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PSC 520: Research Methods and Design: How to Make a Research Question

This guide is in support of the University of South Alabama's PSC 520 class.

What is a Research Question?

A research question sets the topic and scope for what you will investigate. A research question is a declaration of what resources will and will not be appropriate for your research. It is what your research proposal should be designed to investigate or answer.

You can expect to edit your research question as you do preliminary research to see what is already out there.

And example of a research question is:

How does the level of citizen participation in local government decision-making processes impact the effectiveness of public service delivery?

The research question above tells us:

  • We are looking at local government. We probably don't want to use any resources that were written about state or federal governments.
  • We are looking at citizen participation. We want to include resources that talk about citizens or regular people.
    • If we want to narrow the scope of our research question, we could specify a particular group of citizens, like women or African Americans.
  • We are looking at the effectiveness of public service delivery.
    • We want to focus on the results of the public service delivery. Any case studies or research articles that show the results of a local government project are likely helpful.
    • We need to decide how we will show if public service delivery has been effective. Do we care about wasteful spending? Do we care about percentage of targeted population served? We can look at what research has been done previously to decide what counts as "effective."

 

Structured Questions

You can create a research question, and explore a research topic, by answering structured questions related to an initial interesting topic. These questions help you choose a scope for your research question and will help you if you need to adjust your research question in the future. 

Questions are: 

  • Who? What populations or groups are involved in this concept? Are these people, plants, or animals? Who is affected by this phenomena? 
  • Where? Where does this event happen? Is there a specific physical environment? Do you want to limit your research to a state or a type of institution?
  • When? When does this event happen? Do you want to study a specific time frame? Do you have a decade you want to focus on? Is there a season or a time of day?
  • Why? Why does this event happen? What is an inciting factor? What effect or result do you want to focus on? Why does this topic matter to the population you are studying?
  • How? How does your topic happen? What factor do you want to focus on? How does your topic affect the world? 

Mind Map or Free Association

You can create a research question in a less structured way. 

A mind map is a visual and kinetic way of building a topic into a research question. You use post-it notes or scraps of paper to visually rearrange and connect your ideas. 

  1. Write out your initial topic idea and place it in the center of your workspace. 
  2. Write out every related concept or word on separate pieces of paper. 
  3. Place every idea down on your workspace. 
  4. Rearrange the pieces of paper to put similar ideas together.
  5. Take pictures of each grouping that inspires you. 
  6. Use the grouped ideas to create a question. 

Free association is an exercise that doesn't need to be visual. You allow your thoughts to flow freely without interruption. You later review your thoughts and select what could be used in your research question.

  • Speaking and listening. Use a recording device like your phone. Talk freely about your topic to yourself or to another person. Later, review your recording and create a research question out of your chat.
  • Writing and reading. Write on paper on electronically. Write freely without any revisions or editing. Later, review your text and create a research question.