University of Phoenix Material

Research Plan

As part of your research plan, you must first draft a research question for your research paper that will guide the rest of your writing.

A research question, which is more specific and focused than a general topic, is the question that your research paper will be answering. For example, if your general area of interest is Social Security, a possible research question might ask “How could low-income families save more money if the United States had a reformed Social Security plan that included personal retirement accounts?”

As you develop a research question, keep in mind that you will need to research sources to support your topic. Do not pick a one-sided question that will limit your research. Instead, develop a research question that lends itself to further exploration and debate—a question you genuinely want to know the answer to. Try to pick a research question that is not too broad (covering too much) or too narrow (covering too little). It should be broad enough to be discussed in a short research paper.

|What is your general topic or area of interest? |Environment |
|What is it about your general topic of interest that interests |Your environment awareness is very important your environment is |
|you? |a place for development and growth. |
| | |
|What questions do you have about the topic that you would like to|What makes our environment a safe place? |
|investigate? List them. |What can we do to better our environment? |
| |What makes our environment a healthy place to live? |
| | |
| | |
|Would any of the questions you listed about the topic make a good|What can we do to better our environment? |
|subject for a research paper? Pick or adapt one question and make| |
|it into a research question. | |
|Why do you think this research question is appropriate for a |Because you’re your environment is a very important place for |
|research paper?