Questions to Ask When Writing a Research Paper
For high school, college and graduate students with a research paper to write, and for anyone coaching one through it. The questions run in the order the work does: choosing and narrowing a topic, turning it into a research question and a thesis, finding and judging sources, organizing the argument, handling evidence and citation, then revising before it is handed in. Most are for you to answer yourself, a few are for your instructor or a librarian, and each has a note on what a good or a worrying answer looks like and what to do next.
Want questions from the whole vault instead? Try the random question generator.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Topic
What exactly does the assignment ask me to do: argue, analyze, compare or report?
Why ask it
Underline the verbs in the prompt before you choose anything. A paper that summarizes when the prompt said argue tends to lose points however well it is written, and if the verb is unclear, that is the first thing to ask the instructor.
Who am I writing for, and what do they already know?
Why ask it
The instructor grades the paper, but it is seldom written to the instructor alone. If the prompt names no audience, ask. A common default is a bright classmate who took the course and skipped your reading, and that settles which terms to define and how formal to sound.
What about this subject am I curious enough to read about for weeks?
Why ask it
Interest is practical here, because it is what gets you through the tenth article. If nothing on the approved list pulls at you, look for the angle inside one topic that does: a person, a place, a single year, a dispute.
Is this topic small enough to cover in the pages I have?
Why ask it
Say it as a book title. If it works as one, such as "Social Media and Teenagers", it is too big for a paper. Narrow by group, period, place or one aspect until it sounds like a section of a chapter.
Has enough been written about this for me to find the sources the assignment requires?
Why ask it
Spend twenty minutes searching before you commit. Several solid results on the first pass is a good sign. Nothing but news items, or one author over and over, means widening the topic a notch or asking a librarian whether your search terms are the problem.
What do I already know about this, and what do I only assume?
Why ask it
Give yourself five minutes and write both lists. The assumptions are where the reading should start, and one that turns out to be wrong often makes a better paper than the one you had planned.
Who is still arguing about this, and what do they disagree on?
Why ask it
A topic with no live disagreement gives you a report, not an argument. Once you can name two positions and a reason someone holds each, there is room to take a side or to show what both have missed.
What kind of evidence does this topic need, and can I get it before the deadline?
Why ask it
Some topics need data you would have to collect, an archive you cannot reach or a book that takes two weeks to arrive on loan. Count the days back from the due date and pick the version of the topic you can source in that time.
Does my instructor need to approve the topic, and what should I bring when I ask?
Why ask it
Bring two or three sentences and a couple of sources you have already found, not a single word. From that an instructor can tell whether the topic fits the course, and being redirected now costs a day where in week four it costs the paper.
Thesis
What question am I actually trying to answer?
Why ask it
Write it as one sentence ending in a question mark. If all you can produce is a topic, like "the causes of the Dust Bowl", hold off drafting: a topic gives you nothing to decide between.
Can my research question be answered with yes, no or a single fact?
Why ask it
Then it is too closed. Recast it with how, why or to what extent, so that answering takes reasoning and evidence and two careful readers could end up in different places.
What is my working answer to that question right now?
Why ask it
This is the working thesis, and it is allowed to be wrong. Having one early tells you what to look for in each source. Expect to rewrite it at least once as the reading pushes back.
Could a reasonable, informed person disagree with my thesis?
Why ask it
Write the opposite claim and see whether anyone would defend it. When the opposite is absurd, what you have is a fact or a truism, and the paper will have nothing to prove.
If my thesis is right, what follows from it?
Why ask it
Leave this out and "so what?" may be what the grader writes in the margin. One sentence on what changes (how we read the novel, which policy makes sense, what an earlier account got wrong) belongs near the end of the introduction and again in the conclusion.
What does my paper add to what my sources already say?
Why ask it
In an early college paper the addition can be modest: a comparison nobody in your reading made, or a claim tested on a case they left out. In a graduate paper it is the gap your literature review points to. If the honest answer is nothing, you have a summary and need a narrower question.
Can I say my main claim in a sentence or two to someone outside the class?
Why ask it
Try it aloud on a roommate or a parent. Where they frown or ask "meaning what?", the wording is covering a vague idea, and the phrase you reach for to explain it is usually the better thesis.
What evidence would make me change my thesis?
Why ask it
Name it before you go looking. A thesis that no finding could dent is a belief decorated with citations, and having the answer ready keeps you honest on the day a source turns up saying exactly that.
