Formulating the research question for your research is often a big challenge.
I have just come across this blog post which has some useful ideas. Click on this link to view the post.
Since the research question is an important guide through the research stages, how about sharing how you managed to work out yours?
Post a comment on Thesislink, with hints on how to develop a research question, or your story of what happened when you were working on yours.
Author: Dr Jennie Billot
An extra question about the question -” do you think you can do x for the next 3 years ?” Question drives method of course, but some methods have lots of interviewing, observing, some have more solitary activities eg programming some need work in group etc. If your question implies a method that is going to make you go mad, look at a different question…
And another… why are you doing the research qualification ? If it is to get a better job – look at industry relevance to the method (and hence what sort of question) as well
Great blog post, thank you. Maybe it’s because I’m in Film TV and Media Studies where we tend to be quite poststructuralist about these things, but the most helpful advice I got for my research question development came from a film editor. She asked two questions: “What is the story you’re trying to tell?” secondly, “Who are you telling it to?” Deceptively simple. I’ve found through my long experience of writing the PhD (part time) they have stuck with me and kept me focused (although my supervisor might think otherwise ;). Cheers!
and finally.. the most important point in that blog post is that talking to people, preferably someone who is not an expert, but is intelligent and interested is a great way to get a question clear in your mind – talk to the experts too but as Einstein said “It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid”.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins165187.html#5A0TVtyiCy6P4jE3.99
My supervisor, Jennie Billot suggested I do this. I narrowed and firmed up my question/sub-questions by running through in my head an interview I might do with a participant. I thought of the questions I would ask and imagined the replies I might get. That process required me to ask exactly what I wanted to find out and to speak it clearly. After that, I wrote them down and there they were!