Reflective essay Research is work carried out to increase knowledge. It is done so we have a better understanding of how things work, behave etc. it can be used to confirm facts, theories, solve problems and expansion on past work. A question is posed, research is done to find the answer and an answer is given. The purpose of research is to learn something new. There are three types of research pure, original and secondary. Pure research is done by examining something. It is used to find out something in general. A person can come to a conclusion based on what they find.
Original research is looking for information that has not been found before. This requires background information on the topic and a method to find out what you want. For this, you need to do secondary research. Secondary research is finding out what is known and coming to your own conclusion. It looks at the different viewpoints of a topic. It gives an understanding of what the information mean. There are four different types of research, exploratory, constructive, descriptive and empirical. Exploratory research helps define and identify a problem.
Constructive research test possible solutions to a problem. Descriptive research is about giving information about a social issue. There is no hypothesis but one can emerge after gathering information. Empirical research tests if the solution is likely to happen. This happens when the researcher tries to find out about something. It provides information needed for explanatory and or descriptive research. There are several types of research. They are scientific, humanities, artistic etc. Scientific research gives information and theories explaining nature and properties in the world.
Humanities research involves exploring the issues to answer a question. The context of the issue is important. This can mean social, historical political, cultural or ethnic. There are two major types of research, qualitative and quantitative. Researchers choose the method according to the type of research they do. Qualitative research is asking a broad question and collecting information in the form of images, videos etc. This is done when trying to find out why we behave in a particular way. It’s used as a basis for quantitative research.
Quantitative research is collecting numerical data to find information about something, for example, statistics and graphs. Research can be undertaken in various ways. It can be done in surveys, focus groups, case studies, delphi method, content analysis etc. surveys can be conducted to obtain information about an issue that arises for example. They can be partial as it can ask leading questions, be biased in a way, questions are not clear and participants are influenced by the person conducting it. These can be done by polls, questionnaires etc. focus groups gather information from experts.
Advantages of using this method include, getting opinions on a specific topic. Feedback or questions can be given and key issues are identified. Disadvantages are that a person’s viewpoint can dominate the discussion and not all questions can be answered. Case studies look at the information already available. The researcher can come up with a qualitative conclusion. Delphi method looks at the opinion of expert panellists. Research is done in three rounds. The informati0oon is collected, developed and given to the panel. In the first round the surveyors develop questions for the panel.
In the second round, the information is examined by the panel. In the last round, the panel gives their judgement. Content analysis studies trends or occurrences of information. This method is used in television to measure amount ofviolence. The key elements are that it is systematic, objective and quantitative. Research needs to be validated. This is done by examining the data collected. The researcher needs to verify how the information is collected. They also need to consider how the information was collected. Also, they need to check that the data collected was legal and ethical.
They need to be consistent with the results by re-examining the data again years down the track. The new findings need to be recorded. Also, when the research is done again, a different researcher should be used. Bibliography http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Research http://sociology. about. com/od/Research/a/Purposes-Of-Research. htm http://public. wsu. edu/~taflinge/research. html http://uva. ulb. ac. be/cit_courseware/research/chapter6. htm http://www. rci. rutgers. edu/~judithjf/kinds%20of%20research. htm http://www. ehow. com/how_7598463_cross-validate-qualitative-research-results. html#ixzz2Md7NUjcl
