How do I develop a good research question?

Once you have a topic, you can start shaping it into a question. Do this by writing down your topic and answering as many of the following questions as possible:

• Who is the research about (e.g. middle school students, college students, farmers, etc.)?
• What is your research about?
• When (e.g. what time period are your researching)?
• Where (e.g. the U.S., Arizona, Poland, etc.)?
• Why (e.g. why are you spending time looking at this resource, outside of being required to for an assignment)?

Learn more

To learn more, take a look at Concept Mapping for Developing Your Topic, by Belk Library, at the Appalachian State University.