Formulating Good Research Questions – Importance,Techniques and Procedure

Published 13 August 2021

After defining research problems you are required to design research questions. It is basically a set of questions considering which you need to perform your research process.

This section in research enables you to develop an understanding of the objectives which you intend to accomplish by conducting the investigation procedure on a specific topic. Research questions are basically an important component of both qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Example:

• Does globalization have an effect on the marketing function of the company?
• What types of impact do advertisements have on the mind of children?

Importance of research questions

• Research questions are important as it helps you in defining the objectives which you are trying to accomplishing after completion of the investigation process.
• Writing a research question is very much important as it helps you to remain the focus.
• It also supports you in defining the limitations.
• Research questions support you in making a determination of the sample in order to collect useful and valuable facts about the subject.
• Effective research questions provide you with a framework that you can use for the assessment of work.
• It is the research question that helps you in determining the activities that need to execute for accomplishing desired objectives

Types of research questions

The different types of research questions are:

• Descriptive: You can design such types of questions when you intend to collect an in-detail description of the situation or Phenomenon. For example: If you are conducting the investigation in order to gather information about the political party that will get the highest vote, then in such can you can include descriptive questions.
• Relational: Inclusion of such kind of question in research is appropriate when you are performing an investigation for determining the relationship between two more variables of the study. For example, you are conducting an investigation to know the percentage of males and females who will give a vote to specific political parties. In simple words, relational Questions can be included in the research as here you are performing research to address the relationship between voting preference and gender.
• Causal: You can use such types of questions in research when you intend to develop an understanding of the relationship between cause and effect. For instance, you can include causal questions in your research when you intend to identify the influence of political campaigning on the choice of voters related to giving the vote to a specific political party.

Examples of different types of research questions

The following list consists of different types of questions:

The technique of formulating effective research questions

While formulating the research questions the first thing you are required to consider is the objective of the investigation. Other considerations which you should make are:

• You need to make sure that the questions which you have designed are relevant to your topic or subject.
• You should try to include most of the questions related to the problem.
• While designing the questions you need to consider the time frame. In simple words, you need to make sure that the questions that you have designed are feasible.
• Students need to make sure that the research questions that they have to design are specific.
• While you are conducting an in-depth investigation on the topic then in such case you can use open-ended questions. It will allow you to collect a huge volume of facts. Open-ended questions are questions where respondents can provide a detailed description. It is the open-ended questions that allow you to view different aspects of the phenomenon.
• When you are planning to execute an investigation on a small scale then you should include close-ended questions. This strategy helps you in getting the relevant answers. In the context of close-ended questions, respondents have to make a choice of a single option from multiple options.

Procedure for writing research questions

The process of designing the research questions include different phases these are:

• Determining the subject of interest: It is a stage where you are required to make the topic selection for research in which you are interested. At this phase, you need to conduct an investigation on the subject or field. Brainstorming is the best technique that you can apply. It will help you in developing the idea about the issue or topic on which you can facilitate study.
• Determination of audience: While designing questions you need to consider the nature of the audience.
• Determination and evaluation of Questions: After making different considerations you need to design questions and arrange them in proper order.

Read Also: Research Project Questions for Masters and Undergraduate Students