When you decide on a research question for your work, it’s best to run it by your instructor.
For instance, great topics for a high school paper might include family dynamics during the civil war, body image among teens, or type 2 diabetes. If you’re doing a college-level project, a good topic might be the environment’s influence on human development, cultural influences on a poet’s work, or the ethics of technological advancements. In some cases, your topic may be provided to you, such as when you’re writing a paper for a class. You can still use the same process for narrowing your topic and selecting a research question.
The purpose of this research is to learn more, not gather sources. That means it’s okay to check sites like Wikipedia, which aren’t typically considered reliable sources.
What, why, and how questions make the best research questions. Write down the first questions that come to mind without worrying if they’ll make a good research question. You can always revise your question later to make it better. For example, let’s say you chose body image among teens as your topic. You might write questions like, “How does social media impact body image?” “How does the amount of time spent on Instagram relate to a teen’s sense of self-worth?” “Are peers or family members a bigger influence on body image in teens?” and “What factors make teens more likely to have a poor body image?” Similarly, you might write a college paper about the ethics of technological advancements. Questions you might ask include, “How is social media altering the culture of society?” “How does screen time alter the brain’s neural processing?” and “How might current advancements affect society over the next 25 years?”
As an example, the question “What jobs will humans lose to robots over the next 50 years?” may be too difficult to answer. Instead, you might ask, “How has the field of robotics changed the manufacturing industry?”
Is this question clear enough to guide my research? Is this question specific? Does this question allow for research and analysis? Can I answer this question based on current research? If so, could I easily find the answer by looking at basic reference works (which means the question is too easy to answer), or will it require more in-depth analysis using multiple sources? Has this question already been answered? Can I answer the question in an objective manner, based on evidence? Can I answer this question in the time I have allotted for this project?
“What factors cause teens to have poor body image?” is better stated “What environmental and social factors contribute to poor body image in teens?” “How does T. S. Elliot use symbolism?” becomes “Why does T. S. Elliot use tea as a symbol in ‘The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock?’” “What happened to family dynamics during the civil war?” can be narrowed to “How did the fracturing of families during the civil war affect society?” “How does screen time alter the brain’s neural processing?” might be narrowed to “How does spending 2 hours a day on social media impact neural processing in preteens?”
For instance, questions like, “What season of the year do parrots typically breed?” or “What era did William Wordsworth write?” are not great research questions because they are too easy to answer. The research question “Are peers or family members a bigger influence on body image in teens?” is arguable because you could make a case for either peers or family members having a greater influence on teenagers. Similarly, “Why does T. S. Elliot use tea as a symbol in ‘The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock?’” is arguable because different critics may have varying interpretations of the poem. As another example, “How does spending 2 hours a day on social media impact neural processing in preteens?” is debatable because you can focus on different effects. It’s possible to interpret these effects differently, depending on your stance on the issue.
“What environmental factors cause birds to move nests?” “What changes to the habitat can encourage parrots to mate?” “What political conditions contributed to the start of the War of 1812?” “What symbols does T. S. Elliot use in ‘The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock?’”
“If two different plants are both provided the same amount of sunlight and fertilizer, will they grow at the same rate?” “If two identical solutions are exposed to different quantities of an element, will they show equal or different reactions?” “If two test subjects are asked to perform a task alone and then together, how will collaboration affect their outcome?”
“Will the introduction of a new plant to a biodome affect the ecosystem?” “Does changing team assignments cause workers to lose morale?” “Do metered ramps on highways change driver behavior?”
