After a short break, I am now into the next course of the Royal Roads MALAT program, in which we take a deep dive into critical reading and writing. This is unfamiliar territory to me; it is awkward and messy but I am learning a lot.
The foundation of critical reading and writing is a good research question. This sets the tone and direction for everything that follows, so solidly establishing this starting point is important. So, what makes a good research question? I think it is the same things that make a good conversation:
- Clarity and focus
- Room for debate
I will briefly expand on these.
Clarity and Focus
“What are we talking about?”
Author Tyler Hellard (2016) wrote a fun article about asking this simple question to refocus a conversation that is experiencing drift. The idea also applies well to critical reading and writing. A clear and focused research question should help maintain alignment to the goal of your work and keep you on track. Dahlberg & McCaig (2010) state that a good research question explains what your research will reveal. If we remember that, and keep our work anchored to it, our reader will never need to wonder, “What are they talking about?”
Room for Debate
A good reseach question is thought provoking. It should not be too easy to answer, nor should it be too difficult to answer. Landing in the middle, adjacent to different possibilities is a good target. A good research question should be not only clear and focused, but open-ended enough to allow for exploration and discussion from multiple perspectives (Booth et al., 2008). This positions our critical reading and writing for healthy debate: exploring and considering multiple perspectives while helping to maintain impartiality.
Conclusion
Thinking about what makes a good research question also makes me think about how this applies to other areas of my life: conversations, debates, arguments, even songwriting. I am reminded of how easy it is to veer off onto a tangent in a conversation—only to eventually ask, “What was I saying?” Maintaining clarify and focus while keeping an open mind is an active process that helps us in a variety contexts.
My perspective may change as I continue through the program. Even now, I wonder about examining how exploration or curiosity fit into the title question. Come to think of it, I seem to be exploring and considering multiple perspectives even as I wrap this up, so maybe this is exactly how things typicallly unfold.
References
Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., & Williams, J. M. (2008). The Craft of Research (3rd ed.). University of Chicago Press.
Dahlberg, L., & McCaig, C. (2010). Practical Research and Evaluation: A Start-to-Finish Guide for Practitioners. SAGE Publications.
Hellard, T. (2016, November 9). What the fuck are you talking about? Louder Than Ten: Coax. https://louderthanten.com/coax/what-the-fuck-are-you-talking-about
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