Using AI to sharpen your research question

'I want to write about social media' is not a research question. 'How does Instagram use affect teen sleep on school nights?' is. AI can help you narrow a huge topic into something you can actually answer in a paper.

Some examples

• 'Help me narrow "climate change" into 5 specific research questions for a 5-page paper.'
• 'Which of these questions has the most evidence available?'
• 'Rewrite this question so it's measurable, not opinion-based.'
• 'Make this question controversial enough to be interesting.'

Try it!

Take a vague topic you're stuck on and ask AI to give you 5 sharper versions. Pick the one that excites you most.

Practice this safely

Try this with a school, hobby, or family example where the stakes are low. Use the AI output as a draft you can question, not as the final answer.

1. 1Ask AI to explain research questions in plain language, then underline anything that sounds uncertain or too broad.
2. 2Give it one detail from "Using AI to sharpen your research question" and ask for two possible next steps plus one reason each step might be wrong.
3. 3Check specificity against a trusted source, teacher, adult, expert, or original document before you use it.