To come up with a good research question for the 216 Final Project, try testing your potential questions against the following criteria:
- Is your research question clear?
- Does your research question present the problem with enough context such that the person reading it doesn’t need to go on an internet goose chase to understand it?
- Is your research question focused?
- Is your question direct, and address specific points? Is it appropriate for the scope of the project (i.e., timeline, skills, etc.)?
- Can the question be answered thoroughly through this project?
- Is your research question concise?
- Make sure the wording of your question is to the point – don’t be verbose here, as you’re laying out the groundwork for the rest of your project
- Is your research question complex?
- Similar to above, can it be answered thoroughly within the limits of the paper but also not be too simple (i.e., yes or no, questions that can be answered through a simple linear regression)?
- Does your question require a sophisticated analysis that is potentially beyond the scope of this class?
- Is your research question arguable?
- Can you take a stance and make an argument in your answer? Can your question be tested?
- Is your research question analytical?
- Does your research question result in a description of the problem or an analysis of the problem?
Examples of GOOD research questions:
- How do the percent of COVID deaths vary depending on the race of the person across the counties in the US? How does the percent of COVID deaths differ in Republican (red) and Democrat (blue) counties? How do percent of COVID deaths differ based on race and the political party at the county level?
- You don’t necessarily need to have multiple research questions (this depends on the depth of the analysis needed per question, how the questions are related, etc.), but these questions all fulfill each of the above criteria individually and work well together to meet the scope of the project.
- Is there a positive relationship between ______ and ______ in a country? Does a higher prevalence of _____ correlate with ________ in a country? Is there a negative relationship between ________ and _________ in a country?
- While this research question has several sub-questions, each question is essentially a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response. It’s not the strongest question, but if you opt for this type of question, we recommend using multiple methods from the course to answer the questions and compare your results. Alternatively, consider replacing the words “is there a positive relationship” to “what is the relationship and how does it vary,” or something that opens the question up to more than binary responses.
- What is the relationship between vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 deaths? What is the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy among the general population? What is the impact of political beliefs on vaccine hesitancy? Do factors such as race have any relation to vaccine hesitancy?
- Again, multiple questions that mostly meet the above criteria — the last question could be answered with a ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ but you could easily replace it with “which factors have the strongest relationship with.” All other questions invite deeper analysis and the formulation of an argument.