What Makes A Good Research Question? Explain How To Connect ✓ Solved

What makes a good research question? Explain how to: connect

What makes a good research question? Explain how to: connect your passion to the scholarly community; connect with relevant scholarly literature (including literature reviews and meta-analyses); develop a research problem by identifying (A) a phenomenon of interest, (B) the group, organization, or individual experiencing it, and (C) the literature gap indicating more research is needed; evolve a clear research purpose from the research problem; and formulate a central qualitative research question (and possible subquestions) that aligns the research problem and purpose.

Paper For Above Instructions

Introduction

A strong research question is the cornerstone of rigorous scholarly inquiry. It shapes the study design, methods, and interpretation and signals to readers why a study matters (Creswell, 2013). This paper explains, step by step, how to translate personal interest into a focused, scholarly research question by: (1) connecting passion to the scholarly community; (2) engaging the literature, including reviews and meta-analyses; (3) developing a research problem that identifies a phenomenon, the population that experiences it, and the literature gap; (4) evolving a research purpose; and (5) formulating a central qualitative research question with subquestions that align tightly with the problem and purpose (Maxwell, 2013; Booth, Sutton, & Papaioannou, 2016).

1. Connect Your Passion to the Scholarly Community

Intrinsic motivation provides sustained energy for a research project, but passion alone is not sufficient. A viable research question must situate personal interest within an academic conversation: what scholarly debates, theoretical frameworks, or policy discussions relate to your interest? Explicitly articulating why the topic matters (practical significance) and who will care about the results (stakeholders) helps transform a general curiosity into a defensible research problem (Patton, 2015). For example, “I care about workplace loneliness” becomes research-ready when framed as, “How do remote employees describe experiences of workplace loneliness, and what implications does this have for organizational support strategies?” (Machi & McEvoy, 2016).

2. Connect with Scholarly Literature

Thorough literature engagement is essential to discern what is known, unknown, or conflicted. Systematic reading—starting with recent literature reviews and meta-analyses—provides efficient orientation by summarizing findings and identifying methodological or conceptual gaps (Hart, 1998; Galvan & Galvan, 2017). Use reviews to discover recommended future directions, recurring inconsistencies, and under-researched populations. This process also refines conceptual definitions and helps select appropriate theoretical lenses, both crucial for question precision (Booth et al., 2016).

3. Develop the Research Problem: Phenomenon, Population, and Gap

A clear research problem names three elements: A) the phenomenon of interest (the experience or concept you seek to understand), B) the group, organization, or individual who experiences it, and C) the scholarly literature that demonstrates the need for more research (Maxwell, 2013; Creswell, 2013).

• Phenomenon: Identify the central concept (e.g., social activism, isolation, job satisfaction). Define it operationally for qualitative inquiry—how participants recognize or describe it.
• Population: Specify who experiences the phenomenon (e.g., immigrant youth, frontline nurses, remote workers). Limit scope to ensure feasibility and depth.
• Literature gap: Cite evidence that the phenomenon among this population is understudied, or that existing findings are inconsistent or methodologically limited (e.g., primarily quantitative studies without depth of lived experience).

Combining these three elements yields a concise research problem statement: for example, “Although job satisfaction has been studied widely, little is known about how adjunct faculty at community colleges describe the factors shaping their job satisfaction.” This statement justifies why the study matters and who benefits (Machi & McEvoy, 2016).

4. Evolve a Clear Research Purpose

From the research problem, derive a purpose statement that clarifies the study’s intent. For qualitative designs, templates such as “The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore/describe/understand [phenomenon] among [population]” are helpful (Creswell, 2013). The purpose should align with epistemological stance (e.g., interpretive, constructivist) and methodological choice (e.g., phenomenology, grounded theory, case study), which in turn guide sampling and data collection (Patton, 2015; Maxwell, 2013).

5. Formulate the Central Qualitative Research Question and Subquestions

The central research question should emerge logically from the purpose and research problem. Qualitative central questions are typically broad, open-ended, and exploratory—for example: “How do X population describe/experience/understand Y phenomenon?” Subquestions can probe dimensions or contexts of interest (time, relationships, processes) and guide data collection (interviews, observations, documents) without constraining participant meanings (Creswell, 2013).

Characteristics of a good research question include clarity, focus, complexity (not answerable by yes/no), researchability (feasible with available methods/resources), significance (fills a gap or advances practice), and methodological alignment (fits qualitative inquiry when using open-ended exploration) (Booth et al., 2016; Kothari, 2004).

Practical Example

Research problem: “Burnout among primary care physicians is frequently measured quantitatively, but fewer studies explore how physicians themselves describe the emotional and organizational contributors to burnout.”

Purpose: “The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand how primary care physicians describe and make sense of contributors to burnout in community clinics.”

Central question: “How do primary care physicians working in community clinics describe their experiences of burnout and its contributing factors?”

Subquestions: “What workplace processes or organizational conditions do physicians identify as contributing to burnout?” and “How do physicians’ coping strategies and support networks shape their experience of burnout?” This alignment ensures coherence across problem, purpose, and questions (Maxwell, 2013; Patton, 2015).

Conclusion and Recommendations

Transforming passion into a good research question requires deliberate linkage to the scholarly literature, a precise problem statement (phenomenon, population, gap), a purpose that articulates intent, and a central qualitative question with focused subquestions. Assess candidate questions using clarity, focus, complexity, feasibility, significance, and methodological alignment. Iterative refinement—grounded in ongoing literature review and feedback from advisors—yields a research question that both motivates the researcher and contributes meaningfully to scholarship (Creswell, 2013; Booth et al., 2016).

References

• Booth, A., Sutton, A., & Papaioannou, D. (2016). Systematic approaches to a successful literature review. SAGE Publications.
• Creswell, J. W. (2013). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications.
• Galvan, J. L., & Galvan, M. C. (2017). Writing literature reviews: A guide for students of the social and behavioral sciences (7th ed.). Routledge.
• Hart, C. (1998). Doing a literature review: Releasing the social science research imagination. SAGE Publications.
• Kothari, C. R. (2004). Research methodology: Methods and techniques (2nd ed.). New Age International.
• Machi, L. A., & McEvoy, B. T. (2016). The literature review: Six steps to success (3rd ed.). Corwin.
• Maxwell, J. A. (2013). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications.
• Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research & evaluation methods (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.
• Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., & Williams, J. M. (2008). The craft of research (3rd ed.). University of Chicago Press.
• Randolph, J. J. (2009). A guide to writing the dissertation literature review. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 14(13), 1–13.