Turn a broad research interest into a focused research question
Narrows a fuzzy topic into feasible, specific research questions tested against FINER criteria, with the design each implies.
The prompt
Help me turn a broad research interest into a focused, answerable research question.
Topic or interest: [e.g. "remote work and wellbeing"]
Discipline and methods I can use: [e.g. "quantitative survey", "qualitative interviews", "lab experiments"]
What I already know about the literature: [KEY PAPERS, debates, or "not much yet"]
Resources and constraints: [time, data access, participants, budget, degree requirements]
Purpose: [e.g. "master's thesis", "PhD chapter", "grant", "paper"]
Steps:
1. Map 3-4 different angles on the topic (population, mechanism, context, outcome).
2. For each angle, write one draft research question and, where relevant, a PICO/PEO or similar breakdown.
3. Score each question against FINER: Feasible, Interesting, Novel, Ethical, Relevant, with a one-line justification per criterion.
4. For the strongest 1-2 questions, state the implied study design, data needed, main variables or concepts, and the biggest threat to answering it well.
5. Suggest what to search for to confirm the gap actually exists.
Return a table of candidate questions with FINER scores, then a recommendation with refined wording and testable hypotheses or guiding sub-questions.
Do not claim a gap exists or cite papers I have not given you; flag novelty as [VERIFY in literature search].
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Research & Summaries prompts
What to fill in
- e.g. "remote work and wellbeing"
- KEY PAPERS, debates, or "not much yet"
- time, data access, participants, budget, degree requirements
- e.g. "master's thesis", "PhD chapter", "grant", "paper"
- VERIFY in literature search
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
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