Does my thesis answer the prompt that was set, or a neighboring one I like better?
Why ask it
Put the prompt and the thesis side by side and check that the key terms match. Drifting toward the more interesting neighbor is common halfway through the research. Steer back, or get the instructor's agreement to the change in writing.
Sources
What kinds of sources does this assignment require, and how many?
Why ask it
Words such as scholarly, peer-reviewed and primary in the prompt are requirements, and so is a minimum number. What counts as a primary source is different in history, literature and the sciences, so where the prompt is silent, ask the instructor.
Which databases should I search for this subject, and what terms do people in the field use?
Why ask it
This one is for a librarian, and it is worth the ten minutes. What a library subscribes to depends on the school, and learning the field's own word for your subject can turn a thin search into a full one.
Is this source peer-reviewed, and how can I tell?
Why ask it
Many library databases have a box that limits results to peer-reviewed journals, and a journal's own site describes how its articles are reviewed. A magazine piece or a think-tank report can be sound and still not count toward a scholarly minimum, so check which kind the assignment is counting.
Who wrote this, and what qualifies them to say it?
Why ask it
Look for a named author, where they work and what else they have published on the subject. An anonymous page, or a writer trained in another field entirely, can still be right, but should not be holding up a main point of your argument.
Who published this, and what do they gain if I believe it?
Why ask it
An advocacy group, a company report and a university press each have a different stake. A stake does not rule a source out. It tells you which claims to confirm elsewhere and how to describe the source when you introduce it.
When was this published, and does the date matter for my topic?
Why ask it
In fast-moving fields a ten-year-old article may be out of date, while in history or philosophy one from fifty years ago can still be the standard work. Check whether anything important has been found since, and keep to a date range if your instructor set one.
Is this the original study or document, or someone's account of it?
Why ask it
A news story about a study, or a textbook quoting a letter, is one step removed. Follow the trail back and read the original where you can, since a summary tends to drop the limits the authors put on their own findings.
How does this author know what they claim, and can I check it?
Why ask it
The answer is in the footnotes, the data or the description of the method. A source that asserts with confidence and cites nothing is asking to be trusted, and the most it gives you is a lead to confirm somewhere else.
Can I cite this, or should I use it only to find better sources?
Why ask it
Encyclopedias, Wikipedia and textbooks are good for getting your bearings and for the references at the foot of the entry. Whether one may appear in your own list is the instructor's call, and many would have you read and cite what the entry cites.
Which sources disagree with my thesis, and have I read the best of them?
Why ask it
A bibliography in which every author agrees with you looks like a search that stopped early. Find the strongest opposing piece, not the weakest: answering it is what makes a one-sided paper persuasive.
Which authors and titles keep turning up in my sources' reference lists?
Why ask it
A name cited by five of your sources is probably where the conversation started. Reading that work yourself saves you from passing on a secondhand version of it, and an instructor who knows the field will notice if it is missing from your list.
In my notes, how am I marking which words are the author's and which are mine?
Why ask it
Accidental plagiarism often begins here, with a pasted sentence that looks like your own three weeks later. Put quotation marks and a page number on anything copied at the moment you copy it, and keep your own reactions in a separate column or color.
Do I have enough to stop searching and start writing?
Why ask it
You are close when new searches keep returning things you have read, or sources that repeat points you already hold. Still collecting a week before the deadline usually means the searching has become a way to put off the draft.
Structure
What does my reader need to know first in order to follow the argument?
Why ask it
Background earns its place only when a later point depends on it. For each paragraph of context, name the claim further on that needs it. If you cannot, it is history you kept because it took so long to learn, and it can go.
What are the main points that hold up my thesis, each written as one sentence?
Why ask it
Each should make a claim, not sit there as a heading like "Economic factors". A point you can only write as a label is a section whose argument you have not worked out yet.
Which point has to come before which, and why?
Why ask it
Order follows dependence: the definition before the case that uses it, the cause before the effect, the weaker reason before the one you want remembered. If any order would do, you have a list of observations and still need the idea that connects them.
Does each paragraph make one point, and can I say what it is?
Why ask it
Make a reverse outline: in the margin of the draft, write five words on what each paragraph does. Two entries for one paragraph means split it. No entry means filler, or a quotation with nothing of yours around it.
Where does the strongest objection to my argument go, and how do I answer it?
