There is no hope of doing perfect research

The statement by Griffiths (1998) that there is no hope in doing perfect research (97) has raised a few eyebrows and has become a highly controversial issue over the past decade. Reading and Writing sources (2010) defines research as a systematic examination to obtain facts. According to this definition, research is obtaining accurate, reliable information, with the use of a method. Now, how do we define accuracy and reliability in a world where human beings dominate? In addition, research is also defined by the Google English dictionary (2010) as a carefully planned and performed analysis, searching for previously unknown facts.

If this investigation were so carefully planned and performed, why can all the facts be acquired at the time of the research? Human beings are not perfect; thus, there will always be flaws. Therefore, it would be supremely cynical to think that research, which literally means to search again, can be flawless. In gist, I agree that there is no hope in doing perfect research. People conduct researches for all sorts of reasons. However, the main aim of research according to Francis Dane (1990) is to gain knowledge, understanding and answering questions about things of the world (212).

There are several types of research methods. Among them is the Scientific method. This method determines the answers to questions through experimentation. Science is applied to an idea or issue to answer these questions. This research process relies on the result over documentation. Scientific methods of the research activity involve the creation of topics, a hypothesis, conceptual definitions, operational definitions, gathering data, analysing data, followed by testing and changing the hypothesis until reaching a conclusion.

Controversially, there are no guarantees that consistent procedures are 100% effective. For instance, in conducting a medical examination the same signs of a given problem may occur and may result in different outcomes. Drawing on research published in the American Journal of Medicine, an estimated 15 per cent of all medical cases in developed countries were misdiagnosed. According to The Telegraph (2009) the Healthcare Commission found that nearly one in ten complaints received by the NHS was related to a delay in diagnosis or the wrong diagnosis being made.

Some of the reasons for false medical diagnosis include, but not limited to, misinterpreted test results and reduced communication and diseases that had similar symptoms. Therefore, since conducting research is a process which follows specific rules and organised procedures in order to get the intended results, the possibility for occurrences such as erroneous interpretation cannot be accurately measured. Yet, how could one begin to argue that there is hope for perfect research when the evidence is there to show how seriously flawed the process can be at times?

Over the past few years, the U. S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has been recalling certain drugs following reports of serious injury or death. If there were hope for perfect research, why does the safety of more than a dozen popular prescription drugs have to be examined? Moreover, all researches are subjected to limitations and errors. During my undergraduate degree, I conducted a qualitative research. The topic was “ The Prevalence of Truancy is a Cause for Major concern in Augstye / Lancaster District”.

I used the interview technique to gather information from participants whom I randomly selected within the district. These participants were teachers, students and parents. There is no guarantee that the results of this research were perfect. Firstly, there are lots of disadvantages of using the interview technique. As the researcher who did the interviews, I can say that parents were reluctant to answer some of the questions, teachers withheld certain information and some pupils lied because they thought they would have gotten into trouble.

These are some reasons why this research was inadequate. In addition, during my post graduate studies, I conducted a research entitled “ The importance of reading assessment and intervention from UK perspective and how it can impact on Guyana’s children”. I adapted the historical method to conduct this research. I reviewed the necessary literature and examined the history of reading from both countries perspective. However, in analysing the information I realise that the results were unsatisfactory.

Primarily, interventions, which would be useful in one country, may not necessarily be effective in another. There is no doubt that people can be successful in achieving their goals. However, there are many reasons why people conduct researches and one reason can be find answers for their personal qualms. In events of such research, biases can affect the validity of the results. Research is an on-going process and has always been known to have a gap for more analysis in all subjects investigated. This means that accuracy is superfluous in this process; thus, perfect research is indeed hopeless.

References

http://www. mmorpg. com/gamelist. cfm/game/15/view/forums/post/3968009

http://www. educationreport. org/article. aspx? ID= 11975

http://www. ncpa. org/sub/dpd/index. php? Article_ID= 18472