Writing Good Qualitative

Research Questions
Posted on May 5, 2011 by Gavin Davie
Got a great handout a while back that I stumbled over today, hopefully it’s as helpful to you as it
was to me. Here are the steps for writing good (mass communication of course) qualitative
research questions:

Specify the research problem: the practical issue that leads to a need for your study.

Complete these sentences:

 “The topic for this study will be…”
 “This study needs to be conducted because…”
How to write a good qualitative purpose statement: a statement that provides the major
objective or intent or roadmap to the study. Fulfill the following criteria:
 Single sentence
 Include the purpose of the study
 Include the central phenomenon
 Use qualitative words e.g. explore, understand, discover
 Note the participants (if any)
 State the research site
A good place to start: The purpose of this ______________ (narrative, phenomenological,
grounded theory, ethnographic, case, etc.) study is (was? will be?) will be to ____________
(understand, describe, develop, discover) the _____________ (central phenomenon of the study)
for ______________ (the participants) at (the site). At this stage in the research, the
___________ (central phenomenon) will be generally defined as ____________ (a general
definition of the central concept).
Research questions serve to narrow the purpose. There are two types:
Central
 The most general questions you could ask
Sub-questions

 Subdivides central question into more specific topical questions

 Limited number
Use good qualitative wording for these questions.
 Begin with words such as “how” or “what”
 Tell the reader what you are attempting to “discover,” “generate,” “explore,” “identify,” or
“describe”
 Ask “what happened?” to help craft your description
 Ask “what was the meaning to people of what happened?” to understand your results
 Ask “what happened over time?” to explore the process
Avoid words such as: relate, influence, impact, effect, cause
 Scripts to help design qualitative central and sub-questions:
Central question script (usually use only one):
 “What does it mean to _________________ (central phenomenon)?”
 “How would ______________ (participants) describe (central phenomenon)?”
Sub-question script:

 “What _________ (aspect) does __________ (participant) engage in as a _____________

(central phenomenon)?”

Qualitative vs Quantitative Research Questions

Your research question guides your study and determines whether you are going to use a
quantitative or qualitative research methodology. It reflects the direction and epistemological
underpinnings of your research path. Both methodologies have merit, but you need to decide which
one is more appropriate to use for your specific research problem.

By looking at your research question(s), you should be able to determine whether you are looking at
causal relationships (quantitative study) or exploring a phenomenon (qualitative study). The wording
and structure of quantitative and qualitative research questions differ significantly.

Start by asking yourself if your area of inquiry has a qualitative or a quantitative purpose. Then,
design your question accordingly.

Here are some guidelines that can help you develop the right question for your study.

Quantitative Research Questions:

1. Usually start with ‘ how,’ ‘what’ or ‘why’.
2. Contain an independent and a dependent variable.
3. Look at connections, relations or comparisons between variables.
Types of quantitative research questions with examples:

1. Descriptive questions are usually simple questions that ask about ‘how much’ or ‘how often’ or look
for a list of things/factors.
Example: How often do people aged 30 to 40 visit their parents?

These type of questions are useful for simple studies, but would not be robust enough for a
dissertation.
1. Causal questions try to determine a relationship between two variables or they compare two
variables.
Example: How does stress at work relate to quality of life in people working night shifts?
(a relationship question)
Example: How do lean participants compare to obese participants in their frequency and intensity of
food cravings? (a comparison question)
1. Predictive questions try to forecast an outcome. Studies that result from these questions are often
controversial as it is hard to single out one variable and unquestionably link it to an outcome. You
need to be confident that you can indeed ensure a controlled environment, one in which you are able
to control for other variables and observe only the effect of your chosen variable.
Example: Does a stressful work environment lead to higher turnover rates?

Qualitative Research Questions:

1. Usually start with ‘what’ or ‘how’ (avoid beginning qualitative questions with ‘why’ as this implies
cause and effect).
2. Identify the central phenomenon you plan to explore (tell in your question what you are going to
describe, explore, generate, discover, understand).
3. Avoid the use of quantitative words such as relate, influence, effect, cause.
With qualitative research, you will usually have one central question and possibly also some sub-
questions to narrow the phenomenon under study further. The sub-questions will generally be more
specific.

Examples of qualitative research questions:

1. What is it like growing up in a single-parent family in a rural environment?

2. What are the experiences of people working night shifts in health care?
3. How would overweight people describe their meal times while dieting?