 Here are a few tips and exercises for improving your research question. Compare these two questions. How are they different? The second question is more focused. The first question is too broad to be researched. What genre of music? What aspect of mood? What people are being studied? The second question incorporates all of these variables. It's detailed, narrow, and specific. How focused a question should be partly depends on the length of the research project. Choose a question that you can answer thoroughly in the time that you have. Now let's compare another set of questions. How are they different? Which question sounds more manageable? Question one is more feasible. Currently, it's not technologically possible to raise children on Mars, so the second question can't be researched. It also raises some ethical concerns. On the other hand, it would be much simpler to find participants for the first question. Consider the time, resources, and funding that are available to you when coming up with a feasible research question. Let's look at the last pair of questions. How are they different? Which question would lead to more insights? Question two is appropriately complex, while question one could benefit from more complexity. Question one can be answered with only a number, but question two requires synthesis and analysis of many ideas and sources in order to provide an answer. It's important to have questions that are appropriately complex so that the results go beyond a simple fact and provide deep insights. Remember focused, feasible, and appropriately complex when refining your own research question.