Framing a Research Question
Turn an interest into a question a study can answer: narrow enough to investigate, open enough to have more than one answer, and answerable with material you can actually get hold of.
What a learner can do afterwards
- Narrow a broad interest into a question answerable in the time available
- Reject a question whose answer is already settled, or that nothing could test
- Say what evidence would answer the question before collecting any
1 · Read
A research question is a promise about what you will find out, so frame it before touching any sources. Start wide, then cut it down until it fits your deadline and your library. Swap untestable words like best for measurable ones like most cited.
Mara likes gaming chats and wonders if they harm homework. Her weak version is: is gaming chat bad. Her strong version is: how do Year 12 pupils at her school describe late night chat effects on homework during one survey week. It names a tight group, a scope, and survey answers she can actually gather.
Reject questions nobody could test, or ones everyone already answered. A settled answer or an untestable word wastes the project. Before collecting anything, say out loud what evidence would settle it. If you cannot name that evidence, the question is still too big.
Run a repeatable process, not random searching. Skim widely, read deeply only where the question points, and log each source as claim, source, page, and your comment. One well used study beats five dropped names.
Narrow until it fits, keep it testable, and name the settling evidence before you collect.
2 · Watch
Take it off screen
Where it sits
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.