 Questions drive a lot of what we do every day. Sometimes they're simple and can be dealt with easily by searching for an answer online, calling a friend, or grabbing a book on the topic. At other times, our experiences or research paper assignments lead us to ask more complicated questions that can't be answered so easily and require more in-depth research. So how do you begin to develop and explore these more complicated questions in a world where answers and quick facts are just a click away? First of all, a good research question is tough to answer, and it won't be answered with a simple yes or no. For example, should marijuana be legalized? It's not a great research question. It's too broad and since there are many issues to consider, your research will be all over the place. When you're getting started, investigate a topic a bit and try to focus in on an aspect you're really interested in or that needs to be addressed. After some investigation, you get a better question, like how does the legalization of marijuana affect the violent crime rate? The question is more focused, clear, and gets you started off faster. A good research question won't lead to an absolute final answer. People will disagree and respond to your work, and that's a good thing. Think of research as an endless flow of questions and answers. Your attempt to answer a question will lead to others asking questions. It goes on and on and the scholarly conversation takes shape thanks to a variety of voices. And that is the beauty of sharing research. It encourages others to question and build on what came before and hopefully leads to progress in society. Research takes time and it will take you in many different directions. You'll use Google, Wikipedia, academic databases, books, and more. There are many paths to discovery so don't limit yourself to the easiest. It's not something you can knock out the night before a paper is due. What you get would be superficial and wouldn't address the question in any meaningful way. Research isn't straightforward. It's very active and requires you to constantly think about and react to your discoveries, adjusting your question and planning as you go along. For example, maybe you build a question using Google to help you lay the groundwork and provide background information. You end up discovering a new aspect of the topic you want to explore so you go in a slightly new direction and have to build your foundation again. There are all kinds of issues that will force you to revamp your approach as you gain and incorporate all this new knowledge into your research. Be curious. Explore areas that have yet to be explored. Be open-minded and expect the unexpected. Find a variety of sources and challenge your ideas with other perspectives. Try to break your question. Disagreement, debate, and dialogue increase the depth of a conversation and help you to see the full picture. When you're doing research, it's easy to get stuck. That's why it's important to think about different approaches to answering your question. Talk to your friends and professors. They all have experiences that you don't and can help you look at your question in a new way. It's really important to take the time to step back and actually think about your own research process and any obstacles that you're facing. You might discover gaps in your knowledge that need to be fixed or potential solutions that you didn't see before. When you research, always think about why you're doing what you're doing. Research requires you to make judgment calls on how all of the information you find fits together and what story it tells. It becomes your take on the question which isn't necessarily right or wrong. It's more about thoroughness, covering your bases, acknowledging the work of others, adding your own voice and shaping it into something coherent. And that's how you inform your thinking.