Having a topic is not the same as having a research question. 

Here's an example of a general topic: minimum wage.

Great, that's a fine topic and there are a lot of resources that discuss minimum wage! But if that's all you have in mind when you begin researching, you're likely to find

• a lot more resources than you can reasonably handle
• uncertainty about whether those resources are good for your needs

Check out the screenshot below of an actual search. 

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Not only is there an overwhelming number of results here, but how are you supposed to know if they'll be helpful to you? At this point, you haven't decided yet what you want to know about minimum wage.

So let's take that general topic and ask some open-ended questions about it!

For example:

• How does the minimum wage in the US historically compare to minimum wage in Australia?

OR

• How do American small businesses adapt to mandatory minimum wage increases?

Now choose one of these questions and search again, using more specific key words:

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See how much more manageable that result list is? 

Also, now you're in a much better position to evaluate if the resources in the results list are going to be helpful to you, because you know what question you're trying to answer!

Click the link below to see WHY a good research question should be:

• focused 
• researchable 
• feasible
• specific
• complex
• relevant

Scribbr: Writing Strong Research Questions

On this page, you can also see several examples of research questions that need improvement, and some better alternatives.