Research problem and research question ENGL 7702 Lecture

Objectives

Research problem vs question  Problem Major issue that leads to the need for a study. This should come from the literature and is laid out in your literature review.  Question Specific question which you are working to answer. Comes directly from the problem. Word it in one sentence!! May only address part of the problem.

These are problems, not questions  Problems have a wider span and cannot be answered with a single study or relatively simple answer –How do people use the communication products we create? –How do we collaborate with others in making these products? –How do readers make sense of what we write? –Is text messaging affecting formal writing skills? –Are serif or sans serif fonts viewed as more formal?

Questions are specific and narrow  For these two questions, we could set up a study and arrive at an answer. –What is the prevalence of text messaging abbreviations in freshman comp papers? –Is there a correlation between writing quality and use of text messaging abbreviations in freshman comp papers?  Whether the answer is generalizable depends on how we design the study.

Research question  This example was a quantitative study, but these research questions are worded for a qualitative study. Notice how they are all very subjective in what would prove or disprove them.  One problem with them is they are yes/no answer questions, but ones that are always “yes, in some part”. Research questions should be open- ended questions.  Your hypotheses, which come from the research questions, should be clearly yes/no.

Define your research topic early  Both the research problem and the research question go in the introduction.  State them upfront so the reader knows what the article is about and so they can interpret the lit review from the proper mind-set.

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