Ask a Librarian<\/a>\u00a0for research support whenever you need it.<\/p>\n
\n1. Choose your topic<\/h2>\n
First, let’s choose a topic and then build our research question.<\/p>\n
Topic<\/strong>: Your research topic will be a broad area of exploration from which you’ll develop a research question. Try to think of a topic that you can analyze rather than just describing or reporting on it. For example, let’s use the following topics to expand into research questions: urban green space, student activism, true crime<\/em><\/p>\nResearch Question<\/strong>: Your research question will be more focused and specific than your topic. Remember that this isn’t your thesis statement, but rather a question to guide your research process as you search for perspectives and conversations to inform your question. For example:<\/p>\n\n- How does urban green space<\/em> contribute to the mental health of local residents?<\/li>\n
- How is social media used to organize student activism<\/em>?<\/li>\n
- What factors have contributed to the popularity of true crime<\/em> podcasts with white women?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
What makes a good research question?<\/h3>\n
Your research question will be about a focused sliver of information within your topic. Qualities of a good research question include:<\/p>\n
Open and explorable<\/strong><\/h4>\nAsk a question that doesn’t have a yes or no answer, and can’t be answered with a fact. Your topic should be answerable in the scope of your paper, but not have an obvious answer.<\/p>\n
\n- Closed question: <\/strong>How many urban green spaces are there in Boston?<\/li>\n
- Open question:<\/strong> How does urban green space impact the mental and physical health of local residents?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Specific and focused<\/strong><\/h4>\nYour question should tell you what your research is about. You should feel like you know what information you need by reading the question rather than feeling like you don’t know where to start. You are most likely writing a 7-10 page paper about something, not a report or overview. This means that you need to have a narrow scope, use your question to focus your research on a specific person, place, event, phenomenon, or time period.<\/p>\n
\n- Vague question:<\/strong> What do people like about true crime?<\/li>\n
- Broad question:<\/strong> What is the history of true crime?<\/li>\n
- Specific and focused question:<\/strong> What elements have contributed to the popularity of true crime podcasts with white women since 2020?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For example, let’s say our topic is student activism<\/em>. You might expand your topic into any of the following research questions:<\/p>\n