IDENTIFYING THE INQUIRY AND STATING THE PROBLEM

LESSON 3: IDENTIFYING THE INQUIRY AND

STATING THE PROBLEM

Inquiry or research drives you to a thorough or an in-depth analysis of a certain subject

matter. This kind of study involves several stages that require much time and effort. You
need to spend some time in finalizing your mind about a particular topic to research on or
in determining the appropriateness of such topic, in obtaining background knowledge
about it, and in raising some specific questions that you want your research work to
answer. Focusing seriously on these aspects of your study is laying a good foundation or
beginning of your research work (Baraceros, 2016).

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE INQUIRY OR RESEARCH

You begin your research work with a problem; that is, having a problem or topic to
work on. Mulling over a topic for your research work drives you to perform HOTS
or higher-order thinking strategies of inferential, critical, integrative, and creative
thinking in finalizing your mind on one topic among several choices. A topic is
researchable if the knowledge and information about it are supported by evidence
that is observable, factual, and logical. Here are some pointers you have to keep in
mind in selecting a research topic (Babbie 2013):

GUIDELINES IN CHOOSING A RESEARCH TOPIC

1. Interest in the subject matter
Your interest in a topic may be caused by your rich background knowledge about it
and by its novelty; meaning, its unfamiliarity to you. Being curious about a subject, like a
conundrum or a puzzle, makes you determined to unravel the mystery or intriguing thing
behind it. Your real interest in a subject pushes you to research, investigate, or inquire
about it with full motivation, enthusiasm, and energy.

2. Availability of information
Collecting a lot of information as evidence to support your claims about your subject
matter from varied forms of literature like books, journals, and newspapers, among others,
is a part and parcel of any research work. Hence, in choosing a research topic, visit your
library to check the availability of reading materials on your chosen topic. Included in your
investigation of the availability of reading materials are questions on how updated and
authoritative the materials are. Let these questions linger as you tour the library: What are
the copyright dates of the materials? How old or new are they? How expert or qualified the

LESSON 3 RESRCH180 1
 IDENTIFYING THE INQUIRY AND STATING THE PROBLEM
writers are in coming out with such kind of reading materials about your topic?

3. Timeliness and relevance of the topic

The topic is relevant if it yields results that are instrumental in societal
improvement. It is timely if it is related to the present. For instance, unless it is a pure or
historical research, a research on the ins and outs of people’s revolutionary acts will
prosper more if it tackles the contemporary revolutionary actions rather than those in the
ancient time.

4. Limitations on the subject

This makes you link your choosing with course requirements. For example, to make
you complete the requirements, your teacher instructs you to submit a paper that will
apply the key principles you learned in business, psychology, education, and so on. In this
case, you have no freedom to choose your topic based on your interest, but has to decide
on one topic to finish your course.

RESEARCH TOPICS TO BE AVOIDED

1. Controversial topics.
These are topics that depend greatly on the writer’s opinion, which may tend to be
biased or prejudicial. Facts cannot support topics like these.

2. Highly technical subjects.

For a beginner, researching on topics that require an advanced study, technical
knowledge, and vast experience is a very difficult task.

3. Hard-to-investigate subjects.
A subject is hard to investigate if there are no available reading materials about it
and if such materials are not up-to-date.

4. Too broad subjects.

Topics that are too broad will prevent you from giving a concentrated or an in-depth
analysis of the subject matter of the paper. The remedy to this is to narrow or limit the
topic to a smaller one.

5. Too narrow subjects.

These subjects are so limited or specific that an extensive or thorough searching or
reading for information about these is necessary.

6. Vague subjects.
Choosing topics like these will prevent you from having a clear focus on your paper.
For instance, titles beginning with indefinite adjectives such as several, many, some, etc.,
as in “Some Remarkable Traits of a Filipino” or “ Several People’s Comments on the RH
Law,” are vague enough to decrease the readers’ interests and curiosity.

LESSON 3 RESRCH180 2
 IDENTIFYING THE INQUIRY AND STATING THE PROBLEM

SOURCES OF RESEARCH TOPICS

This time, you already have ideas on some factors that affect your process of
choosing a researchable topic. It is also necessary for you to know where a good research
topic may come from. Knowing some sources of probable research topics could hasten
your choosing; thereby, freeing you from a prolonged time of pondering over a problem of
knowing which problem is good for you to research on. The following can help you
generate ideas about a good research topic (Silverman, 2013).

1. Mass media communication – press (newspapers, ads, TV, radio, films, etc.)
2. Books, Internet, peer-reviewed journals, government publications
3. Professional periodicals like College English Language Teaching Forum, English
Forum, The Economist, Academia, Business Circle, Law Review, etc.
4. General periodicals such as Readers’ Digest, Women’s Magazine, Panorama
Magazine, Time Magazine, World Mission Magazine, etc.
5. Previous reading assignments in your other subjects
6. Work experience – clues to a researchable topic from full-time or part-time jobs,
OJT (on-the-job training) experience, fieldwork, etc.

