Developing a research question

The starting point of any research project or data analysis is with a question. Not all questions are relevant or appropriate for a DP approach, so you will need to ensure that your question fits with the epistemological, theoretical and analytical approach of DP, or else choose a different approach to fit your question. While you may be eager to start collecting your data and diving into the analysis, you first need to plan out your research project and define your research question. This is essentially the process of clarifying exactly what it is that you want to study. This chapter therefore presents a dilemma. Ideally, you should choose a research question and then an appropriate analytical ...