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This is the first of four parts of the research paper. For this component, I ask

Posted on November 25, 2023 | by Linus | Leave a Comment

This is the first of four parts of the research paper. For this component, I ask that you specify your research question in 1/2 to 1 page. To do so requires a little more than just a single sentence. Here are the parts of a good specification of a research question.
1. The topic area. Often when we think about doing a research project, we focus in on a ‘topic area’ or topic. Say, for example, you’re interested in women in warfare. Or cultural understandings of military service and the place of the soldier. Or say you’re interested in a particular conflict, like the Hundred Years’ War (England v France, 1337-1453, after which standing militaries became increasingly standard; notable in part because it provides the model for much of Game of Thrones) or the current wars in Ukraine or Israel. Or perhaps something like nuclear deterrence or the retreat from total war. Each — and many others — are not only really interesting and entirely reasonable, but topics you could explore using tools. So part is, explicitly identify the topic.
This is likely a sentence or two.
2. Honing in on a question: the ‘what you’re looking at’ and ‘how you’re looking at it’ components. Part 2 then recognizes, okay, each topic area describes a rich domain with many facets. This part asks, what exactly are you proposing to examine and explore and in what respects or how? There are really two parts to this, which I’ll call a. and b.
a, When thinking about what you’re proposing to examine, it’s useful to start with specifying exactly ‘what’ you’re looking at. So say you’re interested in women in warfare. What time period? Where? Is it about women serving in the military? drawn into war or preparation for war, in various ways? Or say it’s a particular conflict–where, when, with what state (and non-state) actors involved, and how. This is all about good (analytically informed) description.
b. THEN, when you’ve considered what you’re looking at, turn your attention to what you’re going to do with it. Often, this suggests what you think is interesting or notable about what you’re looking at, exactly. So, back to women in war. Say you’re looking at women in revolutionary war environments since the French Revolution, focusing on the various roles of Vietnamese women ‘in country’ during the Vietnam War. One thing that stands out is how inclusive irregular militaries can be, with women fighting alongside men as revolutionaries and guerrillas. So this suggests a really interesting thing to research are the roles of Vietnamese women in the Vietnamese War, and how we may explain the range of roles (implicitly in contrast to other, conventional war settings with state-raised military forces). Or maybe it’s about the War in Ukraine and within that pattern of mobilization, where the appeal to all citizens to play a role, the call-up of long demobilized troops from earlier conflicts, and a range of forms of international support all play a part. So this suggests that’s what at issue is how we can explain the pattern of mobilization, paying attention to the interdependencies of its parts and a range of relationships involved (including many beyond the simple state-society-military ones with which we began the course). Or maybe it’s about the blurring of lines between combatants and noncombatants on all sides in World War I, and the question is, how do we explain the blurring of lines and assess its cultural consequences?
This is likely the longest part–perhaps 2 to 5 or 6 sentences. Maybe more if you’re really digging in. It’s where you lay out you’re thinking on the issue, and narrow in what you actually want to research.
3. Expressing this as a question. In the process of doing 2.b., you may have formulated things in terms of a question. Maybe you did not. This asks you, in a sentence or perhaps two, to do your best to express matters in terms of a question which you can in fact research and hope to speak to explicitly. This is a GUIDE FOR YOU in your work as much as anything else.
Aim for one sentence, perhaps two if you want to examine a complex puzzle.
4. Preliminary thoughts on how you’d answer this question. Think about how you’d answer this question. What kind of scholarly work would speak to your question? Where might you look for sources? This is intentionally open, and I don’t expect you to have much in the way of concrete answers. But it’s the link to the next component of the research paper.
A sentence or two is plenty here, to suggest a direction. If you don’t have a direction as yet, not a big deal; the point of the next weeks is to develop on.
Oh, and also please note: the whole process of specifying research is iterative and inherently subject to revision. You may write about something today, and with further thought, find you want to shift focus or adjust how you approach something. That’s fine. The more you work on something and refine it, the more you understand it, and you’ll see what you might do differently or better — and I want you to take advantage of that insight. You’re not locked into every detail of what you lay out here, but I would STRONGLY ENCOURAGE you stay within the same topic areas and response to 2a, to take advantage of the work you’ve already put in.