‘What makes a good research question?’ is a question posed to us in LRNT 522. After researching the topic, I have chosen to highlight a couple of important considerations below.
A good research question should be:
- Ethical. It is essential to minimize harm to the participants while upholding confidentiality and providing the right to withdraw.
- Relevant. The question should have a clear purpose within the field of study, be of intellectual or academic interest to others, and address a current issue(s) (Ratan et al., 2019).
According to Mattick et al. (2018), “a good research question will send the researcher on a quest to identify or collect data that can be analyzed and interpreted, such that it provides new insights” (para. 3).
References
Mattick, K., Johnston, J., & de la Croix, A. (2018). How to…write a good research question. The Clinical Teacher, 15(2), 104–108. https://doi.org/10.1111/tct.12776
Ratan, S. K., Anand, T., & Ratan, J. (2019). Formulation of research question – Stepwise approach. Journal of Indian Association of Pediatric Surgeons, 24(1), 15–20. https://doi.org/10.4103/jiaps.JIAPS_76_18
I liked how you added ethics as an important criteria of a research question. I had not thought about that one. It is so important that we take into account how our research may affect our research subjects.
Thanks Michael, I do think ethical consideration is probably the most important aspect of developing a research question. If a research question has the potential to result in unethical practice in research, it is unlikely to be approved to advance anyway.
Leah
Thanks for the additional information and for the additional references.
I like the idea of going on a “quest”, as put forth by Mattick et al. (2018). Seeing the word now, has me realizing the different words where “quest” is contained within. Lol, my word-nerd/song lyrics brain then took over and came up with this definition for quest: a sequestered inquest of questions and questioning.
And of course, the words can be shuffled to create similar or other meanings.
It would have been fun to add “equestrian” to the mix, but I was not able to figure out how, without it coming across as stilted or forced.
This is great Bart – love your creativity! It’s funny because my daughter rides horses and we were looking at a horse for a half purchase just this weekend. Neither my husband nor I grew up around horses so we certainly had lots of questions about our potential equestrian purchase! 😉