Thursday, October 9, 2014

Shaping Research Questions: Part Two

"What are the most effective online strategies for mobilizing individuals for social action?"
This is a very interesting question, but it is too broad to focus on for a 5-7 page research paper. However, if narrowed down, it could be shaped into a great question, because it is complex: It is multi-faceted, it requires extensive research, and it needs an argument. If it were to focus on, say, how a specific organization has been successful in relation to others, thus comparatively showing how some strategies are more effective than others, this would result in a great project. 
This is the question I think involves more research. 
"Are children smarter because of the internet?"
First of all, I cringed after reading the word 'smarter'. Secondly, it is a yes no question, which would result in a very short response and not much research needed. This is not a bad question in nature, if  a more specific focus were added it could turn into a very interesting paper. I would first change 'smarter' to 'affected', or 'educated', and focus on how a specific organization or webpage is structured to help educate children/or is detrimental to their learning(misinformed, bias, etc.). It needs to incorporate a research aspect, and thus needs to add an additional component to the question. An example could follow as such, "How certain webpages X, Y, and Z, are educating children, and how we should learn from them" Including the final consequence need not be necessary, but regardless, their should be some kind of additional, specific, information added to the question. 
This is the question I think involves much less research. 

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