Introduction

What Is a Research Question?

You may not realize this, but you do research every day. You probably check the weather report so that you can decide what to wear. When deciding what movie to go see, you might read reviews, watch the movie trailer, and search the Internet Movie Database at imdb.com to find out about other movies a director has made. According to author Lester Faigley, Research is collecting known information about a particular subject and “creating new knowledge through original analysis, surveys, experiments, and theorizing.” You may think that your days of doing research are over once you’ve taken your last English class, but you’d be wrong. Not only will you be writing research papers for business, engineering, science, and math courses, but many jobs will require research as well. For example, sales representatives will research a competitor’s prices and special features so they can convince buyers that their product is better. Information technology managers will research computers and software to determine which solutions are best for their companies. Doctors will research the newest treatment options for their patients. We live in an age when information is easily available, and employers expect their employees to ask the right questions and get the right answers. 

When you write a research paper, you will need to create a research question. The best research questions are narrow in focus but not so narrow that you can’t find sources. Let’s go back to the example of choosing a movie to watch. There are millions of movies to choose from, so the question “What movie should I watch?” is entirely too broad. We’re going to need to narrow things down a bit. First, are you going to see a movie in the theater or at home? Watching a movie in the theater will narrow your choices considerably. Your purpose now is to answer the question “What movie should I go to the theater to watch?” You’re going to want to consider whether you are watching the movie alone, with your best friend, or with your ten-year-old sister. If your mom is paying you to take your little sister to a movie, you now have a purpose (going to the movies) and an audience (a ten-year-old girl). Your research question has narrowed even more: “What movie would both my sister and I like to see?” This is where your research begins, but your question is still not refined enough. If Anne Hathaway is the favorite actress of you and your sister, your research question has narrowed to “Should we go to see the latest Anne Hathaway movie?” Now you can consult sources such as movie listings, reviews online, and newspapers to determine if you and your sister will like the latest Anne Hathaway movie.