RESEARCH PROBLEM VS. RESEARCH QUESTION

Meaning of Research Problem
The ultimate goal of the research is not only to propose ways of studying things,
people, places, and events, but also to discover and introduce new practices, strategies, or
techniques in solving a problem. The word “problem” makes you worry and pushes you to
exert considerable effort in finding a solution for it. When you feel perplexed or anxious
about what to do about something you are doubtful of or about a question you are
incapable of answering, you then come to think of conducting research, an investigation,
or inquiry. You consider research as the remedy for getting over any problem. When you
decide to do research, you begin with a problem that will lead you to a specific topic to
focus on. For instance, you are beset by a problem of year-by-year flash floods in your
community. This problem drives you to think of one topic you can investigate or focus on
for the solution to your community’s flood problem. Perhaps, you can research only one
aspect of the flood problem, like examining only the neighborhood lifestyle in relation to
floods in the area, the need to construct antiflood structures, or the practicability of more
footbridges in the area (Gray, 2013).

Background of the Problem

You must not rush into gathering ideas and information about your topic. First,
spend time getting background knowledge about the problem that triggered off your
research topic to discover its relation to what the world, particularly the experts,
professionals, and learned people know about your topic. Also, reading for rich background
ideas about the problem is also another way to discover some theories or principles to
support your study (Braun, 2014; Woodwell, 2014).

LESSON 3 RESRCH180 3
 IDENTIFYING THE INQUIRY AND STATING THE PROBLEM

Research Questions
The research problem enables you to generate a set of research questions.
However, your ability to identify your research problem and to formulate the questions
depends on the background knowledge you have about the topic. To get a good idea of
the problem, you must have a rich background knowledge about the topic through the RRL
(Review of Related Literature), which requires intensive reading about your topic. Apart
from having a clearer picture of the topic, it will also help you in adopting an appropriate
research method and have a thorough understanding of the knowledge area of your
research.
A research problem serving as an impetus behind your desire to carry out a
research study comes from many sources. Difficulties in life are arising from social
relationships, governmental affairs, institutional practices, cultural patterns, environmental
issues, marketing strategies, etc. are problematic situations that will lead you to identify
one topic to research on. Centering your mind on the problem, you can formulate one
general or mother problem of your research work. (Punch 2014) To give your study a clear
direction, you have to break this big, overreaching, general question into several smaller or
specific research questions. The specific questions, also called sub-problems, identify or
direct you to the exact aspect of the problem that your study has to focus on. Beset by
many factors, the general question or research problem is prone to reducing itself to
several specific questions, seeking conclusive answers to the problem.

The following shows you the link among the following: research problem, research topic,
research question, and the construction of one general question and specific questions in a
research paper.

Research Problem: The need to have a safer, comfortable, and healthful walk or
transfer of students from place to place in the UST campus
Research Topic: The Construction of a Covered Pathway in the UST Campus
General Question: What kind of covered path should UST construct in its campus?
Specific Questions:
1. What materials are needed for the construction of the covered pathway in the UST
campus?
2. What roofing material is appropriate for the covered path?
3. In what way can the covered pathway link all buildings in the campus?
4. What is the width and height of the covered path? 5. How can the covered path realize
green architecture?

Research questions aim at investigating specific aspects of the research problem. Though
deduced from the general or mother question, one specific question may lead to another
sub-problem or sub-question, requiring a different data-gathering technique and directing
the research to a triangulation or mixed method approach. Referring to varied aspects of
the general problem, a set of research questions plays a crucial part in the entire research
work. They lay the foundation for the research study. Therefore, they determine the
research design or plan of the research. Through sub-questions, you can precisely
determine the type of data and the method of collecting, analyzing, and presenting data.

LESSON 3 RESRCH180 4
 IDENTIFYING THE INQUIRY AND STATING THE PROBLEM

Any method or technique of collecting, collating, and analyzing data specified by the
research design depends greatly on the research questions. The correct formulation of
research questions warrants not only excellent collection, analysis, and presentation of
data, but a credible conclusion as well (Layder, 2013).
Hence, the following are things you have to remember in research question formulation
(Barbie, 2013; Litchman, 2013; Silverman, 2013).

GUIDELINES IN FORMULATING RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. Establish a clear relation between the research questions and the problem or topic.

2. Base your research questions on your RRL or Review of Related Literature because
existing published works help you get good background knowledge of the research
problem and help you gauge the people’s current understanding or unfamiliarity about the
topic, as well as the extent of their knowledge and interest in it. Convincing solutions to
research problems or answers to research questions stem from their alignment with what
the world already knows or what previous research studies have already discovered about
the research problem or topic.

3. Formulate research questions that can arouse your curiosity and surprise you with your
discoveries or findings. This is true for research questions asked about a problem that was
never investigated upon.

4. State your research questions in such a way that they include all dependent and
independent variables referred to by the theories, principles, or concepts underlying your
research work.

5. Let the set of research questions or sub-problems be preceded by one question

expressing the main problem of the research.

6. Avoid asking research questions that are answerable with “yes” or “no” and use the
“how” questions only in a quantitative research.

7. Be guided by the acronym SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-

bound) in formulating the research questions. Applying SMART, you must deal with exact
answers and observable things, determine the extent or limit of the data collected, be
aware of the timeframe and completion period of the study, and endeavor to have your
research study arrive at a particular conclusion that is indicative of what are objective,
factual, or real in this world.

LESSON 3 RESRCH180 5
 IDENTIFYING THE INQUIRY AND STATING THE PROBLEM

References:
Baraceros, E. (2019). Practical Research 1. Second Edition. Quezon City: REX Bookstore.

Clamor-Torneo, H. & Torneo, A. (2017). Practical Research 1. Quezon City: Sibs Publishing House.

Clemente, R, Julaton, A. B. & Orleans, A. (2016). Research in Daily Life 1. Quezon City: Sibs Publishing
House.

LESSON 3 RESRCH180 6