Imagine that you want to understand why your mother loves making pancakes for breakfast. You could sneak around the kitchen, tracking when and how she makes pancakes, or you could just sit down and have a chat with her. Most people would agree that the chat will give a much better answer. If you want to understand people’s beliefs or thoughts, numbers (i.e. quantitative research) don’t always give the full…
Category: A Research Notes
Writing an Abstract for an Article, Proposal, or Report
What is an abstract? An abstract is a condensed version of a longer piece of writing that highlights the major points covered, concisely describes the content and scope of the writing, and reviews the writing’s contents in abbreviated form. Abstracts are typically 100 to 250 words and follow set patterns. Why is abstract so important? Help readers decide if they should read an entire article Help readers and researchers remember…
Types of Research
Research is the systematic rigorous investigation of a situation or problem in order to generate new knowledge or validate existing knowledge. Some of the research types are; Applied research – scientific investigations conducted to answer specific questions or solve practice-related problems. Basic research – scientific investigation that involves the generation of new knowledge or development of new theories; its results often cannot be applied directly to specific situations. Correlation research – the systematic…
What is Qualitative Research?
1. Qualitative Research is concerned with: Early forms of research originated in the natural sciences: biology, chemistry, physics, geology and wanted to observe and measure in some way in order to gain understanding. Quantitative research refers to observations and measurements that can be made objectively and repeated by other researchers. Along with the development of social sciences: psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc, they were interested in studying human behaviour and the…
Difference between Inductive and Deductive Research
The difference between inductive and deductive research stems from their approach and focus. In all disciplines, research plays a vital role, as it allows various academics to expand their theoretical knowledge of the discipline and also to verify the existing theories. Inductive and deductive approaches to research or else inductive and deductive research can be understood as a type of categorization. These two types are different from one another. Inductive…
Phrases commonly used in scholarly writing
Discussing areas of disagreement On the one hand …………. On the other hand ……. Some would argue that ……… Others contend that ……. The argument that ……….. is weakened by ……… One persistent debate in ………… is whether …… While it is true that ………, it could be argued that ………. At first glance, it may appear that ……….; on closer inspection, however ………. ……… theory emphasizes the role of…
What are the documentary Sources?
Documents abound in everyday life. They compromise pieces of written printed or electronic material that contain information of some sort. Oxford dictionary (2017) defines a document as ‘something written, inscribed, which furnishes evidence or information upon the subject, as a manuscript, titled-deed, coin…’. This definition indicates that a document can take many forms. It also identifies the important characteristic that a documents’ content is information or evidence. Therefore, documents are…
Research questions, aims and objectives
Defining a clear research question, aim and objectives is a crucial step in your research project. However, these terms are often confused. The research question formulates a research problem that you want to investigate. The scope of the question is informed by your research aim and your research objectives. A research aim expresses the intention or an aspiration of the research study; it summarises in a single sentence what you hope to achieve…
What is the Research problem?
A research problem is a statement about an area of concern, a condition to be improved, a difficulty to be eliminated, or a troubling question that exists in scholarly literature, in theory, or in practice that points to the need for meaningful understanding and deliberate investigation. In some social science disciplines, the research problem is typically posed in the form of a question. A research problem does not state how to do something,…