6 Parts of the Research Question
Consider at least 3 of these questions using your topic when creating a research question:
- WHO: Who is involved? Whom does it affect?
- WHAT: What are the facts? What is the problem or issue? What is similar to this? What other concepts are related?+
- WHEN: Did this happen during a certain time? What is the most updated information about this available?
- WHERE: Where did this begin? Where does it fall morally (good/bad/fair)? Where is there more information?
- WHY: Why did it happen? What were the causes that led to this? Is there previous evidence for this?
- HOW: How did it happen? How serious is the problem? How can it be solved?

Adapted from LMU Libguide: Need a Topic
Practice Topic Development
Let's practice using our topic example: alcohol abuse and student success. If we answer at least 3 of our helpful questions above:
- WHO: College age students, young adults, people between the ages of 18-25
- WHAT: Alcohol use statistics in colleges, alcohol related deaths for students, dropout rates and stories, drunk driving, college partying, grades, graduation rates
- WHERE: United States College and Universities
- WHY: Need for stress relief, socialization, fitting in, hazing for fraternities and sororities, boredom
- HOW: Raising taxes on alcohol, less ads for alcohol, tougher sentencing for alcohol related offenses
Putting It Together
My research question: Does drinking alcohol negatively affect college student grades in the United States?