Chapter 3 Summary - The Bedford Researcher

How to develop your research question and research proposal is what Mike Palmquist discusses in chapter 3 of his book, The Bedford Researcher. This chapter is divided in to two parts, part one is about your research question and how develop one. Palmquist starts off by giving us a list of words that almost all research questions begin with, which are, what, why, when, where, who, how, would, could and should. He then goes on to talk about how some research questions are followed by different kinds of thinking processes, things like, definition; evaluation; comparison and contrast; cause and effect analysis; problem and solution analysis or advocacy; sequential analysis; inquiry; and reporting. These ways of thinking can help to revise and focus your research questions even more. Palmquist also suggests using a variety of conditional words to refine your research question even more. Some of these conditional words are although, because, even though, given that, in light of, now that, since, and while. The second half of chapter 3 focuses on writing a research proposal. Palmquist outlines the basic things that a research proposal needs and what those are in detail, things like a title page; an introduction that identifies your topic issue, and/or research question; a review of literature; an explanation of how you will collect information; a project timeline; and a working bibliography. This chapter of The Bedford Researcher contains a lot of great content but especially at the very end of the of it Palmquist includes an example research proposal; which, I feel that all research writers will find this very helpful.