Choosing Appropriate Research Methods
Printed Page 116-120
Choosing Appropriate Research Methods
Different research questions require different research methods. Once you have determined the questions you need to answer, think about the various research techniques you could use to answer them.
For example, your research methods for finding out how a current situation is expected to change would differ from your research methods for finding out how well a product might work for your organization. That is, if you want to know how outsourcing will change the computer-support industry over the next 10 to 20 years, you might search for long-range predictions in journal and magazine articles and on reputable websites and blogs. By contrast, if you want to figure out whether a specific scanner will produce the quality of scan that you need and will function reliably, you might do the same kind of secondary research and then observe the operation of the scanner at a vendor’s site; schedule product demos at your site; follow up by interviewing others in your company; and perform an experiment in which you try two different scanners and analyze the results.
Table 6.1 provides a good starting point for thinking about how to acquire the information you need. You are likely to find that your research plan changes as you conduct your research. You might find, for instance, that you need more than one method to get the information you need or that the one method you thought would work doesn’t. Still, having a plan can help you discover the most appropriate methods more quickly and efficiently.
| TABLE 6.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND METHODS | ||
| TYPE OF QUESTION | EXAMPLE OF QUESTION | APPROPRIATE RESEARCH TECHNIQUE |
| What is the theory behind this process or technique? | How do greenhouse gases contribute to global warming? | Encyclopedias, handbooks, and journal articles present theory. Also, you can find theoretical information on websites of reputable professional organizations and universities. Search using keywords such as “greenhouse gases” and “global warming.” |
| What is the history of this phenomenon? | When and how did engineers first try to extract shale oil? | Encyclopedias and handbooks present history. Also, you can find historical information on websites of reputable professional organizations and universities. Search using keywords such as “shale oil” and “petroleum history.” |
| What techniques are being used now to solve this problem? | How are companies responding to the federal government’s new laws on health-insurance portability? | If you need recent information, you will have better luck using digital resources such as websites and social media than using traditional print media. Search using keywords and tags such as “health-insurance portability.” Your search will be most effective if you use standard terminology, such as “HIPAA” for the health-insurance law. |
| How is a current situation expected to change? | What changes will outsourcing cause in the computer-support industry over the next 10 to 20 years? | For long-range predictions, you can find information in journal articles and magazine articles and on reputable websites. Experts might write forecasts on discussion boards and blogs. |
| What products are available to perform a task or provide a service? | Which vendors are available to upgrade and maintain our company’s website? | For products and services, search websites, discussion boards, and blogs. Reputable vendors—manufacturers and service providers—have sites describing their offerings. But be careful not to assume vendors’ claims are accurate. Even the specifications they provide might be exaggerated. |
| What are the strengths and weaknesses of competing products and services? | Which portable GPS system is the lightest? | Search for benchmarking articles from experts in the field, such as a journal article (either in print or on the web) about camping and outfitting that compares the available GPS systems according to reasonable criteria. Also check discussion boards for reviews and blogs for opinions. If appropriate, do field research to answer your questions. |
| Which product or service do experts recommend? | Which four-wheel-drive SUV offers the best combination of features and quality for our needs? | Experts write journal articles, magazine articles, and sometimes blogs. Often, they participate in discussion boards. Sometimes, you can interview them, in person or on the phone, or write them inquiries. |
| What do our stakeholders think about a current or proposed product or service? | Would the public like to see us add a plug-in hybrid version to our line of small SUVs? How would we market it to distinguish it from the existing hybrid small SUVs? | Study journal and magazine articles or influential blogs or post a question on a company blog or on a microblogging site such as Tumblr and ask for responses. Also consider analyzing social-media data, using software to capture and measure keywords from social-media platforms. |
| What are the facts about how we do our jobs at this company? | Do our chemists use gas chromatography in their analyses? | Sometimes, you can interview someone, in person or on the phone, to answer a simple question. To determine whether your chemists use a particular technique, start by asking someone in the relevant department. |
| What can we learn about what caused a problem in our organization? | What caused the contamination in the clean room? | You can interview personnel who were closest to the problem and inspect the scene to determine the cause of the problem. |
| What do our personnel think we should do about a situation? | Do our quality-control analysts think we need to revise our sampling quotient? | If there are only a few personnel, interview them. If there are many, use questionnaires to get the information more quickly. |
| How well would this product or service work in our organization? | Would this scanner produce the quality of scan that we need and interface well with our computer equipment? | Read product reviews on reputable websites. Study discussion boards. Observe the use of the product or service at a vendor’s site. Schedule product demos at your site. Follow up by interviewing others in your company to get their thinking. Do an experiment in which you try two different solutions to a problem and then analyze the results. |
Researching a Topic
Follow these three guidelines as you gather information to use in your document.
- Be persistent. Don’t be discouraged if a research method doesn’t yield useful information. Even experienced researchers fail at least as often as they succeed. Be prepared to rethink how you might find the information. Don’t hesitate to ask reference librarians for help or to post questions on discussion boards.
- Record your data carefully. Prepare the materials you will need. Write information down, on paper or electronically. Record interviews (with the respondents’ permission). Paste the URLs of the sites you visit into your notes. Bookmark sites so that you can return to them easily.
- Triangulate your research methods. Triangulating your research methods means using more than one or two methods. If a manufacturer’s website says a printer produces 17 pages per minute, an independent review in a reputable journal also says 17, and you get 17 in a demo at your office with your documents, the printer probably will produce 17 pages per minute. When you need to answer important questions, don’t settle for only one or two sources.
If you are doing research for a document that will be read by people from other cultures, think about what kinds of evidence your readers will consider appropriate. In many non-Western cultures, tradition or the authority of the person making the claim can be extremely important, in some cases more important than the kind of scientific evidence that is favored in Western cultures.
And don’t forget that all people pay particular attention to information that comes from their own culture. If you are writing to European readers about telemedicine, for instance, try to find information from European authorities and about European telemedicine. This information will interest your readers and will likely reflect their cultural values and expectations.