There is no "one best way" to structure a quantitative research question. However, to create a well-structured quantitative research question, we recommend an approach that is based on four steps: (1) Choosing the type of quantitative research question you are trying to create (i.e., descriptive, comparative or relationship-based); (2) Identifying the different types of variables you are trying to measure, manipulate and/or control, as well as any groups you may be interested in; (3) Selecting the appropriate structure for the chosen type of quantitative research question, based on the variables and/or groups involved; and (4) Writing out the problem or issues you are trying to address in the form of a complete research question. In this article, we discuss each of these four steps, as well as providing examples for the three types of quantitative research question you may want to create: descriptive, comparative and relationship-based research questions.
The type of quantitative research question that you use in your dissertation (i.e., descriptive, comparative and/or relationship-based) needs to be reflected in the way that you write out the research question; that is, the word choice and phrasing that you use when constructing a research question tells the reader whether it is a descriptive, comparative or relationship-based research question. Therefore, in order to know how to structure your quantitative research question, you need to start by selecting the type of quantitative research question you are trying to create: descriptive, comparative and/or relationship-based.
Whether you are trying to create a descriptive, comparative or relationship-based research question, you will need to identify the different types of variable that you are trying to measure, manipulate and/or control. If you are unfamiliar with the different types of variable that may be part of your study, the article, Types of variable, should get you up to speed. It explains the two main types of variables: categorical variables (i.e., nominal, dichotomous and ordinal variables) and continuous variables (i.e., interval and ratio variables). It also explains the difference between independent and dependent variables, which you need to understand to create quantitative research questions.
To provide a brief explanation; a variable is not only something that you measure, but also something that you can manipulate and control for. In most undergraduate and master's level dissertations, you are only likely to measure and manipulate variables. You are unlikely to carry out research that requires you to control for variables, although some supervisors will expect this additional level of complexity. If you plan to only create descriptive research questions, you may simply have a number of dependent variables that you need to measure. However, where you plan to create comparative and/or relationship-based research questions, you will deal with both dependent and independent variables. An independent variable (sometimes called an experimental or predictor variable) is a variable that is being manipulated in an experiment in order to observe the effect this has on a dependent variable (sometimes called an outcome variable). For example, if we were interested in investigating the relationship between gender and attitudes towards music piracy amongst adolescents, the independent variable would be gender and the dependent variable attitudes towards music piracy. This example also highlights the need to identify the group(s) you are interested in. In this example, the group of interest are adolescents.
Once you identifying the different types of variable you are trying to measure, manipulate and/or control, as well as any groups you may be interested in, it is possible to start thinking about the way that the three types of quantitative research question can be structured. This is discussed next.
The structure of the three types of quantitative research question differs, reflecting the goals of the question, the types of variables, and the number of variables and groups involved. By structure, we mean the components of a research question (i.e., the types of variables, groups of interest), the number of these different components (i.e., how many variables and groups are being investigated), and the order that these should be presented (e.g., independent variables before dependent variables). The appropriate structure for each of these quantitative research questions is set out below:
There are six steps required to construct a descriptive research question: (1) choose your starting phrase; (2) identify and name the dependent variable; (3) identify the group(s) you are interested in; (4) decide whether dependent variable or group(s) should be included first, last or in two parts; (5) include any words that provide greater context to your question; and (6) write out the descriptive research question. Each of these steps is discussed in turn:
Choose your starting phrase
Identify and name the dependent variable
Identify the group(s) you are interested in
Decide whether the dependent variable or group(s) should be included first, last or in two parts
Include any words that provide greater context to your question
Write out the descriptive research question
You can start descriptive research questions with any of the following phrases:
How many?
How often?
How frequently?
How much?
What percentage?
What proportion?
To what extent?
What is?
What are?
Some of these starting phrases are highlighted in blue text in the examples below:
How many calories do American men and women consume per day?
How often do British university students use Facebook each week?
What are the most important factors that influence the career choices of Australian university students?
What proportion of British male and female university students use the top 5 social networks?
What percentage of American men and women exceed their daily calorific allowance?
