Research question

1. Developing Your Research Question
By Andrew Shafalovich

2. Your research question provides a starting point for
investigating a conversation
• What is a research question and how does it shape my research
writing project?
• What is the difference between a research question and a thesis
statement?
• How can I draft my research question?

3. What is a research question…?
• A research question is a brief question that directs your efforts to
collect, critically read, and evaluate your sources.

4. What is the difference between a research question and
a thesis statement?
• Research questions are a way to mark your current understanding
of your conversation and direct your research efforts.
• Your research question can help you decide how to use the
information you’ve found.
• A thesis statement answers your research question.

5. An example:
• Research Question: Why did comics become darker and more
violent in the 1980s?
• Thesis Statement: In Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Frank
Miller re-imagines Batman as a psychologically tormented figure
who is driven by his anguish over the death of his parents to become
a vigilant figure who is more concerned about revenge than he is
the law. This shift corresponds to an increasing focus on violence
and vigilantism in American culture during the Reagan years.

6. • Your next step is to generate a list of questions about the
conversation you have decided to join.

7. Selecting a Working Research Question
• Early research questions typically suffer from a lack of focus.
• You can narrow the scope of your research question by looking for
vague words and phrases and replacing them with more specific
words or phrases.

8. Example:
• Original Question: Why did comics become darker and more violent
in the 1980s?
• Refined Question: How are the differences in American values from
the 1940s to the 1980s reflected in The Dark Knight Returns?
• Further Refined:What accounts for the vigilantism of Batman in
Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns?

9. • Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns has been called
the most important superhero comic since the first issue of
Superman. Miller’s comic is certainly one of the most important
comics of the mid-1980s deconstruction of the superhero. Bradford
Wright claims, “creators won critical acclaim and commercial
fortune by exploring their characters’ disturbing psychological
motivations and cultural implications.… Once confident symbols
of hope, superheroes now spoke to the paranoia and psychosis
lurking behind the rosy veneer of Reagan’s America” (266).
Consider the ways that The Dark Knight Returns serves as an
example of the type of comic Wright claims dominated this period.
How does Miller imagine the character of Batman? How is the
relationship between Batman and his two archetypal foes, Two-
Face and The joker, re-imagined in Miller’s comic? What are the
significances of this reconsideration of these relationships? What is
the significance of Batman’s age in this comic? How does Miller’s
comic reflect the cultural values of America in the 1980s?

10. Thank you for attention!