10 Qualities of a Good Research Purpose and/or Questions

(Not necessarily in order of importance)

It is grounded in a theoretical framework.

It is builds on, but also offers something new to, previous research.
It has the potential to suggest directions for future research.
It is a purpose or question that the researcher is sincerely interested and/or invested in.
It addresses directly or indirectly some real problem in the world.
It takes ethical issues into consideration.
It clearly states the variables or constructs to be examined.
It is not biased in terminology or position.
It has multiple possible answers.
It is simple, or at least manageable.

The purpose and question(s) of a study should drive the study design. As such there
should be a close match of the language of the purpose and question(s) with the design
itself.

A Theoretical Framework:

A. Are concepts, together with their definitions, and existing theory/theories that are used for your
particular study.

B. Strengthens the study in the following ways.

 An explicit statement of theoretical assumptions permits the reader to evaluate them critically.
 The theoretical framework connects the researcher to existing knowledge. Guided by a relevant
theory, you are given a basis for your hypotheses and choice of research methods.
 Articulating the theoretical assumptions of a research study forces you to address questions of
why and how. It permits you to move from simply describing a phenomenon observed to
generalizing about various aspects of that phenomenon.
 Having a theory helps you to identify the limits to those generalizations. A theoretical framework
specifies which key variables influence a phenomenon of interest. It alerts you to examine how
those key variables might differ and under what circumstances.

Research Variable

A variable is an object, event, idea, feeling, time period, or any other type of category you are trying to
measure.

An independent variable is exactly what it sounds like. It is a variable that stands alone and isn't changed
by the other variables you are trying to measure. For example, someone's age might be an independent
variable. Other factors (such as what they eat, how much they go to school, how much television they
watch) aren't going to change a person's age. In fact, when you are looking for some kind of relationship
between variables you are trying to see if the independent variable causes some kind of change in the
other variables, or dependent variables.

A dependent variable is something that depends on other factors. For example, a test score could be a
dependent variable because it could change depending on several factors such as how much you studied,
how much sleep you got the night before you took the test, or even how hungry you were when you took
it. Usually when you are looking for a relationship between two things you are trying to find out what
makes the dependent variable change the way it does.
Identifying Variables

Many people have trouble remembering which the independent variable is and which the dependent
variable is. An easy way to remember is to insert the names of the two variables you are using in this
sentence in the way that makes the most sense. Then you can figure out which is the independent
variable and which is the dependent variable:

(Independent variable) causes a change in (Dependent Variable) and it isn't possible that
(Dependent Variable) could cause a change in (Independent Variable).

For example:

(Time Spent Studying) causes a change in (Test Score) and it isn't possible that (Test Score) could cause
a change in (Time Spent Studying).

We see that "Time Spent Studying" must be the independent variable and "Test Score" must be the
dependent variable because the sentence doesn't make sense the other way around.

Sample Topics
Medicine
1. Do some doctors turn patients into addicts?
2. Should life-sustaining therapy be applied, when it is not necessary?
3. How to ban testing on animals?
4. Pros and cons of using marijuana in medical purposes;
5. Benefits of cow milk;
6. Can vegetarian diet be useful for children?
7. Influence of obesity on health;
8. Damage of vaccines;
9. Should drugs be directly advertised?
10.What do we know about cancer treatment?
11.Topics on Sport
12.Students, who love sport, have plenty of issues to discuss. However, if you want your paper
to look solid, you should choose your topic wisely.
Sports and brain injuries;
1. Age in contact sports. Should children be allowed to participate in contact sports?
2. Should popular athletes choose tattoos wisely in order to transmit a proper message to fans?
3. Influence of enhancing drugs on popular kinds of sports;
4. What methods can be used to lower a long-term usage of steroids among young sportsmen?
5. What qualities make up a good commentator?
6. Soccer in the Philippines;
7. Which kinds of sports can be called spectator ones?
8. Is it fair to give so many sports scholarships?
9. Did advertising change sports?
Topics on Technologies
1. How GPS works;
2. What is the simplest way to connect to the global network;
3. Importance of defending personal networks;
4. Why plagiarism detectors and checkers are so effective;
5. Storage of confidential data online;
6. When brain chips will be implemented?
7. Why Mac computers are safer than Windows ones?
8. Why you should choose Google applications;
9. How universal intelligence can be measured?
10.Benefits of a Symbian OS.
Research Paper Topics on Environment
1. The best ways to reduce pollution;
2. The most evident climate changes for the past 30 years;
3. Why some people still believe that global warming doesn’t exist?
4. Is wildlife affected by the global warming?
5. Pollution of oceans: beginning of the end?
6. Alternative energy sources as a way to save nature;
7. How can we safe endangered species?
8. What can we do to improve the world?
9. Recycling in our everyday life;
10.How can we deliver drinking water to every corner of the planet?
Health
1. Impact of tobacco, marijuana and alcohol on a body;
2. Vaccination: pros and cons;
3. Discussion of birth control across countries;
4. How to prevent Alzheimer’s;
5. Can euthanasia be considered an assisted suicide?
6. Additional research of AIDS;
7. Most effective tools in cancer prevention;
8. Why mental health is important;
9. Obesity and anorexia: two dangerous states;
10.Positive impact of fats on our mind and body.
Strategies for Narrowing the Research Topic
A common challenge when beginning to write a research paper is determining how to narrow
down your topic.
Here are some strategies to help narrow your topic:
 Aspect -- choose one perspective through which to view the research problem, or look at
just one facet of it [e.g., rather than studying the role of food in South Asian religious
rituals, study the role of food in Hindu ceremonies, or, the role of one particular type of
food among several religions].
 Components -- determine if your initial variable or unit of analysis can be broken into
smaller parts, which can then be analyzed more precisely [e.g., a study of tobacco use
among adolescents can focus on just chewing tobacco rather than all forms of usage or,
rather than adolescents in general, focus on female adolescents in a certain age range who
choose to use tobacco].
 Methodology -- the way in which you gather information can reduce the domain of
interpretive analysis needed to address the research problem [e.g., a single case study can
be designed to generate data that does not require as extensive an explanation as using
multiple cases].
 Place -- generally, the smaller the geographic unit of analysis, the more narrow the focus
[e.g., rather than study trade relations in West Africa, study trade relations between Niger
and Cameroon as a case study that helps to explain problems in the region].
 Relationship -- ask yourself how do two or more different perspectives or variables relate to
one another. Designing a study around the relationships between specific variables can help
constrict the scope of analysis [e.g., cause/effect, compare/contrast,
contemporary/historical, group/individual, male/female, opinion/reason,
problem/solution].
 Time -- the shorter the time period of the study, the more narrow the focus [e.g., study of
trade relations between China and the Philippines during the period of 2010 - 2018].
 Type -- focus your topic in terms of a specific type or class of people, places, or phenomena
[e.g., a study of developing safer traffic patterns near schools can focus on SUVs, or just
student drivers, or just the timing of traffic signals in the area].
 Combination -- use two or more of the above strategies to focus your topic very narrowly.
NOTE: Apply one of the above strategies first in designing your study to determine if that gives you
a manageable research problem to investigate. You will know if the problem is manageable by
reviewing the literature on this more specific problem and assessing whether prior research on the
narrower topic is sufficient to move forward in your study [i.e., not too much, not too little]. Be
careful, however, because combining multiple strategies risks creating the opposite problem--your
problem becomes too narrowly defined and you can't locate enough research or data to support
your study.