Research Questions - the good and the not so good

Some research questions are vague or open- ended, as if the researcher has no clear idea of what he or she is seeking.

For example:

• What were the results of World War One?
• If we legalized all drugs what would that mean for society?
• What is good about servant leadership?

In each case, the goal is unclear and open to many possible answers.

Try these instead:

Some questions have more than one goal.

• How did the inadequate resolution of WWI lead to WWII?
• If we legalized all currently illegal drugs, would it actually put an end to the illegal drug trade?
• How can servant leaders best move their organizations forward if they want to avoid dictating from the top?

For example:

What is the best way to get rid of illegal guns and stop our young people from getting killed in gun violence and keep our communities safe?

This leads to multiple projects and kills your focus.

A cool method to fix this is to determine what the main goal is and then subordinate the other goals to it.

For example: How may we best solve the problem of illegal guns in order to reduce gun violence?

Some questions just can't be answered and are thus best left unasked.

For example:

• Was Hurricane Katrina God's judgment on New Orleans?
• Are servant leaders less sure of themselves than controlling leaders?
• How can we solve climate change in the next five years?

Ask yourself:

• Is this an old question that has never been resolved?
• Is there any way I could find definitive evidence to answer it?
• Does a quick search of databases show that there is any literature on the issue?

If your answers are "yes," "no," and "no," drop the question.

Some questions are very broadly based and thus do not allow you to deal with them in depth.

Research projects need to target a problem or issue.

For example:

Are food additives good or bad for you? (requires you to cover all food additives)

You want to be sure that:

• You are not asking for something you could just look up in a book or online (Research is not searching for known facts.)
• You have a single issue in mind.
• You can express that issue within a single question.
• Your issue is actually researchable with evidence that is likely to lead to a solid conclusion.

You want a single research question with a clear goal.

Do you:

• Understand your goal easily?
• Know that there is only one goal?
• Visualize a path from the problem to its solution?

If you are at all unclear about the nature of the problem or the path to its solution, work on the question until you are clear.

The worst kind of situation is one in which your question asks you only to provide existing information.

Ask yourself:

• Could I answer my question just by looking it up?
• Is the answer to my question something that is obvious or already known?

For example:

How well has Canadian trade done since the

Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement was signed?

(You can look it up at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/trade/data)

Research Questions - the good and the not so good.