14.2: Formulate General Research Questions
Most general questions start with an inspiration or an idea about a topic or phenomenon of interest. Some examples of general questions:
- (Health Care) Would a public single payer health care system be more effective than the current private insurance system?
- (Labor) What is the effect of undocumented immigration and outsourcing of jobs on the current unemployment rate?
- (Economy) Is the federal economic stimulus package effective in lessening the impact of the recession?
- (Education) Are colleges too expensive for students today?
It is important to not be so specific in choosing these general questions. On the basis of available or potentially available data, we can decide later what specific research hypotheses will be formulated and tested to address the general question. During the data collection and testing process other ideas may come up and we may choose to redefine the general question. However, we always want to have an overriding purpose for our research.