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ENGL 2A: Critical Thinking and Writing (Tarnoff)

This guide is created to support CTW II classes for Winter Qtr 2023 (Professor Tarnoff).

Additional Research Question Help

The figure below contains tips for improving a question that is too broad or too narrow for an academic-level research paper, or cannot be answered.

Improving your research questionAdapted from University of Maryland Global Campus 

The figure below gives some examples of good and "not-so-good" research questions.

Good and bad research questions

Adapted from: University of Maryland Global Campus 

Checklist

Consider the following when developing a research question:

check markIs it an open-ended question?​

check markIs it appropriate in scope? Focused and narrow enough for your project or paper?

check markDoes it suggest factors that can be measured?​

check mark​Is it relevant to my audience?

check markIs answering the question manageable, and can I find and access enough documents, statistics, or persons to provide information to develop and support my ideas?​

check markIs the topic of interest to me?​

 

Adapted from: University of Maryland Global Campus