Academic Methodologies

Prof. Dr. Lena Gieseke | l.gieseke@filmuniversitaet.de | Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF

Chapter - Finding a Research Question

Topics

  • Developing a research question

Learning Objectives

  • Know what makes a research question strong and come up with one.

The Research Question

A research question is the question that a research project sets out to answer.

The research question is also the question why you should delight the world with another pile of printed paper. [6]

A good research question is essential to guide your research paper, project or thesis. It pinpoints exactly what you want to find out and gives your work a clear focus and purpose. Depending on the type of project, you should formulate one (short paper) to three research (dissertation) questions. For now, let’s assume, we are looking for one research question. Of course the questions themselves can vary in complexity and their specific formulation depend on the research discipline. By the end of your work, the formulated research questions must be fully answered.

Also, depending on the type or project, research questions are specifically listed or not. In theses, you usually do list your research questions, followed by explaining your approach for answering the questions. In computer science papers you normally do not list the research questions separately but you directly list your found results as contributions in the introduction of your paper. We will come back to this topic in the chapter about how to write a paper.

Even if you do not specifically list your research question in paper, you should always start your project with formulating strong research questions. Overall a research question should ideally be

  • focused on a single problem,
  • as specific and narrow as possible,
  • complex enough to develop the answer over the space of a paper or thesis,
  • feasible to answer within the time-frame and practical constraints given.


[Chad Flinn]


[Indiana Wesleyan Uni]

For finding first ideas, you can think in the direction of:

  • Description
    • What is the case?
    • What does reality look like?
    • What is…like?
  • Explanation
    • Cause-effect relationship: What are the consequences of an action?
    • Why do… differ?
    • Why … changed …?
  • Creation
    • Which measures are useful to solve a particular problem?
    • How can we…?
    • What strategies can…?
  • Criticism/Evaluation
    • How can one condition be assessed in the light of specific criteria?
    • How can … be assessed in the light of …?
    • Are… more satisfied after…?
  • Outlook
    • What will happen in the future?
    • What kind of changes are to be expected?
    • How will … change?

[5]

The way you formulate your specific question then depends on what your research aims to achieve as already indicated in the list above. Based on your research question you chose a methodology, meaning an overall approach to answer your question reasonably. Next, you need to narrow your research aims and make them specific.

Research aims Research question formulations
Describing and exploring What are the characteristics of X?
  How has X changed over time?
  What are the main factors in X?
  How does X experience Y?
  How has X dealt with Y?
Explaining and testing What is the relationship between X and Y?
  What is the role of X in Y?
  What is the impact of X on Y?
  How does X influence Y?
  What are the causes of X?
Evaluating and acting What are the advantages and disadvantages of X?
  How effective is X?
  How can X be achieved?
  What strategies improve X?
  How can X be used in Y?

Depending on the scope of your research, you may identify just one question or several. You may also have one primary research question and several secondary questions or sub-questions that relate to the same problem.

Example research problem: The teachers at school X do not have the skills to recognize or properly guide gifted children in the classroom.
Example research question: What practical techniques can teachers at school X use to identify and guide gifted children?

Example research problem: Under-30s increasingly engage in the “gig economy” instead of traditional full-time employment, but there is little research into young people’s experiences of this type of work.
Example research question: What are the main factors that influence young people’s decisions to engage in the gig economy? What do workers perceive as its advantages and disadvantages? Do age and education level have an effect on how people experience this type of work?

[3]

Keep in mind that problem, research question, and aim are separate things!


[bachelorprint]

Also, there is a difference between your overall research question and formulating a hypothesis. The research question is derived from the aim of your project and guides the story line of the project. The hypothesis is a preliminary answer to your research question and with that an educated prediction about what you will find during your research. Not all disciplines require the use of a hypothesis, it is mostly relevant in experimental or correlational research. In such projects the hypothesis will be supported or contradicted with the collection and analysis of data.

[5]

What Makes A Strong Research Question?

Research questions anchor your whole project, so it’s important to spend some time refining them. The following exemplary collection of criteria might help you to evaluate the strength of your research question.

  • Focuses on a single topic and problem
    • Your central research question should follow from your research problem to keep your work focused. If you have multiple questions, they should all clearly relate to this central aim.
  • Answerable using primary or secondary data
    • You must be able to find an answer by collecting quantitative and/or qualitative data, or by reading scholarly sources on the topic to develop an argument. If such data is impossible to access, you will have to rethink your question and ask something more concrete.
  • Does not ask for a subjective value judgement
    • Avoid subjective words like good, bad, better and worse, as these do not give clear criteria for answering the question. If your question is evaluating something, use terms with more measurable definitions.
    • Weak: Is X or Y a better policy?
    • Stronger: How much are X and Y policies reducing rates of Z?

Feasible and Specific

  • Answerable within practical constraints
    • Make sure you have enough time and resources to do the research required to answer the question. If you think you might struggle to gain access to enough data, consider narrowing down the question to be more specific.
  • Uses specific, well-defined concepts
    • All the terms you use in the research question should have clear meanings. Avoid vague language and broad ideas, and be clear about what, who, where and when your question addresses.
    • Weak: What effect does social media have on people’s minds?
    • Stronger: What effect does daily use of Twitter have on the attention span of under-16s?
  • Does not ask for a conclusive solution, policy, or course of action
    • Research is about informing, not instructing. Even if your project is focused on a practical problem, it should aim to improve understanding and suggest possibilities rather than asking for a ready-made solution.
    • Weak: What should the government do about low voter turnout?
    • Stronger: What are effective communication strategies for increasing voter turnout among under-30s?

