How to Write Good Research Questions That Will Yield Useful Results

Developing strong research questions is one of the most important parts of a research project. Your research questions will drive your methodology, analysis, and eventually your conclusions. Putting in the time upfront to craft thoughtful focused research questions will pay dividends later in your project. Follow these tips to write research questions that will steer your work productively.

What Makes a Good Research Question?

Before getting into specific methods for writing research questions, it’s helpful to understand the key criteria that make a research question effective. Good research questions are

• Clear and focused – The question should clearly articulate what needs to be researched without ambiguity. Avoid broad or vague phrases that can be interpreted different ways.

• Not too broad or too narrow – Research questions that are too broad try to cover too much ground and end up being impractical to fully address. Questions that are too narrow may limit the research excessively or not yield meaningful conclusions. Strike a balance that provides enough focus without being overly restrictive.

• Challenging but feasible – The research question should require analysis and interpretation to answer rather than simple fact finding. But it also needs to be realistic in scope for the time and resources available.

• Objective and analytic – Research questions should frame objective analysis of data and facts. Avoid questions that lead to mere description or subjective inferences.

• Drives relevant methodology – The question should lead logically into the methods needed to address it. Don’t develop research questions separate from methodology.

• Grounded in existing knowledge – Situate your research questions in the context of current knowledge in the area. Make sure you are clear about what is already known versus areas needing exploration.

Steps to Develop Effective Research Questions

With those principles in mind, follow these steps to develop strong research questions:

1. Review Existing Literature

Before drafting specific research questions, thoroughly review literature related to your topic. Understand the theoretical frameworks, major findings, limitations of current knowledge, open issues, and overall direction of scholarship in the area. Grounded in this understanding you can shape research questions that advance knowledge in meaningful ways.

2. Identify Your Research Purpose

Clearly define the purpose driving your research. Are you trying to 1) explore an understudied phenomenon, 2) resolve discrepancies in findings, 3) extend an existing theory to new contexts, or 4) propose a new theory or framework? Your purpose provides focus for crafting targeted research questions.

3. Brainstorm Broadly at First

Don’t get bogged down trying to write perfect research questions at the very start. Brainstorm a long list of broad question areas related to your research purpose. Include anything relevant that comes to mind without judging initial ideas. You can refine and cull questions later. Brainstorming sparks ideas you can shape into viable questions.

4. Narrow Your Focus

Review your broad question areas and select the most fruitful ones providing focus without being overly restrictive. For empirical research, choose factors or phenomena offering rich data sources. For theoretical projects, identify relationships or gaps in understanding that warrant exploration. Resist choosing overly generic or well-studied questions.

5. Drill Down to Specific Questions

Take your narrowed question areas and drill down to specific, well-defined research questions. Add detail and specificity to turn broad topics into researchable questions. Identify the particular factors, populations, interventions, relationships, or gaps you will actually examine empirically or theoretically.

6. Consider Viability of Methodology

As you draft specific research questions, continually consider what methodology would be needed to address them. This ensures your questions can realistically be researched with the data, analytical techniques, and resources you intend to employ. Tweak questions that don’t logically align with your methodology.

7. Refine Word Choice and Structure

Carefully refine the wording of your research questions to articulate precisely the issue being addressed. Eliminate ambiguity, qualify terms, and use words that convey analytical approach. Often restructuring questions can sharpen meaning. Use interrogative sentence structure clearly identifying the key factors or relationships being researched.

8. Check Alignment of Questions

Review your questions together as a set to ensure alignment and appropriate breadth. Determine if any significant gaps exist in the scope of inquiry. Also check that questions build logically upon prior ones without unneeded redundancy. Refine as needed.

9. Get Outside Feedback

Have colleagues or advisors who are familiar with your research purpose review your draft questions. Incorporate their feedback to improve clarity, precision, and alignment of the question set. Outside perspectives often identify weaknesses difficult to see as the author.

10. Finalize the Research Questions

With input from others, make final revisions to research questions to maximize their focus, analytic approach, methodological viability, and alignment as a coherent set driving the project. Avoid last minute changes later that take you off course.

Examples of Well-Written Research Questions

Below are examples of well-constructed research questions in both quantitative and qualitative domains:

• How does parental incarceration affect the mental health outcomes of children as they transition to adulthood?

• Is the recent increase in average global temperature within the range of natural climate variability over the past 1000 years?

• How can Bhaskar’s critical realist ontology inform mixed methods research design in sociology?

• What communication practices enable remote teams distributed across countries to overcome challenges of distance and cultural differences?

• Does the use of social media for civic engagement increase or decrease young adults’ participation in local political activism?

Notice that each question clearly specifies: 1) the factors or relationships being examined, 2) the study population and context, if applicable, 3) key variables being measured/assessed, and 4) the analytical purpose in a precise, unambiguous way. This level of precision provides direction for the methodology and data analysis.

Avoid Common Research Question Pitfalls

When writing research questions, be sure to avoid these common problems:

• Overly broad questions that cannot reasonably be addressed within the scope of the project

• Questions using vague concepts or variables that are not clearly defined

• Questions leading primarily to description rather than critical analysis

• Questions that are mainly opinion-based rather than empirical/theoretical

• Questions answered with pre-existing, well-known knowledge in the field

• Questions not culturally sensitive or that alienate marginalized groups

• Questions with inherent bias that skew toward expected or desired answers

• Questions with no clear alignment to chosen methodology and data sources

• Questions too similar or overlapping rather than complementary

With attentiveness and repeated refinement, you can develop research questions that will add valuable knowledge to your discipline and withstand scholarly critique. Follow these guidelines to craft research questions that excitement you and produce results that do the same for readers.