Researchmethodsarethetoolsoftheacademicworld.Studentsandscholarsusethemtofindanswers.Differentquestionsneeddifferenttools.Wewilllookatthecommonwaystodoresearch.Thewordsusedtodescribethesemethodsareimportant.Theyarethebasiclanguageofresearchpapers.

Onemaintypeofresearchisquantitativeresearch.Thismethoddealswithnumbers.Itmeasuresthings.Researcherscollectnumericaldata.Theyusesurveysandquestionnairesforthis.Asurveyasksmanypeoplethesamequestions.Theanswersareoftenmultiplechoice.Thismakescountingeasy.Researchersputthenumbersintosoftware.ProgramslikeSPSSorExcelhelpanalyzethedata.Theylookforpatterns.Theycalculateaverages.Theycheckifonethingisconnectedtoanother.Thisiscalledcorrelation.Anexperimentisanotherquantitativetool.Researcherscontroltheconditions.Theychangeonevariable.Theywatchwhathappenstoanothervariable.Thistestscauseandeffect.Theresultsareshowningraphsandcharts.Peopleusewordslikedataset,hypothesis,andstatisticalsignificance.Thesetermsarecommoninscienceandbusinessstudies.

Anothermaintypeisqualitativeresearch.Thismethoddealswithmeaningsandexperiences.Itseekstounderstandthe'why'.Itdoesnotusenumbersasitsmaindata.Instead,ituseswords,images,andobservations.Acommonmethodistheinterview.Researcherstalktopeople.Theyaskopen-endedquestions.Theconversationsarerecordedandwrittendown.Thistextiscalledatranscript.Researchersstudythetranscript.Theylookforthemesandideas.Anothermethodisobservation.Researcherswatchpeopleintheirnaturalsetting.Theytakedetailednotes.Theydescribewhattheyseeandhear.Focusgroupsarealsopopular.Amoderatortalkstoasmallgroupofpeople.Thegroupdiscussesatopic.Theinteractionbetweenpeoplegivesvaluabledata.Researchersanalyzethesewordsandbehaviors.Theyinterprettheinformation.Commonwordsherearethemes,casestudy,narrative,andparticipant.Thesemethodsarestronginsociology,anthropology,andeducation.

Someresearchusesbothnumbersandwords.Thisiscalledmixed-methodsresearch.Itcombinesthestrengthsofboth.Aresearchermightstartwithasurvey.Thesurveygivesbroadnumberpatterns.Thentheresearcherdoesinterviews.Theinterviewsexplainthepatternsindeeperdetail.Usingbothmethodsgivesafullerpicture.Itanswersboth'what'and'why'.Thelanguageincludesphrasesliketriangulation,pragmaticapproach,andsequentialdesign.

Everyresearchprojectneedsaliteraturereview.Thisisnotamethodforcollectingnewdata.Itisamethodforunderstandingexistingknowledge.Researchersreadmanybooksandarticlesontheirtopic.TheysearchinlibrariesandonlinedatabaseslikeGoogleScholar.Theysummarizewhatotherscholarshavefound.Theyidentifygapsintheknowledge.Theyshowhowtheirownworkfitsin.Thewordsusedaresources,cite,summarize,andgapintheliterature.Thisisafoundationalstepforallresearch.

Thechoiceofmethoddependsontheresearchquestion.Aquestionstartingwith"howmany"needsquantitativetools.Aquestionstartingwith"howdopeoplefeel"needsqualitativetools.Aquestionaboutacomplexproblemmightneedmixedmethods.Researchersmustexplaintheirchoice.Theywrite,"Thisstudyusesasurveybecause..."or"Interviewswerechosentounderstand..."Thisexplanationisastandardpartofaresearchpaper.

Aftercollectingdata,analysismusthappen.Fornumbers,researchersusestatisticaltests.Theysay,"Theresultsshowasignificantdifference."Forwords,researcherscodethetext.Theygroupsimilarideastogether.Theysay,"Threemainthemesemergedfromthedata."Theanalysissectionpresentsthesefindingsclearly.Itusessimpletablesorquotesfromparticipants.

Ethicsarecrucialinallresearch.Researchersmusttreatpeoplewithrespect.Theyneedinformedconsent.Thismeansparticipantsknowwhatthestudyisabout.Theyagreetojoinfreely.Theirprivacymustbeprotected.Datashouldbeanonymous.Researcherswriteaboutthesesteps.Theysay,"Participantssignedaconsentform."Theysay,"Alldataiskeptconfidential."Thesestatementsarecommoninthemethodssection.

Writingaboutmethodsusessimple,directlanguage.Thegoalisclarity.Otherresearchersmustbeabletounderstandtheprocess.Theymightevenrepeatthestudy.Sentencesareshortandfactual."Wedistributed500surveys.450werereturned.Weenteredthedataintoacomputer.Wecalculatedthemeanandstandarddeviation."Thereisnoneedforfancywords.Thedescriptionshouldbelikearecipe.Itliststhestepsinorder.

Researchhasasharedvocabulary.Wordslikesample,population,variable,datacollection,andanalysisappearoften.Asampleisthegroupofpeoplestudied.Thepopulationisthelargergroupitrepresents.Avariableissomethingthatcanchange,likeageorincome.Knowingthesebasictermsisessentialforreadingandwritingresearchpapers.Theyarethebuildingblocksofacademicwork.

Differentfieldshavetheirownpreferredmethods.Historiansusearchivalresearch.Theystudyolddocumentsandrecords.Biologistsuselaboratoryexperiments.Linguistsmightanalyzerecordedspeech.Thecoreideaisthesame.Aclearquestionguidesthework.Amethodischosentoanswerthatquestion.Dataiscollectedandanalyzed.Theresultsaresharedwithothers.Thelanguageusedtodescribethisprocessisfunctional.Itservestocommunicate,nottoimpress.Itispreciseandstraightforward.Thisallowsknowledgetogrowinasystematicway.