Complex and Arguable

  • Cannot be answered with yes or no
    • Closed yes/no questions are too simple to work as good research questions as they usually don’t provide enough scope for investigation and discussion.
    • Weak: Has there been an increase in homelessness in the UK in the past ten years?
    • Stronger: How have patterns of homelessness in the UK changed over the past ten years?
  • Cannot be answered with easily found facts and figures
    • If you can answer the question through a Google search or by reading a single book or article, it is probably not complex enough.
  • Provides scope for debate and deliberation
    • The answer to the question should not just be a simple statement of fact: there needs to be space for you to discuss what you found. This is especially important in an essay or research paper, where the answer to your question often takes the form of an argumentative statement.

Relevant and Original

  • Addresses a problem relevant to your field or discipline
    • The research question should be developed based on initial reading around your topic, and it should focus on addressing a problem or gap in the existing knowledge.
  • Contributes to a topical social or academic debate
    • The question should aim to contribute to an existing debate — ideally one that is current in your field or in society at large. It should produce knowledge that future researchers or practitioners can build on.
  • Has not already been answered
    • You don’t have to ask something groundbreaking that nobody has ever thought of before, but the question should have some aspect of originality (for example, by focusing on a specific location or taking a new angle on a long-running debate).

[3]

Examples

Choose the most researchable question:

  1. Does the US or the UK have a better healthcare system?
  2. How do the US and the UK compare in health outcomes and patient satisfaction among low-income people with chronic illnesses?
  3. Should the US switch to single-payer healthcare?

Choose the research question that is most feasible in a limited time frame:

  1. How can drunk driving be prevented?
  2. What effect do different laws have on the number of people who drive after drinking in European countries?
  3. How effective is current UK legislation aimed at preventing alcohol-related car fatalities?

Choose the question that is complex enough for a research project:

  1. What are the similarities and differences in the experiences of recent Turkish, Polish and Syrian immigrants in Berlin?
  2. Where do the majority of immigrants to Germany come from?
  3. Do Polish immigrants in western Europe face discrimination?

Choose the most original research question:

  1. What are the main themes of Shakespeare’s Othello?
  2. How is race represented in Shakespeare’s Othello?
  3. How have modern adaptations of Othello dealt with the theme of racism through casting, staging and allusion to contemporary events?

[3]

Answers

  1. Question 2: It’s a good comparative question, using clearly defined terms and focusing on a specific population that can be studied using qualitative or quantitative methods.
  2. Question 3: This is a very specific question, focused on a single location and time period, that could feasibly be answered in the space of a research project.
  3. Question 1: This comparative question is complex enough for an in-depth research project. It requires data collection and detailed discussion of the results to provide an answer.
  4. Question 3: The question takes a specific angle with scope to make an original argument. It requires investigation, selection and discussion of various sources, and it indicates the criteria it will use to answer the question. It also has clearer relevance to current social concerns and debates.

[3]

Developing a Research Question

There are as many approaches to, and methods for, formulating research questions as the universe is vast. Just googling the topic will give you many valuable resources.

The Tripod

The tripod method is an exemplary method that Stefan recently picked up from Schreiben und Denken – sans souci at thr Universität Potsdam.

The tripod is a useful method to formulate your research topic, your specific research question or hypothesis, and your research goal in a coherent way.

You can use the tripod method…

  • to identify keywords in your topic and create a rough structure for your text
  • to write parts of the introduction of your text / to write parts of a research proposal
  • as a basis for a consultation with your supervisor

Round I – Complete the following three sentences:

  1. I am examining/working on/writing about …
    → What am I writing about? (name your research topic)
  2. … because I want to find out/understand/show …
    → What do I want to know? (name your research question/hypothesis)
  3. … in order to understand/determine/verify…
    → Why do I want to gain this knowledge? (state your research goal)

Example:

  1. I am writing about academic writing in English as a second language …
  2. … because I want to find out which difficulties may arise when writing academic texts in English as a second language …
  3. … in order to determine how to support students who have to write academic texts in English as their second language.

Round II – Reformulate what you have written:

  1. Rephrase 3. by finishing the following sentence: The goal of this module paper is to …
  2. Reformulate 2. as a question.
  3. Formulate a working hypothesis that might answer your research question.

Example:

  1. The goal of this module paper is to determine how to support students who are writing academic texts in English as their second language.
  2. Research question: Which difficulties may arise when writing academic texts in English as a second language?
  3. Working hypothesis: I hypothesize that the specific scientific style and argument structure of English academic texts pose problems to students.

After completing these two phases, you have formulated your research topic, a research goal, your specific research question and a working hypothesis. Afterward, you can keep working on these elements if you feel like they are not precise enough yet, or use them for structuring and writing your term paper.

[4]

References

[1] J. Lazar, J. Feng and H. Hochheiser, Research Methods in Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA, USA: Morgan Kaufmann, 2017.
[2] J. W. Creswell, D. Creswell, Research Design, 5th ed. Los Angeles, CA, USA: Sage Publications, 2018.
[3] Developing Strong Research Questions | Criteria and Examples
[4] Schreibtrainerausbildung Gabi Ruhmann, Schreibzentrum der Ruhruniversität Bochum, complemented by Sven Arnold, Arbeitskreis Schreibdidaktik Berlin-Brandenburg.
[5] Research Question – How to-Guide | Definition & Examples
[6] Winter, Wolfgang. 2005. Wissenschaftliche Arbeiten schreiben. 2nd Ed. Frankfurt: Redline Wirtschaft.

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