{"id":217,"date":"2018-07-07T15:55:39","date_gmt":"2018-07-07T22:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0064\/?p=217"},"modified":"2018-07-07T18:50:10","modified_gmt":"2018-07-08T01:50:10","slug":"what-makes-a-good-research-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0064\/what-makes-a-good-research-question\/","title":{"rendered":"What Makes a Good Research Question?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coming up with a good research question can be a daunting task if you don\u2019t know your focus. I had a colleague who was working on a thesis where her question was not specific enough. After she collected data, she realized that her project evolved into a topic that she did not want to address; therefore, she unfortunately had to start the whole process over. Byrne (2017) suggests that \u201cresearchers often develop a set of questions at the end of their literature review and add\/amend\/delete them as they do the actual research and engage with the field and their own research materials\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA research question should be: (1) clear and specific, (2) state the focus of investigation in the research, and (3) not be answerable with a yes\/no response\u201d (Royal Roads University Writing Centre, n.d., para.7).<\/span><\/p>\n

When I did a Google search, I found a great mnemonic which describes the criteria of a good research question, FINER<\/strong>. Hulley, Cummings, Browner, Grady, Newman and Thomas (2007) describes FINER<\/strong> as the following:<\/span><\/p>\n

Feasible –\u00a0<\/strong>Adequate number of subjects, adequate technical expertise, affordable in time and money, and manageable in scope.<\/span><\/p>\n

Interesting –\u00a0<\/strong>Getting the answer intrigues the investigator and her friends.<\/span><\/p>\n

Novel –\u00a0<\/strong>Confirms, refutes or extends previous findings and provides new findings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ethical –\u00a0<\/strong>Amenable to a study that institutional review board will approve.<\/span><\/p>\n

Relevant –\u00a0<\/strong>To scientific knowledge, to clinical and health policy, and to future research.<\/span><\/p>\n

I hope to keep all this in mind when it is time to develop a strong thesis statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

References<\/span><\/p>\n

Byrne, D. (2017). Developing a Researchable Question. Sage Publications. Retrieved from http:\/\/methods.sagepub.com.ezproxy.royalroads.ca\/project-planner\/developing-a-researchable-question<\/span><\/p>\n

Hulley, S.B., Cummings, S.R., Browner, W.S., Grady, D.G., & Newman, T.B. (2007). Designing Critical Research, 3, <\/em>20. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.med.mcgill.ca\/epidemiology\/courses\/EPIB660\/2010\/EPIB%20660%20-%202010-%20session%202%20-%20pdf%201.pdf<\/span><\/p>\n

Thesis statements\/Research questions\/Problem statements. (n.d.). In Royal Roads Library Writing Centre<\/em>. Retrieved from http:\/\/library.royalroads.ca\/writing-centre\/writing\/structure\/thesis-statements<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coming up with a good research question can be a daunting task if you don\u2019t know your focus. I had a colleague who was working on a thesis where her question was not specific enough. After she collected data, she realized that her project evolved into a topic that she did not want to address; … Continue reading What Makes a Good Research Question?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0064\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0064\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0064\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0064\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0064\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0064\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0064\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions\/230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0064\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0064\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0064\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}