In the past few pages, we’ve claimed that all research begins with questions. By a kind of chicken-and-egg logic, though, you might wonder where the research questions come from. As we’ve seen, the initial impulse for the question tends to come from our interests and experience.

Research questions aren’t quite the same as everyday questions, however. To be an effective research question, a question has to have a few special qualities.

1. A research question is a question that CAN be answered in an objective way, at least partially and at least for now.
   • Questions that are purely values-based (such as “Should assisted suicide be legal?”) cannot be answered objectively because the answer varies depending on one’s values.  Be wary of questions that include “should” or “ought” because those words often (although not always) indicate a values-based question. However, note that most values-based questions can be turned into research questions by judicious reframing.  For instance, you could reframe “Should assisted suicide be legal?” as “What are the ethical implications of legalizing assisted suicide?”  Using a “what are” frame turns a values-based question into a legitimate research question by moving it out of the world of debate and into the world of investigation.
2. A good research question is arguable.
   • Ask yourself: could your research question be answered in a number of ways, or it it a question with only one answer? A question like “Are video games popular?” can really only be answered “yes,” so it should be eliminated right off the bat. If your research question seems like it has a consensus answer, it might be a sub-ideal question.
3. A good research question is one that can be answered using information that already exists or that can be collected.
   • The question, “Does carbon-based life exist outside of Earth’s solar system?” is a perfectly good research question in the sense that it is not values-based and therefore could be answered in an objective way, IF it were possible to collect data about the presence of life outside of Earth’s solar system.  That is not yet possible with current technology; therefore, this is not (yet) a research question because it’s not (now) possible to obtain the data that would be needed to answer it. We could reframe this as “How could we know if carbon-based life exists outside of Earth’s solar system?” and it becomes a potential research question investigating how scientists look for extraterrestrial life.
   • Note: A term paper is meant to demonstrate your grasp of an issue and ability to include different points of view by drawing on first and second-hand sources. It’s important to check that the research question you pose will allow you to find enough sources to cite, reference, and engage in discussion.
4. A good research question is a question that hasn’t already been answered, or hasn’t been answered completely, or hasn’t been answered for your specific context.
   • If the answer to the question is readily available in a good encyclopedia, textbook, or reference book, then it is a homework question, not a research question. It was probably a research question in the past, but if the answer is so thoroughly known that you can easily look it up and find it, then it is no longer an open question. However, it is important to remember that as new information becomes available, homework questions can sometimes be reopened as research questions.  Equally important, a question may have been answered for one population or circumstance, but not for all populations or all circumstances.
5. A good research question is specific.
   • You want your question to be focused on a specific sector, population, social trend, legislation, program, approach or behavior, in order to effectively write about the issue in a term paper. The more narrow the topic, the more room there is to contextualize it, examine different perspectives, present an argument, and defend a thesis.
6. A good research question can be stated clearly and directly.
   • Avoid multi-part questions, and find simple, specific language.

Research Questions vs. Regular Questions

Most of us look for information to answer questions every day, and we often act on the answers to those questions. Are research questions any different from most of the questions for which we seek information? Yes.

See how they’re different by looking over the examples of both kinds below and answering questions about them in the next activity.

Research Questions in the Wild

Usually, authors don’t reveal their research questions. Occasionally, however, you’ll see the original research questions in an academic essay. Here are a few examples of research questions from published academic essays:

From an essay about the character of Rue in The Hunger Games book and movie:

To support my analysis, I focused on the following research questions: 1. How is Rue characterized in the first Hunger Games novel? 2. How does the characterization of Rue defy stereotypical portrayals of Black girls? 3. What are the implications of critically examining sites of alterity in texts? (Toliver 5)

As I considered the landmark work of Britton, the more recent work of [Writing Across the Curriculum] ethnographers, the scholarship in genre and discourse studies, and my own initial reading of the assignments in my collection, I shaped a number of research questions:
• What purposes are students asked to write for in different disciplines?
• What audiences are students asked to address? What role are they asked to play as writers? What role do instructors play as audience?
• What genres are students asked to write in? How do these genres vary from discipline to discipline and instructor to instructor? What is the rhetorical context for these genres?
• How do academic discourse communities differ? Is there a generalized definition of academic discourse that crosses disciplines? (Melzer 14)

Do ‘Fast and Furious’ Movies Cause a Rise in Speeding? (Jena et. al.)