Why ask it
Give it a paragraph of its own and state it the way its holder would. Conceding the part that is right and showing why your claim still stands is more convincing than writing as if nobody disagreed. Try it early and try it just before the conclusion, then keep the placement that reads better.
Does my field or this assignment expect a set structure with named sections?
Why ask it
A lab report or a social science paper often runs introduction, methods, results, discussion, where a literature or history paper is built around the argument instead. Which applies, and whether an abstract or a literature review is expected, is for the assignment sheet or the instructor to say.
What does my introduction promise, and does the paper deliver it?
Why ask it
Plenty of writers draft the introduction last, or rewrite it then, because only at the end do they know what the paper argues. Compare the thesis in the first paragraph with the conclusion. If they differ, the conclusion is usually the truer of the two.
What does my conclusion do besides repeat the introduction?
Why ask it
A good one answers the so-what, admits a limit of the argument or names the question it opens. Keep new evidence out: a fact making its first appearance in the last paragraph should have been in the body.
Evidence
What evidence supports each point, and is there a point with none?
Why ask it
Go down the outline and write a source beside every claim. A bare claim is something to research further, soften to "may" or cut, and it is much better that you find it than that the grader does.
After each quotation, have I said what it shows?
Why ask it
A quotation left on its own asks the reader to do your analysis. Add a sentence or two after it saying which words matter and how they support the paragraph's point. If you cannot write that sentence, the quotation is decoration.
Should I quote this, paraphrase it or summarize it?
Why ask it
Quote when the exact wording matters: a definition, a striking phrase, language you are about to analyze. Otherwise paraphrase, which shows you understood it. A paraphrase needs a citation just as a quotation does.
Is this paraphrase really in my own words and my own sentence structure?
Why ask it
Swapping synonyms into the author's sentence leaves it the author's sentence. Close the source, write the idea from memory, then check it against the original for accuracy and for phrases you carried over without noticing.
Which claims here need a citation, and which count as common knowledge?
Why ask it
Where the line falls depends on the field and the audience, so cite when in doubt and take borderline cases to the instructor. Anything you learned from a particular source during this research gets a citation, and that includes an idea or an interpretation as well as a fact.
Which citation style does this paper use, and which edition?
Why ask it
MLA, APA, Chicago and the others differ in small ways that are tedious to fix at the end, so settle it before you type the first reference. The choice belongs to the instructor or the journal. Ask if the assignment sheet does not name one.
Does every in-text citation have an entry in the reference list, and every entry a citation?
Why ask it
Work in both directions with the reference list printed beside the draft, and put a mark by each entry as you find its citation. Citation managers and generators save time and can still get capitals, author names and dates wrong, so compare a few entries with the style guide by hand.
Am I representing this source fairly, including the limits its author stated?
Why ask it
Reread the passage around anything you quote. A sentence lifted from a paragraph that goes on to qualify or reject it can cost a paper its credibility, and "the study found" often turns out to be "the study suggested, in one group".
If I am gathering my own data through a survey, interviews or an experiment, what has to be in place first?
Why ask it
Research with people often needs permission before it starts, and who grants it differs by school and by course, so ask the instructor before the first survey goes out. Record as you go who took part, how many, when and the exact questions asked. The methods section is written from that record.
If I use a table, chart or image, have I said where it came from and what the reader should see in it?
Why ask it
A figure dropped in without comment gets skipped. Mention it in the text, state the one thing it shows, label it the way your citation style asks and credit the source even if you redrew it yourself.
What does this course allow when it comes to AI tools, tutors and help from other people?
Why ask it
Rules on AI writing tools, outside editing and working with classmates differ by instructor, course and school, and they keep changing. Ask before you use any of them, not after, and ask how to acknowledge whatever help is allowed.
Revising
If someone read only my thesis and the first sentence of each paragraph, would they follow the argument?
Why ask it
Copy those sentences into a blank document and read them as one paragraph. Gaps and repeats show at once, which makes this the quickest structural check on a draft you are too close to.
Have I done everything the assignment sheet and the rubric ask for?
Why ask it
Go through the rubric line by line with the draft open: length, number and type of sources, required sections, formatting. These are the easiest points to keep and the most annoying to lose.
Where does the draft sound like my sources instead of me?
Why ask it
The sign is a stretch where one citation follows another with no sentence of yours in between. That is a summary of other people's views. Add the line that says what you make of them, or how two of them fit together.
Which paragraph could I cut without the argument noticing?
Why ask it
It is often the one that took the most research. Move it to a separate file instead of deleting it, which makes the cut easier to bear, and read the paper without it before you decide.
