Now that you\u2019ve thought about what topics interest you and identified a topic that is both empirical and broadly concerned with the applied human sciences, you need to form a research question about that topic. [1] So what makes a good research question? First, it is generally written in the form of a question. To say that your research question is \u201cchild-free adults\u201d or \u201cstudents\u2019 knowledge about current events\u201d or \u201cmovies\u201d would not be correct. You need to frame a question about the topic that you wish to study. A good research question is also one that is well focused. Writing a well- focused question isn\u2019t really all that different from what the paparazzi do regularly. As a social scientist you need to be as clear and focused as those photographers who stalk Britney Spears to get that perfect shot of her while she waits in line at Starbucks. OK, maybe what we do as social scientists isn\u2019t exactly the same, but think about how the paparazzi get paid. They must take clear, focused photographs in order to get paid for what they do. Likewise, we will not hit the jackpot of having our research published, read, or respected by our peers if we are not clear and focused.<\/p>\r\n
In addition to being written in the form of a question and being well focused, a good research question is one that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. For example, if your interest is in gender norms, you could ask, \u201cDoes gender affect a person\u2019s shaving habits?\u201d but you will have nothing left to say once you discover your yes or no answer. Instead, why not ask, \u201cHow or to what extent does gender affect a person\u2019s feelings about body hair?\u201d By tweaking your question in this small way, you suddenly have a much more fascinating question and more to say as you attempt to answer it.<\/p>\r\n
A good research question should also have more than one plausible answer. The student who studied the relationship between gender and body hair preferences had a specific interest in the impact of gender, but she also knew that preferences might vary on other dimensions. For example, she knew from her own experience that her more politically conservative friends were more likely to shave every day and more likely to only date other regular shavers. Thinking through the possible relationships between gender, politics, and shaving led that student to realize that there were many plausible answers to her questions about how gender affects a person\u2019s feelings about body hair. Because gender doesn\u2019t exist in a vacuum she, wisely, felt that she needed to take into account other characteristics that work together with gender to shape people\u2019s behaviors, likes, and dislikes. By doing this, the student took into account the third feature of a good research question: She considered relationships between several concepts. While she began with an interest in a single concept\u2014body hair\u2014by asking herself what other concepts (such as gender or political orientation) might be related to her original interest, she was able to form a question that considered the relationships among those concepts.<\/p>\r\n
In sum, a good research question generally has the following features:<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In short, you will struggle unless you are clear in your aims and clearly focus your research question. You could be the most eloquent writer in your class, or even in the world, but if the research question about which you are writing is unclear, your work will ultimately fall flat. The good news is that much of this text is dedicated to learning how to write, and then answer, a good research question.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Putting all this advice together, let\u2019s take a look at a few more examples of possible research questions and consider the relative strengths and weaknesses of each. While reading Table 3.1 below, keep in mind that I have only noted what I view to be the most relevant strengths and weaknesses of each question. Certainly, each question may have additional strengths and weaknesses not noted in the table. Also, it may interest you to know that the questions in Table 3.1 \u201cSample Sociological Research Questions: Strengths and Weaknesses\u201d all come from undergraduate sociology student projects that I have either advised in the course of teaching sociological research methods or have become familiar with from sitting on undergraduate thesis committees. The work by thesis students is cited.<\/p>\r\n[table id=3 print_description=true print_description_position=\"above\" \/]\r\n
Now that you have thought about topics that interest you and you\u2019ve learned how to frame those topics empirically, as social science, and as questions, you have probably come up with a few potential research questions\u2014questions to which you are dying to know the answers. However, even if you have identified the most brilliant research question ever, you are still not ready to begin conducting research. First, you\u2019ll need to think about the feasibility of your research question and to make a visit to your campus library.<\/p>","rendered":"
Now that you\u2019ve thought about what topics interest you and identified a topic that is both empirical and broadly concerned with the applied human sciences, you need to form a research question about that topic. [1] So what makes a good research question? First, it is generally written in the form of a question. To say that your research question is \u201cchild-free adults\u201d or \u201cstudents\u2019 knowledge about current events\u201d or \u201cmovies\u201d would not be correct. You need to frame a question about the topic that you wish to study. A good research question is also one that is well focused. Writing a well- focused question isn\u2019t really all that different from what the paparazzi do regularly. As a social scientist you need to be as clear and focused as those photographers who stalk Britney Spears to get that perfect shot of her while she waits in line at Starbucks. OK, maybe what we do as social scientists isn\u2019t exactly the same, but think about how the paparazzi get paid. They must take clear, focused photographs in order to get paid for what they do. Likewise, we will not hit the jackpot of having our research published, read, or respected by our peers if we are not clear and focused.<\/p>\n
In addition to being written in the form of a question and being well focused, a good research question is one that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. For example, if your interest is in gender norms, you could ask, \u201cDoes gender affect a person\u2019s shaving habits?\u201d but you will have nothing left to say once you discover your yes or no answer. Instead, why not ask, \u201cHow or to what extent does gender affect a person\u2019s feelings about body hair?\u201d By tweaking your question in this small way, you suddenly have a much more fascinating question and more to say as you attempt to answer it.<\/p>\n
