5. CONDUCTING RESEARCH
5.1 Research Terminology
Suzan Last
You will undoubtedly be required to “conduct research” for a course assignment or “include research” to support your ideas. While this may seem a bit intimidating, remember that engaging in research is basically just using a systematic process to find out more information about your topic. Nicholas Walliman, in his handbook Research Methods: The Basics, defines research methods as “the tools and techniques for doing research.”[1] These techniques include collecting, sorting, and analyzing the information and data you find. The better the tools and more comprehensive the techniques you employ, the more effective your research will be. By extension, the more effective your research is, the more credible and persuasive your argument will be.
Here are some basic terms and definitions you should be familiar with:
Research: the systematic process of finding out more about something than you already know, ideally so that you can prove a hypothesis, produce new knowledge and understanding, and make evidence-based decisions.
Research Methods: techniques of collecting, sorting, and analyzing information/data.
Data: bits of information.
The typical kinds of research sources you will use can be grouped into three broad categories:
- Primary Sources: research you might conduct yourself in lab experiments and product testing, through surveys, observations, measurements, interviews, site visits, prototype testing, beta testing, etc. These can also include published raw statistical data, historical records, legal documents, firsthand historical accounts, and original creative works.
- Secondary Sources: written sources that discuss, analyze, and interpret primary data, such as published research and studies, reviews of these studies, meta-analyses, and formal critiques.
- Tertiary Sources: reference sources such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and handbooks that provide a consolidation of primary and secondary information. They are useful to gain a general understanding of your topic and major concepts, lines of inquiry, or schools of thought in the field.
Data can be categorized in several ways:
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Primary data Data that have been directly observed, experienced and recorded close to the event. This is data that you might create yourself by
Note: primary research done in an academic setting that includes gathering information from human subjects requires strict protocols and will likely require ethics approval. Ask your instructor for guidance and see chapter 5.4 Human Research Ethics. |
Secondary Data Comes from sources that record, analyze, and interpret primary data. It is critical to evaluate the credibility of these sources. You might find such data in
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Quantitative Data Uses numbers to describe information that can be measured quantitatively. This data is used to measure, make comparisons, examine relationships, test hypotheses, explain, predict, or even control. |
Qualitative Data Uses words to