Research Question(s)

For someone who does not have a research question, this week's discussions (in research design and measurement) on the criteria of a good question was very interesting, as was the discussion and testing of some of the classes questions.  I found myself jumping in quickly to comment on other people's questions (at one point was conscious of shutting up, but did find that hard!), though it was a bit disappointing there was not more discussion from the group, in particular it would have been great to get more feedback on my own idea.  I think the way I phrased it during the discussion was:

"What is the impact of state funding on NGO advocacy in a democratic context?"

Though I did do an awful lot of um-ing and ah-ing and qualifying it... this was based on 1 of the 4 sentences included in my application proposal.

Possible criteria:

• One clear, understandable question (specific) 
• Relate to a number of areas of research (for reference points I guess)
• Answerable/researchable/feasible
• Not asked before or answered differently, filling a gap... addresses a puzzle or conundrum
• Practical/policy/social relevance
• Not a closed or yes/no question e.g not does it, but how far does it...
• Wider implications
• Reflects your school of thought
• Should be a question

Other factors which were named by the group, but I don't think are core to assessing the question but nonetheless worth thinking about are:

• International interest
• Fundable
• Publishable

Not sure where that leaves my four bullet points, but food for thought...

"To what extent has state funding of NGO advocacy contributed to (participative) democracy in Ireland?"