Chapter 4: Selecting a Question to Investigate

Introduction

Selecting a question to investigate may be the hardest part of your initial research project. It is also a very important decision. Every other decision you will make in planning a research project will be based on what you decide to study. In this chapter, we offer some suggestions for working through this important process. Part of this process involves learning about what is already known about the topic you choose to investigate. In research, becoming informed about previous research findings is referred to as conducting a review of the literature. Therefore, we combine the process of selecting a question to investigate with the process of learning about previous research. Today, with the increasing importance of the Internet as a source of information, literature reviews include Internet searches in addition to looking for information in libraries.

The usual processes involved in selecting a question to investigate are outlined in Box 4.1.   

Box 4.1. Processes in deciding on a research question Getting an initial idea: may be expressed as a "topic," "interest" or "problem" Evaluating the idea, topic, interest, or problem Conducting a comprehensive review of the topic or problem Making a final decision on the research question

Your initial research question

Getting an initial idea

Research starts with getting an initial idea about something to investigate.   We use the word "idea" at this stage of the process to cover different ways you might start. You may begin with a "topic" or a "problem" that interests you.

Topics, problems, or questions for research can come to you at anytime and from a variety of sources. Course work is an obvious and frequent source of research questions. You may be stimulated by something an instructor says or by something you have read. Some research reports end with section entitled "Recommendations for future research." One of these recommendations may excite you or and lead to a problem you want to investigate.

Frequently, things mentioned as "problems" by friends or relatives or something you read about in a newspaper or magazine can be rephrased as a question for study. In addition, your own personal experience or interests may lead you to do research on a certain problem. A student from a religious or ethnic minority group may be motivated to investigate attitudes or behavior of the majority group toward the student's group. A student from a rural area may want to investigate ways of improving social services in his or her village.

You may find that recording ideas in a notebook as they occur to you is helpful. You can review these ideas periodically, cross out ones that no longer appeal to you, and keep others for consideration when you have to submit a topic or problem for your research requirement.