Difference between methods and methodology

Difference between methods and methodology 

Understanding the difference between methods and methodology is of paramount importance. Method is simply a research tool, a component of research– say for example, a qualitative method such asinterviews. Methodology is the justification for using a particular research method.

What is a research problem?

Definition

A research problem is a definite orclear expression [statement] about an area of concern,a condition to be improved upon, a difficulty to be eliminated, or a troubling question that exists in scholarly literature, in theory, or within existing practicethat points to a need for meaningful understanding and deliberate investigation. A research problem does not state how to do something, offer a vague or broad proposition, or present a value question.

The purpose of a problem statement is to:

1.  Introduce the reader to the importance of the topic being studied. The reader is oriented to the significance of the study and the research questions, hypotheses, or assumptions to follow.

2.  Place the topic into a particular context that defines the parameters of what is to be investigated.

3.  Provide the framework for reporting the results and indicates what is probably necessary to conduct the study and explain how the findings will present this information.

Quantitative data. posts of research begin blog of Sir Prof Shoail Ansari from 25 sept 2017

Descriptive statistics are numbers that are used to summarize and describe data. The word "data" refers to the information that has been collected from an experiment, a survey, a historical record, etc. (By the way, "data" is plural.

Quantitative data are measures of values or counts and are expressed as numbers. Quantitative data are data about numeric variables (e.g. how many; how much; or how often). Qualitative data are measures of 'types' and may be represented by a name, symbol, or a number code.J

Descriptive Research Used to obtain information concerning the current status of a phenomena. Purpose of these methods is to describe “what exists” with respect to situational variables.

Analytical research means carrying out analysis on a phenomenon – Mostly involves secondary data – ex-ante research- before contemplated change Accessing both primary (e.g. witnesses) or secondary (e.g. literature) sources to document past events

Philosophical Research Organising existing evidence into a comprehensive theoretical modelØ

creative prompts taught by Sir prof Shoail Ansari

Need an idea to help you get started writing? You’ll find hundreds of fun writing prompts here – perfect for beginning a new novel or short story, or simply giving your writing muscle a workout.

A Not-So-Christmas Story

Write a story or scene that is NOT related to the holidays using at least 6 of the following words (bonus imaginary internet points if you can include all 12).

Conspiracy!

Take an event from history and write a fictional account describing a conspiracy theory about what "REALLY" happened. Or, if you prefer, write a scene about a character who believes in one or more conspiracy theories.

Table for Two

Write a story or scene about two people—or other nonhuman characters, if you prefer—from very different backgrounds sharing a meal together. What do they learn about each other that they weren't expecting?

Symbolic Animals

Write a story or a scene involving an animal that symbolizes something else. It can represent a concept, an experience, an emotion, a historical moment, or anything else you can think of.

The End of the Road

Think back to a moment where you've come to the end of the road with something important in your life—a relationship with a lover; moving out of your childhood home; graduation from school; etc. Write a scene wrapped around that moment, describing how you felt (good and bad) and how you...

Favorite Piece of Clothing Eulogy

You favorite article of clothing has finally out-lived its life (and then some). It's time to say goodbye, but you love it so much you feel a need to send it off properly. Write a eulogy dedicated to that piece of clothing and all the times you shared together.

Watch Out For Famous Friends

You've been given the opportunity to go on an adventure with two famous people (dead or alive). As the adventure unfolds, it becomes clear that those two famous people plan to kill you. Write a scene about that adventure, who the famous people are and what you do to escape death.

Last Day of Summer Break

You're a teenager and it's the last day of summer break. This is especially painful for you because, over the course of those summer months, you fell in love for the first time and that person is moving away (and breaking up with you). Write the scene where you say goodbye....

A Broken-Hearted Song

You're the lead singer/songwriter of a band that's working on its debut album. You're one song short, until you're longtime significant other unexpectedly breaks your heart. Filled with sadness, you compose a song that expresses how you feel—and that song completes the album. Write the lyrics to that song.

Harry Potter Comes To Your House

What if Harry Potter came to your house for dinner? Write this scene as if you were a teenager, he's new to your school and you're introducing him to your parents. Also, after dinner, he makes a request of you. What is it?

The End of The Bucket List

Write a story about a character who finds out that he or she is dying and has been knocking things off his/her bucket list and has finally reached the last item.

Mother’s Day Fiasco

To celebrate Mother's Day, you've invited the entire family over to celebrate. But instead of bringing your mom to the celebration, your father brings someone else—and tells you that this woman is actually your mother. How do you react? Is it someone you know? Write this scene.

