According to the oxford dictionary, Research is defined as the systematic investigation into a subject area or the study of materials in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions. Research is also often said to be an endeavor to discover new or collate old knowledge through scientific study subjected to a rigorous and critical investigation
Usually a research is commissioned or carried out where there is a burning question or a problem that needs to be resolved or answered. It could be a question we think we have an answer to already but lack evidence/facts or that the answer is obvious i.e. common sense but which requires rigorous scientific scrutiny to validate our thinking or else our 'knowledge ' remains a guesstimate or an intuition …show more content…
In addition to formulating the question, the following steps are equally important in planning the research: a) How will the question be answered b) Has this question been asked before C) how do we know it’s been answered and finally d) presenting the research findings
Types/Methods of Research
There are basically 4 main types of research and researches are classified in many different ways based on the proposed methodology to be deployed for the study, the knowledge it seeks to generate, the targeted audience for the end result and the research question to be answered.
The four types of research, which is often times referred to as research methods are as follows:
1. Basic Research: This type of research is conducted mainly for knowledge enhancement; this is a research that does not have any immediate commercial or financial potential. The primary objectives of this type of research could for documentation of processes, discovery and validation of best practices, which is mainly, used in research and development (R&D) departments of organization as evidence of their product impact or usefulness. This usually used by cooperate entities, development agencies and government agencies in improving their products and …show more content…
Quantitative Research: While the 2 types of research above focuses mainly on the end usage of the knowledge generated by the research, Quantitative research on the other hand aims to measure the quantity of information and compares it with past records available at the time of the study, then makes projections for the future. This type of research entails the collecting, collating and conversion of data or information into numerical form so that statistical calculations can be made and conclusions drawn from such data analysis.
4. Qualitative Research: This type of research has been referred to action oriented research or advocacy type research in recent times. Qualitative research presents a non-quantitative type of data analysis. This type of research focuses on collecting, analyzing and interpreting data by observing what people do and say. Qualitative research as can be seen is principally participatory in nature and gives meanings or characteristics to data, it is the most subjective of the 4 types and uses very different methods of collecting information mainly in-depth interviews and focus groups discussions.
Usually a research is commissioned or carried out where there is a burning question or a problem that needs to be resolved or answered. It could be a question we think we have an answer to already but lack evidence/facts or that the answer is obvious i.e. common sense but which requires rigorous scientific scrutiny to validate our thinking or else our 'knowledge ' remains a guesstimate or an intuition …show more content…
In addition to formulating the question, the following steps are equally important in planning the research: a) How will the question be answered b) Has this question been asked before C) how do we know it’s been answered and finally d) presenting the research findings
Types/Methods of Research
There are basically 4 main types of research and researches are classified in many different ways based on the proposed methodology to be deployed for the study, the knowledge it seeks to generate, the targeted audience for the end result and the research question to be answered.
The four types of research, which is often times referred to as research methods are as follows:
1. Basic Research: This type of research is conducted mainly for knowledge enhancement; this is a research that does not have any immediate commercial or financial potential. The primary objectives of this type of research could for documentation of processes, discovery and validation of best practices, which is mainly, used in research and development (R&D) departments of organization as evidence of their product impact or usefulness. This usually used by cooperate entities, development agencies and government agencies in improving their products and …show more content…
Quantitative Research: While the 2 types of research above focuses mainly on the end usage of the knowledge generated by the research, Quantitative research on the other hand aims to measure the quantity of information and compares it with past records available at the time of the study, then makes projections for the future. This type of research entails the collecting, collating and conversion of data or information into numerical form so that statistical calculations can be made and conclusions drawn from such data analysis.
4. Qualitative Research: This type of research has been referred to action oriented research or advocacy type research in recent times. Qualitative research presents a non-quantitative type of data analysis. This type of research focuses on collecting, analyzing and interpreting data by observing what people do and say. Qualitative research as can be seen is principally participatory in nature and gives meanings or characteristics to data, it is the most subjective of the 4 types and uses very different methods of collecting information mainly in-depth interviews and focus groups discussions.