User:Evarenon/sandbox/Approaches to Knowledge/Seminar Group 3
Sandbox for seminar group 3
Superconcept essay structure drafts edit
Wikibook chapters drafts edit
Superconcept applied to a discipline – Essay training edit
Issues in Interdisciplinarity – Wikibook chapter training edit
Toolbox edit
How to read an academic article? edit
The Huffington Post, How to read and understand a scientific paper
Rodriguez, Infographic: How to read a scientific paper
How to formulate a research question? edit
A guide, by Kristin Poling, for the Department of History at Harvard, 2008/2009
Common Problems in Question Posing edit
1. The Deceptively Simple Question
A question that demands a simple answer to a complex question.
Ex: When did women achieve equality?
2. The Fictional Question
Ex: If Hitler had been accepted to art school, would World War II have happened?
3. The Stacked Question, or, The Embedded Assumption
Ex: Why did the Carter presidency fail?
4. The Semantic Question
A question that hinges on the definition of terms. Ex: Are all radical revolutions violent?
5. The Impossible-to-Answer Question
Ex: Was World War I inevitable?
6. The Opinion or Ethical Question
Ex: Was Truman wrong to authorize the use of the atomic bomb?
7. The Anachronistic Question
Ex: How good was ancient Athens’ record on civil rights?
The biggest problem a researcher could have is an absent question.
Is this a good research question? A Self-Test edit
- Does my question allow form any possible answers? Is it flexible and open-ended?
- Is it testable? Do I know what kind of evidence would allow an answer?
- Can I break big “why” questions into empirically resolvable pieces?
- Is the question clear and precise? Do I use vocabulary that is vague or needs definition?
- Have I made the premises explicit?
- Is it of a scale suitable to the length of the assignment?
- Can I explain why the answer matters?
Good research questions are edit
According to Sue Hemmings (The Open University) and Anne Hollows (Sheffield Hallam University), good research questions are:
- Relevant: Arising from issues raised in literature and/or practice, the question will be of academic and intellectual interest.
- Manageable: You must be able to access your sources of data (be they documents or people), and to give a full and nuanced answer to your question.
- Substantial and original: The question should showcase your imaginative abilities, however far it may be couched in existing literature.
- Fit for assessment: Remember, you must satisfy the learning outcomes of your course. Your question must be open to assessment, as well as interesting.
- Clear and simple: A clear and simple research question will become more complex as your research progresses. Start with an uncluttered question then unpeel the layers in your reading and writing.
- Interesting: Make your question interesting, but try to avoid questions which are convenient or flashy.