Hiring a New Villain

Your old villain quit over creative differences, so you've put yourself in charge of hiring a new villain for your novel. What questions do you ask? What does the new villain's resume say? Write this scene as if it were a job interview.

The Letter All Writers Should Write

Write a letter to a person who supported your writing career, whether that be a friend, a family member, a teacher (even one that supported you at a very young age before you knew that it would blossom into a writing career), an author you've never met but have been inspired...

office. Instinctively, you rush to that office to see smoke and fire all around the...

At The End of The Rainbow

You and a friend have decided to try and follow a rainbow to see if the end holds a pot of gold. But when you finally reach the end, you find something much more valuable than a pot of gold—and it changes your life. Write this scene.

Stuck in the 80s

Write a story about a millennial teenager who, through a high school experiment gone wrong, time travels back to his/her same high school in the 80s and has to spend a day in that era before finding a way to time-travel back.

I Can’t Believe I Didn’t See That Coming

Write a story that starts with the line "You'll never get me to tell you where the jewels are," and ends with the line, "I can't believe I didn't see that coming." Be as creative as you can.

Truth or Lie About You

Write 4 things about yourself that are true and one that's a lie. Then, go on to at least one other person's post and guess which one is the lie.

The Hitchhiker

Write a story about three people who are on a road trip together, only to stop off at a gas station and pick up a fourth person whom they don't know. Why did they pick this person up? Where are they taking him/her? What happens?

First Day of School

Write about a first day of school—it can be your very first day, it can be the first day of a particular year or at a particular school, it can be a fictional first day. Dive into the emotions you felt as well as what you thought that year may hold.

Books and Characters

Write a story that begins with the title of the book you’ve most recently read and ends with the name of your favorite character that you’ve written.

Letter to the Author

Have the main character in your novel (or short story) write a letter to you. What would they say? Have them write whatever you want.

Killing Clichés

Write 10 sentences using a different cliché in each. Now, rewrite the sentence to eliminate the cliché and find a more clever and creative way to convey its meaning.

Thanksgiving Burgers

Write about the only time you hosted Thanksgiving. Start with the line, "For my first Thanksgiving as host, I bought the biggest turkey they had in the store," and end your story with "And that's why we all ate hamburgers."

Hey Diddle Diddle

Write a love story about the dish and the spoon from the classic nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle.” How did they meet and why did they decide to run away together? Will their relationship last?

Difference between semi structured, unstructured and techniques in research

Structured interviews are such that the interviewer comes prepared with a list of questions he wants to ask and the respondent simply answers what he/she is asked. They are useful for researches that can easily be coded and in most cases, the codes are already on ground. You basically just fit the responses in. They are close-ended

For semi-structured, the questions are open ended and the respondent is allowed to talk/respond in details. You come into the interview with an interview guide which may change as you proceed. For instance, the respondent may say something you have not considered but you now find useful. You can include this new ideas in your next interview. They are particularly helpful with inductive methodologies such as grounded theories.

The way I view unstructured interviews is 'listening to a gist'. You simply listen to the respondent talk about his/her experience. It is more story telling and you pick what you want from the story, hence the name 'unstructured'. You are however allowed to seek clarifications. The best way to this form of interview is to build some trust and 'closeness' with your respondent. Apparently, such approach will be useful in phenomenological studies.

Finally, the unstructured and semi-structured interviews allow respondents to express themselves freely and can be rewarding, even though time consuming.

I hope this helps.

Qualitative and Quantitative research methods by Sir DR Sohail Ansari

Qualitative Research

 Qualitative Research is primarily exploratory research.It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research. Qualitative Research is also used to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dive deeper into the problem. Qualitative data collection methods vary using unstructured or semi-structured techniques. Some common methods include focus groups (group discussions), individual interviews, and participation/observations. The sample size is typically small, and respondents are selected to fulfil a given quota.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research presents non-quantitative type of analysis. Qualitative research is collecting, analyzing and interpreting data by observing what people do and say. Qualitative research refers to the meanings, definitions, characteristics, symbols, metaphors, and description of things. Qualitative research is much more subjective and uses very different methods of collecting information,mainly individual, in-depth interviews and focus groups.

The nature of this type of research is exploratory and open ended. Small number of people are interviewedin depth and or a relatively small number of focus groups are conducted. Qualitative research can be further classified in the following type.

I. Phenomenology:-a form of research in which the researcher attempts to understand how one or more individuals experience a phenomenon. Eg:-we might interview 20 victims of bhopal tragedy.

II. Ethnography:- this type of research focuses on describing the culture of a group of people. A culture is the shared attributes, values, norms, practices, language, and material things of a group of people. Eg:-the researcher might decide to go and live with thetribal in Andaman island and study the culture and the educational practices.

