Topic outline
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There are a few characteristics that make for a good research question.
- Research should be feasible – meaning the project is doable with the resources you have.
- Research should be interesting – it should provide you with an opportunity to learn something new.
- Research should be novel – you should finish with a discovery.
- Research should be ethical – it shouldn’t cause harm to anyone involved.
- And finally, it should be relevant – meaning it should be relevant to you, your learning, and the goal for the project.
Good research questions should define the data you are interested in and the way that you will use it. They use clear language, and they are open-ended, meaning you can’t answer it with yes or no. Your first question is not your final question, and it’s recommended that you go through some reviews of your research project question to make sure that it’s meeting each of the criteria.
So, how does this work in practice? Let’s meet with some researchers at UniSA to hear about how they take big research ideas and distil them into achievable research questions.