Working Draft of Research Question

2020/11/9 Developing a Strong Research Question: Fal20 ENGL 001A #74618 READING AND COMPOSITION-Online

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Developing a Strong Research Question

One of the unique things about the research paper assignment is that you have the freedom to choose your own topic to focus on. After you have your research topic approved, you will need to narrow the topic into a specific research question that you'll focus on.

You may wonder why making a specific research question is so important? Well, having a clear and researchable question sets you up to write a successful paper. It also helps narrow down the scope of your research, which makes the assignment more manageable for you.

Please carefully read through this page from Empire State University of New York's Online Writing Center to learn more about Developing a Research Question:

https://www.esc.edu/online-writing-center/resources/research/research-paper- steps/developing-questions/ (https://www.esc.edu/online-writing- center/resources/research/research-paper-steps/developing-questions/)

Now that you've read that, take some time to jot down ideas for turning your research topics into strong research questions.

An Important Tip: It tends to work really well to make your research question something about "pros outweighing cons" or "cons outweighing the pros." When you frame the question like this, it sets you up to explore multiple sides of a controversy and then choose if you think there are more benefits or problems.

Example: "Do the pros of mandatory body cams for police officers outweigh the cons?"

Once you've drafted some possible research questions, look at the examples in the following exercises from Empire State's website to help you make them as strong as possible.

Can the topic be researched? (https://www.esc.edu/online-writing-center/exercise-room/can- topic-be-researched/) (Test yourself by trying to assess if the topic is researchable or not. Then, click on the "+" to see what they think.) Is the Question Too Broad or Too Narrow? (https://www.esc.edu/online-writing- center/exercise-room/research-question-broad-or-narrow/) (Go through the three possible options of how to ask the question and try to decide if you think the examples given are either "too narrow," "too broad" or "the best research question" in the group.)

2020/11/9 Developing a Strong Research Question: Fal20 ENGL 001A #74618 READING AND COMPOSITION-Online

https://canvas.pasadena.edu/courses/1110549/pages/developing-a-strong-research-question?module_item_id=12573161 2/2

Once you've done those exercises and tried your best to create a strong research question of your own, use the list on the following page to Evaluate Your Own Research Question. (https://www.esc.edu/online-writing-center/exercise-room/evaluate-your-own-research-question/)

Another Important Tip: It is often hard to narrow the scope of your research question, but keeping it too large makes it really hard to research. Here are some great ways to narrow the question:

Narrow to a demographic by age, race, gender, etc. ("teens" or "children" or "European men," etc.) Narrow to a certain time frame ("last 5 years") Narrow to a certain location ("United States" or "California")

REMEMBER to make a research question that is framed around a CONTROVERSY-- not all the ones on that website are about controversies, so double check that yours is.