Developing a research question

[Music] welcome to this video on developing a research question presented by academic skills at the University of Melbourne the research question is fundamental and a lot of people consider it to be the most important component of research why why do you think that is everything is focused on answering the research question when you're thinking about your research project your research question consider a few questions that you can answer for yourself the primary one is what do I want to know what am i aiming to find out are there any interesting points that come out of the data that you might have or that you're going to get do you understand that data can it provide answers to what you want to know will you be able to question the data pull things out fundamentally ask yourself can I answer the question the research question needs to summarize the significant issue that the research intends to investigate so what are the features of a good research question primarily it needs to be relevant it has to be an issue covered by the research it's manageable keep it within scope don't go too large but you can't be too small either we'll talk more about this is it specific is it measurable can you investigate it it has to be clear and simple in the sense that the readers who are engaging with the research question and the research itself need to understand what you're hoping to find out is it interesting again in the sense that any readers who are engaging with this will be interested in that research it's a substantial question is it legitimate is it a question not a statement and perhaps fundamentally can you actually provide an answer to that research question so again is it investigate able so how do I formulate one well identify the broader subject of interest that it is arising out of the data if you have the day if it's before the data stick with the broader subject of interest again so for example it might be something like cyberbullying research that general topic to find out what literature and what data exists already then what you want to do is to start narrowing the topic by asking how and why questions around this topic so for example why is cyberbullying becoming more prevalent now what do you notice about that question I'm hoping you're thinking it's still pretty wide so what we want to do is to get into something more specific something more measurable something like that what are the social factors leading to the increasing prevalence of cyberbullying in young Australians it's quite specific it's measurable we're looking at factors that we can investigate so a tip make it open-ended enough so it can't just be answered by a simple yes-or-no or a simple number some elements to consider the construct what's the idea that you're investigating get beyond the data don't just rely on the data it needs to extend it application is the question broad enough to show relevance within your field okay so it's not too narrow not too specific just to be of interest or relevance to you and a couple of other people but to the broader academic area and it speaks to the so what factor when you're looking at this you might ask yourself so what and what you're asking there is why is this important why do I need to investigate this try to have an answer for that so what's some of the sample research question language that you might use it's grounded in the question forms you're going to form the question around the words like what how why does and here are some sample questions on the screen in front of you addressing the so what factor at some point you'll be asking yourself or using the language which says this shows that why is it important this is important because this is significant because this points to this suggests that and that type of language helps you get to the so what factor behind this that why is this important okay interpretive so what language should always appear somewhere in academic discourse whether it's at the point where you're questioning yourself why it's important or when you're doing the writing explaining the rationale for why you're doing that research or what it means so a process determine the broad topic we've talked about that draft a research question then a crucial point out of the research question form a purpose statement which says why we're investigating this it'll be something like the purpose of this study is to investigate determine establish and so on it's a purpose statement and then out of the purpose statement you might need to revise your research question okay let's make one I hope you're familiar with the classic English language joke of wider the chicken cross the road because that's what we're looking at so a broad topic chickens crossing roads why why do chickens cross roads purpose statement the purpose of this study is to determine the causes of why chickens cross roads research question version one why did the chicken cross the road what do you think of this question two broad correct two broad not specific enough it relies on qualitative data which may not be attainable because chickens don't interview well as we we know version two how many chickens crossed Gratton Street in the period January to July is this better it is but it's gone the other way it's too specific it's closed information we can answer this with this statistic a number very quickly let's try again what are some of the environmental factors that occurred in Parkville between January and July that would cause chickens to cross Brightman Street we're looking at factors for looking at causal factors that occurred in the area in a specific time period we're starting to get specific but we're also at the ywír chickens doing this but we can measure it we can investigate it it gets to the Y and investigates the purpose statement of determining why chickens cross roads okay I hope you get the idea about the process the language the the need to be specific the need to be relevant here are some resources you can click on those URLs and go to a series of similar type of information which will give you a little bit more idea around developing a research question good luck with developing your research question

Channel: Academic Skills, The University of Melbourne

Views: 137,117

Rating: 4.9390521 out of 5

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Id: mrWeLJZydUU

Length: 7min 23sec (443 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 14 2018