Quick questions on Framing a research question explained: H2 Knowledge and Inquiry

The first move is to distinguish a topic from a research question. "Artificial intelligence," "free will," "social media" are topics: areas of interest, not things that can be answered. A research question asks something specific that an inquiry could settle, at least provisionally. Beginning with a topic is fine; the work is to narrow it into a question that has an answer worth arguing for.

A good research question has five features. It is focused: narrow enough to be answered within the scope and time available, rather than sprawling. It is answerable: there is evidence or argument that could settle it, so it is not a question that no inquiry could resolve. It is contestable: it admits more than one defensible answer, so there is a genuine thesis to argue rather than a fact to look up.

Refinement proceeds by a series of narrowing moves. Begin with the topic, then fix the specific aspect or variable of interest, then bound the scope (a particular context, period or domain), then phrase the result so that a defensible thesis is possible. For example, "social media" narrows to "the credibility of claims on social media," then to a contestable, bounded question such as "To what extent does the framing of a claim on social media affect whether users judge it credible?" Each step trades breadth for the feasibility and sharpness that make a study answerable.

State the five marks of a good research question. [6 marks]

Explain why a purely descriptive question may be a weak choice for a Knowledge and Inquiry study. [6 marks]

Refine the topic "censorship" into a focused, contestable research question and explain your moves. [8 marks]