All descriptive research questions have a dependent variable. You need to identify what this is. However, how the dependent variable is written out in a research question and what you call it are often two different things. In the examples below, we have illustrated the name of the dependent variable and highlighted how it would be written out in the blue text.
| Name of the dependent variable | How the dependent variable is written out |
| Daily calorific intake | How many calories do American men and women consume per day? |
| Daily calorific intake | What percentage of American men and women exceed their daily calorific allowance? |
| Weekly Facebook usage | How often do British university students use Facebook each week? |
| Factors influencing career choices | What are the most important factors that influence the career choices of Australian university students? |
| Use of the top 5 social networks | What proportion of British male and female university students use the top 5 social networks? |
The first two examples highlight that while the name of the dependent variable is the same, namely daily calorific intake, the way that this dependent variable is written out differs in each case.
All descriptive research questions have at least one group, but can have multiple groups. You need to identify this group(s). In the examples below, we have identified the group(s) in the green text.
How many calories do American men and women consume per day?
How often do British university students use Facebook each week?
What are the most important factors that influence the career choices of Australian university students?
What proportion of British male and female university students use the top 5 social networks?
What percentage of American men and women exceed their daily calorific allowance?
The examples illustrate the difference between the use of a single group (e.g., British university students) and multiple groups (e.g., American men and women).
Sometimes it makes more sense for the dependent variable to appear before the group(s) you are interested in, but sometimes it is the opposite way around. The following examples illustrate this, with the group(s) in green text and the dependent variable in blue text:
Group 1st; dependent variable 2nd:
How often do British university students use Facebook each week?
Dependent variable 1st; group 2nd:
What are the most important factors that influence the career choices of Australian university students?
Sometimes, the dependent variable needs to be broken into two parts around the group(s) you are interested in so that the research question flows. Again, the group(s) are in green text and the dependent variable is in blue text:
How many calories do American men and women consume per day?
Of course, you could choose to restructure the question above so that you do not have to split the dependent variable into two parts. For example:
How many calories are consumed per day by American men and women?
When deciding whether the dependent variable or group(s) should be included first or last, and whether the dependent variable should be broken into two parts, the main thing you need to think about is flow: Does the question flow? Is it easy to read?
Sometimes the name of the dependent variable provides all the explanation we need to know what we are trying to measure. Take the following examples:
How many calories do American men and women consume per day?
How often do British university students use Facebook each week?
In the first example, the dependent variable is daily calorific intake (i.e., calories consumed per day). Clearly, this descriptive research question is asking us to measure the number of calories American men and women consume per day. In the second example, the dependent variable is Facebook usage per week. Again, the name of this dependent variable makes it easy for us to understand that we are trying to measure the often (i.e., how frequently; e.g., 16 times per week) British university students use Facebook.
However, sometimes a descriptive research question is not simply interested in measuring the dependent variable in its entirety, but a particular component of the dependent variable. Take the following examples in red text:
What percentage of American men and women exceed their daily calorific allowance?
What are the most important factors that influence the career choices of Australian university students?
In the first example, the research question is not simply interested in the daily calorific intake of American men and women, but what percentage of these American men and women exceeded their daily calorific allowance. So the dependent variable is still daily calorific intake, but the research question aims to understand a particular component of that dependent variable (i.e., the percentage of American men and women exceeding the recommend daily calorific allowance). In the second example, the research question is not only interested in what the factors influencing career choices are, but which of these factors are the most important.
Therefore, when you think about constructing your descriptive research question, make sure you have included any words that provide greater context to your question.
Once you have these details ? (1) the starting phrase, (2) the name of the dependent variable, (3) the name of the group(s) you are interested in, and (4) any potential joining words ? you can write out the descriptive research question in full. The example descriptive research questions discussed above are written out in full below:
How many calories do American men and women consume per day?
How often do British university students use Facebook each week?
What are the most important factors that influence the career choices of Australian university students?
What proportion of British male and female university students use the top 5 social networks?
What percentage of American men and women exceed their daily calorific allowance?
In the section that follows, the structure of comparative research questions is discussed.