27/12/2012
My Beloved Colleagues Assalamu Alaikum,

How to Write Research Questions for a Proposal? Series 5

As we discussed earlier in the series, there are few significant phases of proposal writing process. To restate, proposal includes title, abstract, introduction, problem statement, research questions, literature review, methodology, result, conclusion and discussion. When choosing your title don’t worry, you can adjust it later. At this stage only configure your title in a way that it designates what type of study you are conducting. 

Concentrate to the most imperative parts of your proposal such as research questions. Your research question must be brief, relevant, focused and arguable. Good research questions create a corridor to your research. Good research questions are the spine of your proposal and later, in your thesis. 

The following few tips may help you to write your research questions:

• Choose a topic that interests you and your readers.
• Make an investigation on your topic by going through scholarly journals and see what questions are raised by your peers. Take note of what questions are not raised so that you elevate it.
• Your research questions should not be answered by simple facts; it must require critical analysis and field tested research. It must be provoking and requires significant examination.
• Your research questions should be neither very broad nor very narrow. If too narrow, you will have difficulty in finding relevant information.
• Do not forget to show your research questions to your supervisors before going into details of it.

Qais Faryadi (FST)