At a glance, all stages of the term or research paper writing process seem to be important. However, you should pay special attention to the stage when you formulate research paper or term paper questions. Without a specific and clearly stated research paper or term paper question, a teacher may think you simply do not know what you are talking about.
If you still have not figured out the main principles of formulating questions for research papers, let us explain them briefly for you.
Formulating a research paper question: rule 1
Start with deciding on a general topic for your paper. Do not be afraid to pick something broad at this stage, because further steps will be aimed at narrowing down the scope of your paper.
Formulating a research paper question: rule 2
Read brief reviews of your general topic like those in encyclopedia entries to get basic understanding. Then, write down all questions that come up to your mind about the issue and aspects that you would like to clarify.
Formulating a research paper question: rule 3
Start narrowing down the list of research questions you have. At this stage, you should make sure that your questions are neither too general nor too specific.
Formulating a research paper question: rule 4
Finally, it is time to use one “secret technique” of formulating the best research questions. Do you know about different types of questions? You can choose one of them depending on what you would like to know, what you already know about the topic, and what materials you have. So, you can formulate the following types of research questions:
- hypothetical;
- prediction;
- judgment;
- solution;
- analogy.
On our weblog, you can always get useful research paper advice on any aspect of research paper writing.




