CONDUCTING FIELD RESEARCH

Depending on your research topic, you may need — or want — to conduct field research to collect original information. This section discusses three common types of field research.

  1. Interviews
  2. Surveys
  3. Observation

All of these methods generate primary source material.

INTERVIEWING

An interview allows you to obtain firsthand information from a person who is knowledgeable about your topic. For example, if the topic of your research project is treatment of teenage alcoholism, it might be a good idea to interview an experienced substance abuse counselor who works with teenagers. Use the following suggestions to conduct effective interviews.

  1. Choose interviewees carefully. Be sure your interviewees work in the field you are researching or are experts on your topic. Also try to choose interviewees who may offer different or unexpected points of view. If you are researching a corporation, for example, try to interview someone from upper management as well as white- and blue-collar workers.
  2. Arrange your interview by phone, email, or letter well in advance. Describe your project and purpose, explaining that you are a student working on an assignment. Indicate the amount of time you think you’ll need, but don’t be disappointed if the person offers you less time or denies your request altogether. Be flexible about whom you interview. For example, a busy vice president may refer you to an assistant or to another manager.
  3. Plan the interview. Do some research to make sure the information you need is not already available through more traditional sources. Then devise a list of questions you want to ask. Try to ask open questions, which generate discussion, rather than closed questions, which can be answered in a word or two. For example, “Do you think your company has a promising future?” could be answered yes or no, whereas, “How do you account for your company’s turnaround last year?” might spark a detailed response. Open questions usually encourage people to open up and reveal attitudes as well as facts.
  4. Take notes during the interview. Write the interviewee’s responses in note form and ask whether you may quote him or her directly. If you want to record the interview, be sure to ask the interviewee’s permission.
  5. Evaluate the interview. As soon as possible after the interview, reread your notes and fill in information you did not have time to record. Also write down your reactions while they are still fresh in your mind. Try to write down your overall impression and an answer to this question: What did I learn from this interview? Many authors, researchers, and corporations are also willing to respond to email requests for specific information. When you send an email message to someone you don’t know, be sure to introduce yourself and briefly describe the purpose of your inquiry. Include a specific subject line so that your email is not deleted as spam. Provide complete information about yourself, including the name of your school and how to contact you, and politely request the information you need.

CONDUCTING A SURVEY

A survey is a set of questions designed to elicit information quickly from a large number of people. Surveys are often used to assess people’s attitudes or intentions. They can be conducted face-to-face, by phone, by email, by regular mail, or online.

Use the following suggestions to prepare effective surveys.

  1. Clarify the purpose of the survey. Prepare a detailed list of what you want to learn from the survey.
  2. Design your questions. A survey can include closed or open questions or both, but most surveys use mostly closed questions (either a multiple-choice or a ranking-scale format), so responses can be tabulated easily.
  3. Test your survey questions. Try out your questions on a few classmates, family members, or friends to be sure they are clear, unambiguous, and easily understood. Ask yourself: Will the answers to these questions provide the information I need? Are the questions phrased in an unbiased and nonleading way?
  4. Select your respondents. Your respondents — the people who provide answers to your survey — must be representative of the group you are studying and must be chosen at random. For example, if you are planning a survey to learn what students on your campus think about mandatory drug testing for athletes, you should choose a group of respondents (a sample) that accurately represents your school’s student population. For most campuses, then, your group of respondents would contain both men and women, be racially and ethnically diverse, and represent students’ various ages and socioeconomic groups. Your sample should also be random; respondents should be unknown to you and not chosen for a specific reason. One way to draw a random sample is to give the survey to every fifth or tenth name on a list or to every fifteenth person who walks by.
  5. Summarize and report your results. Tally the results and look for patterns in the data. If the sample is fairly large, use a computer spreadsheet to tabulate results. In your paper, discuss your overall findings, not individual respondents’ answers (though you may choose to quote representative answers from open-ended questions). Explain the purpose of the survey as well as how you designed it, selected the sample, and administered the survey to respondents. You may also want to include a copy of the survey and tabulations in an appendix.

CONDUCTING OBSERVATIONS

An observation — the inspection of an event, a scene, or an activity — can be an important primary source in a research project. For instance, you might observe children at play to analyze differences in play between boys and girls. Firsthand observation can yield valuable insights on the job as well. You might, for example, need to observe and report on the condition of hospital patients or the job performance of your employees.

Use the following tips to conduct observations effectively.

  1. Arrange your visit in advance. Unless you are conducting an observation in a public place, obtain permission from the company or organization in advance. Make the purpose of your visit clear when arranging your appointment.
  2. Take detailed notes on what you observe. Write down the details you will need to describe the scene vividly in your paper. For instance, if you visit a mental health clinic, note details about patient care, security, hygiene, and the like. You might sketch the scene, especially if you are a spatial learner, or record a video if you have permission to do so.
  3. Create a dominant impression. As soon as possible after your visit, evaluate your observations. Think about what you saw and heard. Then describe your dominant impression of what you observed and the details that support it.(For more on creating a dominant impression, see Chapter 13.)