Your research questions will determine what secondary sources you will need for your research and the overall structure of your final paper.
Based on your primary sources, you will form one main research question and two supporting questions. The supporting questions should stack or combine to answer different parts of your main research question.
Here is an ASU guide for Formulating A Research Question | New College – ASU and a more humorous handout with constructive examples What Makes a Good Research Question? Links to an external site.
MY MODELS FOR YOU
Drawing on my following sources about The KonMari Method…
1. Chayka, Kyle. “The Empty Promises of Marie Kondo and the Craze for Minimalism.”
The Guardian, January 3, 2020, sec. Life and style. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/jan/03/empty-promises-marie-kondo-craze-for-minimalism (Links to an external site.).
2. Dilloway, Margaret. “What White, Western Audiences Don’t Understand About Marie Kondo’s ‘Tidying Up’: Backlash to the Netflix Show Ignores an Essential Aspect of the KonMari Method: Its Shinto Roots.” HuffPost, January 22, 2019. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/marie-kondo-white-western-audineces_n_5c47859be4b025aa26bde77c (Links to an external site.).
3. Kondo, Marie. Stories | How to Greet Your Home | KonMari, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjWs2R363cs.
I build the following three research questions:
Main Question
What accounts for the global popularity of the KonMari Method?
Is there a particular aspect of Japanese Shinto in KonMari method that appeals to people outside Japan?
Why might the Kon-Mari method appeal to so many people in the United States?
Notice how the answers to each supporting question will help answer the main research question.
