 When developing a research question, it is important to be careful that its scope is appropriate. A question that is too broad cannot be satisfactorily answered within the assignment. Your discussion of important aspects of the topic will be overly cursory, and the paper may lose coherence as it tries to address too many issues. On the other hand, a question that is too narrow will leave you with too little to talk about. There may not be enough relevant sources upon which to base a robust research paper. A balance must be struck, and this balance may take some time to reach, as you may not know from the outset what is too narrow and what is too broad. Often you must do some literature searching to determine if the scope of your research question is appropriate for the assignment. If you can't find much on your topic, it may be that your search strategy needs some work, and we in the library would be happy to help you with that. Or it may be that there really hasn't been much research done on the topic, and so you may need to broaden your question. But if instead you find that there's a lot of research on the topic, it may be a sign that you should narrow your focus. How can you narrow your focus? Have a look at what scholars have written for ideas. Journal articles in particular usually have a very focused topic, so they may be especially helpful as you look to narrow your question. How you might effectively narrow your question depends on your question, the assignment, and the subject area, but here are a few examples. If you need to broaden your topic, consider expanding one of your core concepts or dropping it altogether, as shown in these examples. If you're not sure whether or not your research question is appropriate in scope, consult with your instructor.