QUESTIONS ABOUT THE QUESTION

Following are some questions to raise about any research question you may be thinking about. One or more negative answers to these questions my indicate the need to modify your research question or get a new one.

1. Is your question relevant to a social work concern?

2. Is this a question that you are really interested in pursing the answer to?

3. Can you find studies in the literature that have looked into the same or similar kinds of questions?

4. Has your question already been answered to the extent that further investigation isn’t needed?

5. Is the answer to you question obvious and doesn’t really need to be researched.? Would your study just prove the obvious?

6. Does your question imply any condition that would bring up ethical concerns?

7. Can your research question be answered by only one study or does the nature of your question imply that more than one would have to be conducted to get the answer(s)?

8. Does your question imply a quantitative or qualitative design?

9. Does the nature of your question imply a research design not feasible for you to undertake based on your research skills, time available etc.?

10. What would be the source of the data used to get the answer to this question?

11. Is this data source(s) available to you?

12. Would you have the time and energy needed to collect the data?

13. Do you have the necessary data analysis skills to analyze the data?