Developing a Research Question
At the beginning of every research, specific research questions should be clarified before a data collection process. By making a specific scientific inquiry, the research acquires its thematic focus. However, before a research question is refined, it is imperative to define what type of research is engaged, as well as what kind of variables are involved into the scientific exploration.
Hence, there are two types of research – descriptive and exploratory. In order to focus on a descriptive research, several aspects should be discussed (De Vaus, 2002). First, time frames of interest must be defined to narrow the focus of research. Second, geographic location of interest should be highlighted, as well as patterns and features of the chosen groups within this location (De Vaus, 2002). Finally, once location and time are defined, it is necessary to define the topic limits of the research.
All these aspects build a starting point of the research and focus on a particular problem in a broader context. When exploratory research is concerned, the emphasis should be placed on the analysis of causes and effects (De Vaus, 2002). The second step will involve enumeration of the sequence of cause-and-effect lines that fit the topic.
Third, it is strongly suggested to look through previous researches to find out what other scholars have introduced, as well as what implications they defined for further research (De Vaus, 2002). Using limitations and implications can allow to build a foundation for a new topic of research.
Overall, descriptive research is less sophisticated than exploratory and, therefore, it influences the development of research questions. Thus, descriptive research questions focus on describing an event whereas exploratory research questions involve a synthesis of factors that are interrelated and influence each other.
Developing a Hypothesis
A research question formulation is more typical of qualitative research where observations and surveys will give answers to a specific problem. In contrast, a hypothesis aims either to accept or to reject the thesis. At the early stage of research design, a tentative assumption is defined, which is called the null hypothesis and is traditionally denoted H0 (Anderson et al., 2011).
While formulating the above-presented hypotheses, the importance of situational context is incredible because it affects further procedures of sample collection (Anderson et al., 2011). Apart from the actual procedures of hypotheses development, two important questions should be posed. Specifically, the researcher should clearly identify the purpose of the sample collection, as well as predict the desirable conclusion that can be reached while defining the hypothesis.
While defining both types of hypotheses, it is not necessarily to follow the established succession. In certain situations, it is more reasonable to develop an alternative hypothesis and formulate the null hypothesis and vice versa. Because null hypothesis challenges the alternative one, which is the opposition to the former, the outcome should withdraw one assumption and accept another (Anderson et al., 2011). Therefore, both hypotheses are mutually exclusive.
Narrowing Down the Focus of Research Questions and Hypotheses
Refining the scope of a research question is a daunting task. Because data collection should be initiated, the research question should be flexible, but further exploration will require specificity (Kirby et al., 2006). This stage of focusing and narrowing should be connected with the strategies to define the topic that would captivate the audience and advance the research process.
In this respect, the research question should relate to the research scope, but it should be too specific that makes it difficult to answer (Kirby et al., 2006). A question should invite the scholar to search information so as it is easy to define which keywords should be used to direct the research. Further, a question should be connected to the existing experiences of a researcher.
Finally, the research question should correspond with the results, as well as resonate the community’s concerns (Kirby et al., 2006). The actuality and relevancy of the research question will help the researcher to find out the actual value of the scientific exploration.
The research questions can both address qualitative and quantitative concerns. For instance, it is possible to ask what percentage of population has a certain experience in apposition to the one who lack such (Kirby et al., 2006). Alternatively, the research question can fin out the nature of experience and certain patterns of behavior that are influenced under a new program or innovation.
Focusing on the scope of a research hypothesis, specific topic should be highlighted. For instance, in case the topic is consumer behavior, it is purposeful to first define the percentage of women buying a specific product, as well as the number of males involved in buying a specific product (Panneerselvam, 2004).
Further, income level should also be introduced to define how it influences the distribution of buying capacity. As soon as all these interaction have been detected, a null hypothesis can be defined. For example, the null hypothesis will be females buy cosmetics more frequent than males where the alternative hypothesis female do not buy cosmetics more frequent than males.
References
Anderson, D. R., Sweeney, D. J., and Williams, T. A. (2011). Statistics for Business and Economics. US: Cengage Learning.
De Vaus, D. A. (2002). Surveys in Social Research. US: Routledge.
Kirby, S. L., Greaves, L., and Reid, C. (2006). Experience Research Social Change: Methods beyond the Mainstream. Canada: University of Toronto.
Panneerselvam, R. (2004). Research Methodology. US: PHI Learning.