10d Moving from research question to hypothesis

10dMoving from research question to hypothesis

The result of the narrowing process is a research question that can be tentatively answered by a hypothesis, a statement of what you anticipate your research will show. Like a working thesis (3c, 9d), a hypothesis must be manageable, interesting, and specific. In addition, it must be arguable, a debatable proposition that you can prove or disprove with a reasonable amount of research evidence (9c). For example, a statement like this one is not arguable since it merely states a fact: “Senator Joseph McCarthy attracted great attention with his anti-Communist crusade during the 1950s.” On the other hand, this statement is an arguable hypothesis because evidence for or against it can be found: “Roy Cohn’s biased research while he was an assistant to Senator Joseph McCarthy was partially responsible for McCarthy’s anti-Communist crusade.”

In moving from your general topic of interest, such as Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Communist crusade of the 1950s, to a useful hypothesis, such as the one in the previous paragraph, you first narrow the topic to a single manageable issue: Roy Cohn’s role in the crusade, for instance. After background reading, you then raise a question about that issue (“To what extent did Cohn’s research contribute to McCarthy’s crusade?”) and devise a possible answer, your hypothesis.

David Craig’s hypothesis

TOPIC Texting and messaging
NARROWED TOPIC Texting and messaging slang
ISSUE The effect of messaging slang on youth literacy
RESEARCH QUESTION How has the popularity of messaging affected literacy among today’s youth?
HYPOTHESIS Messaging seems to have a negative influence on the writing skills of young people.

David’s hypothesis, which tentatively answers his research question, is precise enough to be either supported or challenged by a manageable amount of research.