Chapter 3

How can I develop my research question?

Part of this chapter discuss on how to start with possible questions you might find researching your subject. The Bedford Researcher gives different possibilities we may want to ask ourselves before we start inquiring more about the topic we’re covering. Some of the ways we can find questions is using themes such as: Compare/contrast, evaluation, cause/effect, sequential, and reporting questions (p.42-44). These can let us start the process of forming answers on future questions we might tackle in our paper. After gathering these questions we can project further by evaluating the questions that seem more relevant to our research. By highlighting and developing more we can then write alternating questions that will help address the questions in a different light to help us understand and work towards a more complete answer.

How can I create a research proposal?

Developing a research proposal will help you find more parts of your paper that you should start completing and see how much of the process you’ve completed thus far. The Bedford Researcher states these usually pertain to the title page, an introduction of your topic, reviewing your sources, an explanation, and the ongoing bibliography (p. 50). The plan or proposal should let you know what steps you need to do and ways you can complete each of the assignments to help with your paper. 

This chapter discusses an in-depth way of taking what questions you may have on your topic and developing them into a thorough and narrow scope that will benefit your paper. The book shows us ways to ask questions in alternate manners and what ways to dive deeper into them to get more information that it becomes less static and more concrete. The chapter also discusses the benefits of having a research proposal, so you can stay organize throughout your research to keep you actively engage in other aspects of the paper than just the facts.

Palmquist, Mike. Bedford Researcher 4th Ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s, 2011. Print.