DEVELOPING A RESEARCH QUESTION

Sample Activities:

Activity #1

Teacher:  Manal Abbas

Umbrella topic: Addiction

DEVELOPING A RESEARCH QUESTION

1. Why?

It's absolutely necessary to develop a research question that you're interested in or care about in order to focus your research and your project.

2. How?

CHOOSE A QUESTION THAT IS NEITHER TOO BROAD NOR TOO NARROW.

For example:

If you choose drug addiction (a topic that can be researched), you might ask the following questions:

a. What is the 1994 rate of drug addiction among teenagers in Israel?

b. What can we do to reduce drug addiction in Israel?

c. How education plays a role in reducing drug addiction among teenagers in Israel?

Exercise 1:. Discuss with your partner which question is appropriate to be a research question and why? Use the evaluation form.

3. EVALUATE YOUR OWN RESEARCH QUESTION

8 questions to evaluate the quality of your research questions

Group's evaluation	What I think?	Questions
		1. Does the question deal with a topic or issue that interest me enough to spark my own thoughts and opinions?
		2. Is the question easily and fully researchable?
		3. What type of information do I need to answer the research question?
		4. Is the range of this information reasonable?
		5. Given the type and scope of the information that I need, is my question too broad, too narrow, or o.k.?
		6. What sources will have the type of information that I need to answer the research question (journals, books, internet resources, people to interview)?
		7. Can I access these sources?
		8. Given my answers to the above questions, do I have a good quality research question that I actually will be able to answer by doing research?

Adapted from : http://www.esc.edu/htmlpages/writerold/menus.htm