Many students starting a research project are soon overwhelmed by the amount of information they find. Although many initially fear they will not find sufficient resources, they quickly learn that too much information is also a significant problem. It often leads to the researcher writing an uninteresting and unoriginal overview.
An overview of a general topic may make a good encyclopedia article, but not a quality academic research paper. Creating a focused research question can provide you with a clear direction for your research and writing.
It is often difficult to write a research question from a broad topic category though. There are a lot of questions you can ask about a general topic like such as “war”. You might begin by focusing on a country, or a time period or even a specific war. These questions would probably still be too broad however.
There are several methods for developing a focused research question. One popular method is to ask four questions about your topic and use the answers to develop a more specific question. Below is an online tutorial that gives a good overview of this method.
We have created a template based on this method. It is a Google document that can be saved and edited. Fill out the template as you are doing background research with interesting subtopics and mix and match to make an interesting and original research question.
This method simplifies the creation of a focused research question. Using the grid approach to mix and match subtopics can give you several research topics to explore. Select the most interesting grouping of subtopics and form them into a question that guides your research and writing.
Watch the four question video and read the instructions for filling out this template. Then save the template to your Google drive and begin creating a great research question! Contact the D’Youville Library with any of your research questions.