What do I hear when I read the paper aloud, or have it read to me?
Why ask it
The ear catches what the eye lets through: a sentence that runs out of breath, a word used three times in two lines, a missing "not". Mark each stumble and keep going, then fix them afterward so you do not lose the thread.
Have I defined my key terms and used each one the same way throughout?
Why ask it
Search the document for your two or three central terms. If "globalization" means trade on page two and culture on page six, the argument has shifted without telling the reader. A sentence of definition near the start usually fixes it.
Does my title say what the paper argues, or only what it is about?
Why ask it
"Jane Eyre and Religion" names a subject. Put the claim or the question after a colon and the reader knows what to look for before the first line. Leave the title until the argument has settled, and ask whether a separate title page is wanted.
What specific question will I take to the writing center, a classmate or office hours?
Why ask it
"Is this okay?" gets "looks fine". Ask where they lost the argument or which paragraph convinced them least. Find out first what feedback on drafts your instructor allows and how far ahead they need to see one.
Have I proofread the version I am handing in, after my last edit and not before it?
Why ask it
Late edits bring their own errors: half a deleted sentence, a citation that no longer matches its entry. Make one slow pass on the file you will submit, and leave the title, your name, the page numbers and the reference list for last.
Using the questions from first idea to final draft
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Which questions to ask when
Before any reading
Take the Topic group in one sitting with the assignment sheet in front of you, and write the answers down. A paragraph of notes on what the prompt wants, what you are curious about and how narrow the topic is will save more time than any amount of early searching.
While you read
Keep the Sources questions beside you. A source you are citing once for a single fact does not need all of them. The three or four that carry your argument do: author, publisher, date, how they know, and whether you are reading the original.
Before you draft
Put the Thesis and Structure answers on one page: the question, your working answer, and each supporting point as a full sentence with a source next to it. If that page reads as an argument, the draft is mostly a matter of filling it out. If it does not, an hour spent there beats a day spent on paragraphs.
While you draft
The Evidence group belongs to the drafting itself. Settle the citation style before the first reference, cite as you write instead of promising yourself a pass at the end, and stop at each quotation long enough to say what it shows.
After a full draft
Use the Revising group on a different day from the writing if the deadline allows. Work from large to small: argument and order first, then paragraphs, then sentences, then the reference list. Polishing a sentence in a paragraph you later cut is wasted effort.
If you are starting late
With days instead of weeks, ask six: what the assignment wants, what question you are answering, your working answer, your main points as sentences, the evidence for each, and whether you have met the rubric. The rest improve a paper. Those six are what make it one.
Questions to take to someone else
Your instructor
Some answers are only theirs to give: what the prompt means, whether the topic is acceptable, which sources count, which citation style, what help and which tools are allowed. Go with specific wording, such as "Would a paper arguing X fit the assignment?", and go early. The same question in the first week and on the night before reads very differently.
A librarian
Bring the research question and the searches you have already tried. A librarian can point you to the databases for the subject, suggest the terms the field uses and tell you how to request something the library does not hold. How long a request takes depends on the library, so ask before you build a paper around a book you do not have.
The writing center or a classmate
Arrive with a draft and one question you want answered, not a general request to look it over. What a writing center will and will not do with a draft varies from school to school, and so does how much working together a course permits, so check both before you swap papers.
Writing down what they said
Note the answer and the date, and keep any email. If an instructor agreed to a changed topic or a different source requirement, that note is what you point to later, and it stops you from second-guessing the decision at midnight.
When the paper stalls
The thesis keeps changing
Up to the first full draft that is the research doing its job. After it, settle: write the claim the evidence in front of you supports today, revise the introduction to match and stop reading new material unless a gap in the argument demands it.
Reading without writing
A stack of highlighted articles feels like progress and is hard to turn into pages. After each source, write three or four sentences of your own on what it argues and how you might use it. Those notes become the first lines of your paragraphs.
The evidence goes against you
Change the thesis, not the evidence. "X, except where Y" or "X is weaker than is usually claimed" is a more careful argument than the one you started with, and it is the kind an instructor tends to trust. Leaving the awkward source out is the one move that makes the paper worse.
Too short or too long
A draft that comes up short usually has claims with no explanation after them, so add your reasoning, not more quotations or longer ones. A draft that runs over is cut by point, not by trimming words: find the section the thesis needs least and remove it whole.