Crafting Qualitative Research Questions

At this time, you should have a thorough understanding of the background of the topic you wish to study, and you are now prepared to generate your research questions (RQ). Research questions are the specific questions that you wish to answer by performing the research at hand, and must be formulated in a qualitative manner. For example:

Poorly Worded: RQ 1: Does batch size affect the heat produced by a CSTR?

Better Wording: RQ 2: How does the batch size affect the heat produced by a CSTR?

For this assignment please generate two

While these two questions are similar, the first one is phrased as a yes/no question. In science. We try to avoid these, as it is frequently difficult to conclusively prove or disprove something. (Proof of lack of existence of a relationship, called “negative proof” is extremely difficult). The better-worded question adds a qualitative coloring, by adding the word “how.” This enables the researcher to be descriptive in their response, rather than proscriptive.

Frequently, a research paper will have more than one RQ. These questions are frequently related to one another, with the first being more general, and the second (third, etc.) being more specific.

For this assignment please generate two RQs that you would like to answer through your visualization and modeling research. The first question should be a broader one about the relationship between two or more variables etc., and the second should drill-down within the topic of interest, with increased specificity.

Please format your RQ’s into an Engineering Memo, which provides the two research questions (2 sentences), how you decided upon them (2-3 sentences), and justifications for their relevance to the topic (3-5 sentences).

Note, the finalized versions of these research questions will go in the “Research Questions” section of your Capstone Report. APA