked on, and are rarely simply found. You start with what interests you, and you refine it until it is workable.

There is no recipe for the perfect research question, but there are bad research questions. The following guidelines highlight some of the features of good questions.

Top Tips:

• Relevant.
• Manageable in terms of research and in terms of your own academic abilities.
• Substantial and with original dimensions.
• Consistent with the requirements of the assessment.
• Clear and simple.
• Interesting.

Relevant

The question will be of academic and intellectual interest to people in the field you have chosen to study. The question arises from issues raised in the literature or in practice.

You should be able to establish a clear purpose for your research in relation to the chosen field. For example, are you filling a gap in knowledge, analysing academic assumptions or professional practice, monitoring a development in practice, comparing different approaches or testing theories within a specific population?

Manageable

You need to be realistic about the scope and scale of the project. The question you ask must be within your ability to tackle. For example, are you able to access people, statistics, or documents from which to collect the data you need to address the question fully? Are you able to relate the concepts of your research question to the observations, phenomena, indicators or variables you can access? Can this data be accessed within the limited time and resources you have available to you?

Sometimes a research question appears feasible, but when you start your fieldwork or library study, it proves otherwise. In this situation, it is important to write up the problems honestly and to reflect on what has been learnt. It may be possible, with your supervisor, to develop a contingency plan to anticipate possible problems of access.

Substantial and (within reason) original

The question should not simply copy questions asked in other final year modules, or modules previously undertaken. It shows your own imagination and your ability to construct and develop research issues. And it needs to give sufficient scope to develop into a dissertation.

Consistent with the requirements of the assessment

The question must allow you the scope to satisfy the learning outcomes of the course.

For example, you can choose to conduct a theoretical study, one that does not contain analysis of empirical data. In this case, it will be necessary for you to think carefully before making such a choice. You would be required to give an account of your methodology, to explain why theoretical analysis was the most appropriate way of addressing the question and how you have gone about using theoretical models to produce new insights about the subject.

Clear and simple

The complexity of a question can frequently hide unclear thoughts and lead to a confused research process. A very elaborate research question, or a question which is not differentiated into different parts, may hide concepts that are contradictory or not relevant. This needs to be clear and thought-through, but it is one of the hardest parts of your work.

Equally, you may want to begin with your literature review and data collection and you may feel tempted to ‘make do’ with a broad and vague research question for the moment. However, a muddled question is likely to generate muddled data and equally muddled analysis.

If you create a clear and simple research question, you may find that it becomes more complex as you think about the situation you are studying and undertake the literature review. Having one key question with several sub-components will guide your research here.

Interesting

This is essential. The question needs to intrigue you and maintain your interest throughout the project. There are two traps to avoid.

• Some questions are convenient – the best you can come up with when you are asked to state a question on a form, maybe – or perhaps the question fits in with your units so you decide it will suffice.
• Some questions are fads – they arise out of a particular set of personal circumstances, for example a job application. Once the circumstances change you can lose enthusiasm for the topic and it becomes very tedious.

Make sure that you have a real, grounded interest in your research question, and that you can explore this and back it up by academic and intellectual debate. It is your interest that will motivate you to keep working and to produce a good dissertation.

Guide to Undergraduate Dissertations in the Social Sciences, Sheffield Hallam University. Accessed October 9, 2020.