Student's guide to writing college papers, Fourth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2010

Evaluate your questions
Finding a research question
Writing your paper

Finally, evaluate your questions and scrap those unlikely to yield interesting answers. What follows are some signs of a question you can't use.

You don't have a good question if no one would disagree with your answer: proving it is pointless.

1. You can answer the question too easily.

✵ You can just look it up: What masks are used in Navajo dances?

✵ You can just quote a source: What does Fisher say about masks and fears?

2. No one could plausibly disprove the answer, because it seems self-evident. How important are masks in Hopi rituals? The answer is obvious: Very.

You cannot make a good argument if you cannot identify the best evidence for it.

3. You can't find factual evidence to support the answer.

✵ No relevant facts exist: Are Mayan masks modeled on space aliens?

✵ It's a matter of taste: Are Balinese or Mayan masks more beautiful?

4. You would find so many sources that you cannot look at most of them: How are masks made? (This usually results from a question that's too broad).

QUICK TIP

Don't reject a question because you think someone must already have asked it. Most interesting questions have more than one good answer. Don't reject a question because you think your teacher already knows the answer. You should target your paper not at an expert like your teacher but at someone whose knowledge is more like yours.

The crucial point is to find a question that you really want to answer. Too many students, even advanced ones, think that education means memorizing the right answers to questions someone else has asked and answered. It is not. Among your most important goals for your education should be to learn to ask your own questions and find your own answers.