Choosing a Topic & Forming a Good Research Question

For this unit, you will choose a social, environmental, or economic issue that you are interested in
finding solutions for. Your goal is to find out how the problem can best be solved or alleviated. There
will be different perspectives on how this can be done, and that will make your task all the more
interesting.

Possible topics – Problems that need solving

Social Environmental Economic

Gender equality Climate change Poverty
Racial or ethnic discrimination Pollution (water, air, or soil) Economic inequality
Crime Deforestation Unemployment
Slavery Biodiversity loss/extinction Corruption
Child labor Desertification Homelessness
Unequal access to health care Invasive species Public/Government debt
Unequal access to education Noise/light pollution
Inflation/hyperinflation
Ocean acidification
Digital divide
Genetic modification of foods
Mental health

Check if it’s researchable

Find out if you can find useful, interesting information about the topic in any country of your choice
(outside of China). Once you found something you would like to find more about and would like to see
solved (or at least mitigated):

Can you find ample (sufficient) information about it?

Have you chosen a country outside of China?
Is it interesting to you?

Make a research question

Once you have a topic you like, work on developing a focused, clear research question:

Is the topic too big? (think about how many sub questions you would
need to answer it)
Is it too specific or narrow?
Does it allow you to focus on solving the problem?
Can you make the question clearer?
Finally, have you shown it to others and your teacher?

Justify your research question

Why is your research question important:

a) locally (in particular areas of the country you
chose)
b) nationally (in the country as a whole)
c) globally (how does what is happening in your
country affect the rest of the world?)
Who would find your research useful? Why?

What is your clear, focused, important research question?