The research question is the heart of your thesis. Everything you do afterwards, your literature review, your method, your conclusion, serves to answer that one question. Yet a research question that is too broad, vague or unanswerable is by far the most common mistake I see after 25 years of thesis coaching. In this article I explain what a good research question is, how to formulate one, and how to avoid common mistakes.

What makes a research question good?

A good research question meets four criteria:

  • Specific: the question is clearly defined in target group, context and time period
  • Answerable: you can answer the question with the data you can realistically collect
  • Relevant: the question connects to a recognisable problem or knowledge gap
  • Open: the question invites research and cannot be answered with yes or no

A question like “What is the influence of social media on young people?” meets none of these criteria. The target group is too broad, the influence is not specified, and you would need years to research it properly. That is a topic, not a research question.

From topic to research question: three steps

Step 1: Define your topic

Start with your general topic and ask yourself three questions: who is it about, in which context, and in which period? The more specific your answer, the sharper your question becomes.

Example: the topic is “burnout in the workplace.” Scope: burnout among nurses in Dutch hospitals in the period 2020 to 2024.

Step 2: Decide what you want to know

Do you want to describe, explain, compare or evaluate something? This determines the type of research question and the matching method.

  • Descriptive questions start with “What” or “How”
  • Explanatory questions start with “Why” or “To what extent”
  • Comparative questions start with “What is the difference” or “To what extent does it differ”

Step 3: Formulate the question concretely

Combine your scope with the type of question. Use a fixed format: “To what extent does X influence Y among target group Z in context W?”

Example: “To what extent did the workload during the covid-19 pandemic contribute to burnout symptoms among nurses in Dutch hospitals in the period 2020 to 2022?”

This is specific, answerable, relevant and open. You can build a thesis on this.

Sub-questions: why they are necessary

A main question is too big to answer in one go. Sub-questions break the main question into manageable steps. A good sub-question is:

  • answerable independently
  • together with the other sub-questions, fully answering the main question
  • logical in order (descriptive before explanatory)

Set a maximum of four to five sub-questions. More is a sign that your main question is too broad.

Common mistakes

  • The question is actually a statement: “Is working from home better for productivity?” is an opinion, not a research question
  • The question contains two questions in one: always split these into separate sub-questions
  • The question is already answered in existing literature: do a quick scan before you finalise the question
  • The question is too ambitious for the available time: check this with your supervisor or a coach

Conclusion

You do not write a good research question in five minutes. It is an iterative process of defining, formulating and testing. Invest time in it, because a weak research question undermines the rest of your thesis, however well you write the rest.