ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a number of distinct stages in detail with suggestions about key issues for a beginning researcher to consider as they work on their own projects. Research questions are more detailed and focused than research problems because they need to be answerable through the research project and are linked to data collection methods. A research question narrows the focus of a broadly stated research problem and consequently guides the project. Cresswell makes a number of important recommendations about developing qualitative research questions. He suggests that researchers avoid starting a question with the word ‘why’, instead choosing emergent and open terms such as ‘what’ or ‘how’. Creswell and Lock et al. both contain detailed discussions about developing research plans. The chapter justifies and explains the choice of methods and describes how the research questions were developed. It describes a research process suited to the majority of health-related qualitative research projects.
