How to Make a Central Question for a Research Paper

By doing your research first, you can come up with a stronger central question.

The central question in a research paper is also known as the thesis statement. The purpose of a central question or thesis statement is to act as the unifying theme of a research paper. It poses the proposition for which the rest of the paper is designed to answer or explain. As such, having the right central question helps keep your paper's research and writing unified. This article will show you how working backwards can help you create a strong central question.

Things You'll Need

• Research materials
• Documentation materials

Instructions

Doing the Research

1. Start by coming up with a general area of interest that you would like to write about. This is not the central question. This is the topic area. For instance, a topic area might be interspecies communication.

2. Gather as many resources as you can about the topic, including books, journals, web content, personal interviews and so forth.

3. Skim your resources for common themes. You can tell by tables of contents or abstracts if certain themes present themselves.

4. Take notes and look for associations. For instance, humans communicating with gorillas is similar to humans communicating with dogs.

5. Do further research on the narrowed topics.

Devising the Central Question

1. Once you have completed your research, identify the research that ties your narrowed topics together directly or can be used to tie them together through deductive reasoning. For instance, humans and gorillas can communicate through sign language, and humans can instruct dogs through hand signals.

2. Tie the research together into the central question. For instance, "Can gorillas and dogs interact through interspecies communication?"

3. Place your central question as the final sentence in your opening paragraph. Develop the central question with the research you have already assembled.

Tips & Warnings

• By doing your research before creating the central question, you can save yourself a lot of time in wasted research, as it is not always possible to find good research on a central question you may have in mind.

References

• Paper Writing Tips: 10 Steps to Prepare Research Paper Outline