Step One

You are asked to provide the topic of your research project. Write the title of your project and a short summary. Topics explored may include racial profiling, juvenile delinquency, policing, the war on drugs, fear of crime, and prisoner re-entry in a context of a specific neighborhood.

Then, you are expected to narrow down your chosen topic to a research question. A research question is the starting point for investigations in the natural and social sciences. It directs the phenomena that a study will be examining and seeking to explain.

A research question helps to focus on one’s research. A successful paper depends to a large extent on the quality of the research question that has been set. Setting a focused and narrow question is a fundamental step toward writing a concise and well-structured paper. If your question is unclear or unanswerable, then your paper is set to be poor from the beginning. This means that it is important to engage meaningfully with the process of the question setting.

The question you set should be one that you are genuinely interested in exploring since you will be spending a lot of time researching and writing about the topic that you elect.

EXAMPLES:

1. Topic: The War on Drugs in Jackson Heights, Queens: A Closer Look. Research question: How has the War on Drugs in Jackson Heights, Queens impacted law enforcement’s relationship with members in the community?
2. Topic: Day workers’ presence in Queens Blvd. Research question: How do day workers affect the neighborhood of Queens Blvd?
3. Topic: Gentrification in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Research question: How has the gentrification impacted Flatbush?

INSTRUCTIONS:

Watch how to post in OpenLab

Write an OpenLab post with your research question.

DEADLINE: February 16th, 2023