A good research question should also have more than one plausible answer. The student who studied the relationship between gender and body hair preferences had a specific interest in the impact of gender, but she also knew that preferences might vary on other dimensions. For example, she knew from her own experience that her more politically conservative friends were more likely to shave every day and more likely to only date other regular shavers. Thinking through the possible relationships between gender, politics, and shaving led that student to realize that there were many plausible answers to her questions about how gender affects a person\u2019s feelings about body hair. Because gender doesn\u2019t exist in a vacuum she, wisely, felt that she needed to take into account other characteristics that work together with gender to shape people\u2019s behaviors, likes, and dislikes. By doing this, the student took into account the third feature of a good research question: She considered relationships between several concepts. While she began with an interest in a single concept\u2014body hair\u2014by asking herself what other concepts (such as gender or political orientation) might be related to her original interest, she was able to form a question that considered the relationships among those concepts.<\/p>\n
In sum, a good research question generally has the following features:<\/p>\n
In short, you will struggle unless you are clear in your aims and clearly focus your research question. You could be the most eloquent writer in your class, or even in the world, but if the research question about which you are writing is unclear, your work will ultimately fall flat. The good news is that much of this text is dedicated to learning how to write, and then answer, a good research question.<\/p>\n
Putting all this advice together, let\u2019s take a look at a few more examples of possible research questions and consider the relative strengths and weaknesses of each. While reading Table 3.1 below, keep in mind that I have only noted what I view to be the most relevant strengths and weaknesses of each question. Certainly, each question may have additional strengths and weaknesses not noted in the table. Also, it may interest you to know that the questions in Table 3.1 \u201cSample Sociological Research Questions: Strengths and Weaknesses\u201d all come from undergraduate sociology student projects that I have either advised in the course of teaching sociological research methods or have become familiar with from sitting on undergraduate thesis committees. The work by thesis students is cited.<\/p>\n
Table 3.1 Sample Research Questions: Strengths and Weaknesses<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now that you have thought about topics that interest you and you\u2019ve learned how to frame those topics empirically, as social science, and as questions, you have probably come up with a few potential research questions\u2014questions to which you are dying to know the answers. However, even if you have identified the most brilliant research question ever, you are still not ready to begin conducting research. First, you\u2019ll need to think about the feasibility of your research question and to make a visit to your campus library.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-138","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":94,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbooks.concordia.ca\/quantitativeresearch\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbooks.concordia.ca\/quantitativeresearch\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbooks.concordia.ca\/quantitativeresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbooks.concordia.ca\/quantitativeresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbooks.concordia.ca\/quantitativeresearch\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":481,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbooks.concordia.ca\/quantitativeresearch\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/138\/revisions\/481"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbooks.concordia.ca\/quantitativeresearch\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/94"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbooks.concordia.ca\/quantitativeresearch\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/138\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opentextbooks.concordia.ca\/quantitativeresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbooks.concordia.ca\/quantitativeresearch\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbooks.concordia.ca\/quantitativeresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opentextbooks.concordia.ca\/quantitativeresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
\n \nSample Question<\/th>\n Question's strengths<\/th>\n Question's weaknesses<\/th>\n Proposed alternative<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \n Do children\u2019s books teach us about gender norms in our society? <\/td>\n Written as a question.
\nFocused.<\/td>\nWritten as a yes\/no.<\/td>\n What (or how) do children\u2019s books teach us about gender norms in our society?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Why are some men such jerks?<\/td>\n Written as a question.
\nFocused.<\/td>\nLacks theoretical grounding.
\nBiased.<\/td>\nWho supports sexist attitudes and why?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Does sexual maturity change depending on where you\u2019re from? <\/td>\n Written as a question.<\/td>\n Unclear phrasing.
\nWritten as a yes\/no.<\/td>\nHow does knowledge about sex vary across different geographical regions?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n What is sex?<\/td>\n Written as a question.<\/td>\n Too broadly focused.
\nNot clear whether question is social scientific.
\nDoes not consider relationships among concepts.<\/td>\nHow do students' definitions of sex change as they age?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Do social settings and peers and where you live influence an university student\u2019s exercise and eating habits?<\/td>\n Written as a question.
\nConsiders relationships among multiple concepts.<\/td>\nLacks clarity.
\nUnfocused.
\nWritten as a yes\/no.<\/td>\nHow does social setting influence a person's engagement in healthy behaviors?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n What causes people to ignore someone in need of assistance?<\/td>\n Written as a question.
\nSocially relevant.<\/td>\n<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n How do workers cope with short-term unemployment?<\/td>\n Written as a question.
\nFocused.
\nMore than one plausible answer.<\/td>\n<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Are motivations to volunteer gendered?<\/td>\n Written as a question.
\nSocially relevant.
\nMore than one plausible answer.<\/td>\n<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n How have representations gender in video games changed over time? <\/td>\n Written as a question.
\nConsiders relationships among multiple concepts.<\/td>\n<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n