Skip to Main Content
What Makes a Good Research Question?
What makes a good Inquiry Question?
It is Critical, not Simple
A Critical question . . .
-
leads to more questions
-
provokes discussion
-
comes from a critical or careful reading of the text or understanding of a topic
-
addresses wider issues
A Simple question . . .
-
can be answered with a "yes" or "no"
-
can contain the answers within the question
-
can be answered by a fact, or a series of facts
-
can easily be found by "Googling"
Re-evaluate your Question IF:
-
You can answer it too easily . . .
-
by looking it up
-
by summarizing a source
-
if the answer seems self-evident because the evidence overwhelmingly favors one answer
-
You cannot find enough good evidence and authoritative sources to support an answer because . . .
-
no relevant facts exist
-
not enough research exists to be considered
-
the question is based on preference
-
You have too much info . . .
