Where Do Research Questions Come from and How Are They Developed?

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Alice asks the Cheshire cat ‘‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’’ ‘‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’’ said the cat. ‘‘I don’t much care where . . .’’ said Alice. ‘‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’’ said the cat. ‘‘. . . so long as I get SOMEWHERE,’’ Alice added as an explanation. ‘‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’’ said the cat, ‘‘if you only walk long enough.’’ (Carroll, 2005, pp. 57-58). The researcher’s quest, like that of Alice, is to make a journey of discovery. Making a research journey efficiently and effectively requires a sense of direction provided by a research question.