Hi, I've just started my PhD and my supervisor asked for a few pages on my research questions - putting them in a sociological setting and stating what I want to find out.

Ok to me that sounded quite straight forward to start with but now it is a week late and I'm struggling. I'm not sure if this means a research proposal and methods etc or simply justification for my questions.

Not to mention the fact that I'm not sure if my original ideas are just quite stupid. I really want to write something impressive and not something he will pick holes in immediately - VERY STRESSED:-(

Hi Kizzy, I doubt that your original ideas are stupid, or you wouldn't have been accepted onto a PhD in the first place! I'd imagine that you'd already have done a research proposal in some form for your initial PhD application, and your methods should emerge from your research questions - when you know what you want to find out about, it helps shape how you go about finding out about it.

I'm quite near the end of mine now, and had to refine my research questions a year ago. For some reason, it was quite difficult to put into words what I actually wanted to find out about and why it was a valid and interesting set of questions academically to be asking. I thought it had been obvious for years, but it wasn't to the Prof who read my first thesis draft, it was implicit in my writing rather than explicit. I had to do a few pages and it came down to a couple of what I thought were really basic questions, so simple I thought I must have been doing it wrong, but when I started fleshing them out with detail, it all became more complex and PhD-like.

Can you think about what you want to know and why in different ways? Is there a couple of core ideas that you could put into a few sentences, then expand on that with a lot more detail? Maybe you've identified a cultural phenomenon that's not been written about before, so you want to know why it's emerged at that point in time and in that place, because you think it's interesting intellectually to find out specific things about it. Then think about what existing academic work might contribute to your understanding of that. Or you've spotted a gap in existing research that you think is important and valid to investigate because of x y z reasons. Don't get stressed about doing it wrong - if someone you know said to you 'so what are you researching and why are you interested in that?' how would you reply? It's the same basic ideas that your supervisor is probably after, and if you get stuck then your writing will give you scope for discussion in your next meeting.

btw it would probably be a good idea and less stressful in the long run to modify your expectations for your written work a little - everyone wants to write something really impressive, but it's a long, continuous process of writing/feedback/re-writing, so you have to get used to having problems in your work pointed out to you and working with constructive criticism. Hopefully your supervisor is ok and won't pick holes in your work in a negative way, but by showing you what bits can be improved on for the next bit of writing you do.

Yep, expect to refine your research questions a number of times, you're just looking to get something to base them on right now.

Thanks your comment is really helpful.

I think I'm just going to get it down on paper and send it off...:$

Rubyw... found ur reply so so helpful for me. havnt started yet but have learnt so much from ur reply x

Thank you both :-) Good luck with your own work!

Whilst your supervisor shouldn't pick holes, as that has negative connotations, whatever you write they will be able to critique it. That is why they are a supervisor. The way I see it, go back and read something at a lower level. Last year I supervised some undergrad dissertations, and I could have critiqued pretty much every sentence. Just because I am further along the road that they are in terms of their academic development. But I wouldn't do that as it wouldn't be productive, and there is no value-judgment in where they are in relation to me. So like someone else said, set the goal a little lower. You don' need to be impressive, you need to be you so they can help and develop you.

It's a very human thing to want to be impressive, and I wish I could be too. But you have to say and write the stupid things in order to develop.

And the thing sounding straightforward and then being much harder. I think I find that every time too.