Module 03 · 3 lessons

Research questions

Free — no account needed to read

A good question does most of the work of the project before the project starts.

Why it matters

The single highest-leverage hour in any research project is the one spent turning a topic into a question, because everything downstream — what to search, what counts as relevant, what would answer it — is decided by that sentence.

What it teaches

• Topic, problem, question, objectives, hypothesis — and how they differ
• Turning a broad question into an answerable one
• Variables, constructs and operational definitions
• Scope, delimitations and constraints
• When a question is too narrow

When you reach for it

• You have a topic and no idea where to start
• Your searches return either nothing or everything
• A supervisor, mentor or colleague says your question is "too broad"

The common misreading

That a narrower question is always a better one. A question can be narrowed until it is trivial — the target is answerable and worth answering, not small.

What this module will not tell you

This module will not tell you whether your question is original. Originality is a fact about a literature, which you can only establish by searching it — module 04 is where that starts.

Think first

"Why are people addicted to social media?" Somebody hands you this as their dissertation question. What is the first thing you would ask them?

Write the question your current project is asking, in one sentence, without looking at any notes. Then count how many different studies could legitimately claim to answer it.

The lessons

• Topic, problem, question, objectives, hypothesis — You are not ready to search until you can write objectives, and you cannot write objectives until the question names who and what. (8 min)
• Narrowing: who, what, compared with what, when — Narrow by naming who, what, against what, and when — then check that the result still matters. (8 min)
• Constructs, variables and operational definitions — Name what you will record, and you have turned an argument about ideas into something checkable. (8 min)

Practise it: Take one question down the ladder

Work one question of your own from topic to hypothesis, and operationalise its central construct.

1. Write your topic in three words.
2. Write the problem: what is unknown, and why that matters to somebody.
3. Write the question, naming who, what, compared with what, and when.
4. Write three objectives, each something you could put in a calendar.
5. Name the central construct and write one operational definition for it.
6. Say what kind of answer the question is asking for — how much, whether, why, or how experienced — and whether that matches what you can actually collect.

What a considered answer tends to contain (not a mark scheme): A considered answer has a question you could hand to a stranger who would then search for roughly the same things you would, and an operational definition specific enough to argue with.

Use it on real work: Rewrite your real project's question

Open a project you are actually working on and rewrite its research question using the four elements.

1. Copy the current question somewhere before you change it — you will want to compare.
2. Rewrite it with who, what, compared with what, and when.
3. Write the operational definition of the main construct into the project brief.
4. Run one search with the old question's terms and one with the new, and compare what comes back.
5. Record what changed in the results.

Reflect

What was your question actually asking for that your available evidence could never have given you?