{"id":2199,"date":"2017-04-03T08:30:50","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T14:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/?p=2199"},"modified":"2018-02-22T14:19:26","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T20:19:26","slug":"asking-the-right-research-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/asking-the-right-research-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Asking the right research questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Samantha Bronkar<\/p>\n<p>If you receive a research paper assignment and are<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8211;&nbsp; <strong>not sure where to start <\/strong>and\/or<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8211;&nbsp; <strong>unfamiliar<\/strong> with the topic,<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">you can start by asking questions!<\/p>\n<p>Here are a few I find helpful to this process:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why ask a question instead of going right for the thesis?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A research question provides clarity for your searches.<\/li>\n<li>Unlike a research <em>topic<\/em>, a research <em>question<\/em> lets you to explore what you are interested in even if you don\u2019t know what you are looking for.<\/li>\n<li>Asking a question takes the pressure off because you don\u2019t need to know the answers right away.<\/li>\n<li>It comes from <em>your&nbsp;<\/em>interest.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>How do I develop a research question?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Consider the <strong>scope <\/strong>of your paper: Is it a two-page reflection? or a ten-page analysis?<\/li>\n<li>Consider<strong> research: <\/strong>Do I need to look at outside sources to answer this question? If so, how many?<\/li>\n<li>Consider <strong>breadth<\/strong>: Are these questions too broad or too narrow?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>How do I know if questions are too broad?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The question addresses too many sub-topics at once.<\/li>\n<li>You cannot answer the question fully, even after several research attempts.<\/li>\n<li>e., What happened during the Middle Ages?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>How do I know if questions are too narrow?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The question only addresses one date, location, person, idea.<\/li>\n<li>You can answer the question with a simple search.<\/li>\n<li>e., When did the Harlem Renaissance occur?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Here is an example:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If your assignment is to write a four to six-page paper on some aspect of William Wordsworth\u2019s poetry, you could ask:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>How did William Wordsworth\u2019s relationship with his sister, Dorothy, influence his writing?<\/li>\n<li>How did the [social or political] context of Wordsworth\u2019s time influence his writing?<\/li>\n<li>How did the location of Wordsworth\u2019s home influence his writing?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key concepts to remember:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Consider these ideas the next time you ask a question:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Scope<\/li>\n<li>Research<\/li>\n<li>Breadth<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Samantha Bronkar is a senior on the softball team and will be participating in the England Abroad in fall 2017.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Samantha Bronkar If you receive a research paper assignment and are &#8211;&nbsp; not sure where to start and\/or &#8211;&nbsp; unfamiliar with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,109],"tags":[42,44],"class_list":["post-2199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-getting-started","category-writeherewritenowwriteon","tag-research","tag-writing-process"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5DI6r-zt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2199"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2475,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199\/revisions\/2475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}