8.2.2: But Avoid Getting too Narrow
- Page ID
- 140990
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Be careful about getting too specific with your research question. Not every question that you come up with will be searchable.
For the above question about college tuition, the important questions to ask would be who? and what? Trying to find information on the impact of rising tuition in a particular city or province will be too restrictive, and the location may, in fact, be irrelevant to the search. A large-scale study across Canada or North America would likely yield relevant information that could be useful to your question.
The bottom line is, you will be working toward a balanced research question that is specific enough to guide you in your research, but not too restrictive.
ACTIVITY: Find the balanced topic
Now it’s your turn. Practice thinking about balanced topics with these 3 examples. Click the arrow to show the next question.
Which question is too broad? too narrow? just right?
Drag the correct answer to the box.
Marine pollution is ______.
Plastic debris and hormone disruption in Pacific salmon is ______.
Ingestion of microplastics in marine mammals is ______.
- too broad
- just right
- too narrow
- Answer
-
- too broad
- too narrow
- just right
Which question is too narrow? too broad? just right?
Drag the correct answer to the box.
Anxiety is ______.
Anxiety and undergraduate Psychology students in B.C. is ______.
Anxiety and first-year student success is ______.
- just right
- too narrow
- too broad
- Answer
-
- too broad
- too narrow
- just right
Which question is too broad? too narrow? just right?
Drag the correct answer to the box.
Technology is ______.
Technology and student engagement in the classroom is ______.
Smart phones and plagiarism and test-taking is ______.
- too broad
- too narrow
- just right
- Answer
-
- too broad
- just right
- too narrow