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? |My general topic and area of interest is education. |
|What is it about your general topic of interest that interests |The big decline in education is one of the things that interest |
|you? |me about my selected topic. Another interest is education |
| |funding. Where is the money from the lottery? |
|What questions do you have about the topic that you would like to|Some of the questions I have about my topic are as follows; |
|investigate? List them. |Why the decline in education? |
| |What factors played a part of the decline? |
| |Is the decline of education only restricted to economically poor |
| |area? |
|Would any of the questions you listed about the topic make a good|All the questions make a good subject for a research paper. The |
|subject for a research paper? Pick or adapt one question and make|one question I could make into a research question is; |
|it into a research question. |How have the effects of a declining public education impacted the|
| |enrollment of private education? |
|Why do you think this research question is appropriate for a |The question is appropriate for a research paper because it |
|research paper? |answers questions on what has happened to public education. |
|How is your research question significant or relevant to a wider |This research question is significant and relevant to a wider |
|community? |community. If you know when the decline happened, then educators |
| |may be able to slow the decline down, and maybe even reverse it. |
|What background information provides the preliminary grounds for |The background information that will provide preliminary grounds |
|your research?