III. Case study:-is a form of qualitative research that is focused on providing a detailed account of one or more cases. Eg:-we may study a classroom that was given a new curriculum for technology use.

IV. Grounded theory:- it is an inductive type of research,based or grounded in the observations of data from which it was developed; it uses a variety of data sources, including quantitative data, review of records, interviews, observation and surveys

V. Historical research:-it allows one to discuss past and present events in the context of the present condition, and allows one to reflect and provide possible answers to current issues and problems. Eg:-the lending pattern of business in the 19th century.

In addition to the above, we also have the descriptive research. Fundamental research, of which this is based on establishing various theories

Also the research is classified into:

1. Descriptive research

2. Analytical research

3. Fundamental research

4. Conceptual research

5. Empirical research

6. One time research or longitudinal research

7. Field-setting research or laboratory research or simulation research

8. Clinical or diagnostic research

9. Exploratory research

10.            Historical research

11.            Conclusion oriented research

12.            Case study research

13.            Short term research

Qualitative Research[edit]

·         Many times those that undertake a research project often find they are not aware of the differences between Qualitative Research and Quantitative Research methods.  Many mistakenly think the two terms can be used interchangeably.

·         So what is the difference between Qualitative Research and Quantitative Research?

Quantitative Research

·         Quantitative Research is used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into usable statistics. It is used to quantify attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and other defined variables – and generalize results from a larger sample population. Quantitative Research uses measurable data to formulate facts and uncover patterns in research. Quantitative data collection methods are much more structured than Qualitative data collection methods. Quantitative data collection methods include various forms of surveys – online surveys, paper surveys, mobile surveys and kiosk surveys, face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, longitudinal studies, website interceptors, online polls, and systematic observations.

·         Snap Survey Software is the ideal survey platform and online research software where structured techniques such as large numbers of respondents and descriptive findings are required. Snap Survey Software has many robust features that will help your organization effectively gather and analyze quantitative data.

Quantitative Research

This research is based on numeric figures or numbers. Quantitative research aim to measure the quantity or amount and compares it with past records and tries to project for future period. In social sciences, “quantitative research refers to the systematic empirical investigation of quantitative properties and phenomena and their relationships”. The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ mathematical models, theories or hypothesis pertaining to phenomena.

The process of measurement is central to quantitative research because it provides fundamental connection between empirical observation and mathematical expression of quantitative relationships. Statistics is the most widely used branch of mathematics in quantitative research. Statistical methods are used extensively with in fields such as economics and commerce.

Get Better Data and Simplify Analysis: Qualitative vs. Quantitative Questions

Lisa works in Human Resources at Widgets, Inc. Lately, she’s heard rumblings that employees are unhappy with their supervisors, but she’s not sure why. Determined to find out what’s going wrong, she sets up one-on-one meetings with every single employee. Unfortunately, none of the meetings are helpful, because no one is willing to say anything negative about their supervisor out loud.

Frustrated, Lisa decides to send a survey instead—hoping that the anonymity of a survey will make employees feel more comfortable about sharing what they really think. She sits down to create her survey, however, and feels a little stuck and overwhelmed.

Okay, thinks Lisa, let’s start with the basics…

This type of question is known as an “open-ended” or “qualitative” question. It is called “open-ended” because the person responding to it is free to answer in any manner he or she chooses.

There are no response options specified. It is known as “qualitative” because responses are judged and measured by feel rather than by mathematics.

Lisa, anxious for her survey to be a success, thinks about how she’d answer this question about her own supervisor…

The great thing about this data is that if Lisa has no idea why people are upset with their supervisors, it gives them free reign to answer. For example, Lisa might not have thought to ask specifically aboutwhether a supervisor fosters work-life balance—but this might emerge as a theme among responses.

There are, however, some problems with open-ended, qualitative questions…

1. Whaddya mean by that? Qualitative questions can be vague. What do I think about my supervisor? Are you referring to his management style? His fashion sense? His punctuality? His credentials? Re-writing open-ended questions to be more specific can help with that. For example: Please describe your supervisor’s management style.

However, questions may still linger when specific responses are not provided. It’d be much easier to answer the following question about supervisor management style:

This type of question is known as a “closed-ended” or “quantitative” question. It is called “closed-ended” because the person responding to it is constricted in the range of options he or she has to choose from as answers. It is known as “quantitative” because the response options can be converted to numbers. Why does that matter?

2. What on earth should I do with all this data? Figuring out what questions to ask is tough but figuring out what to do with the answers you get can be even tougher. With qualitative questions, you need to read all of the responses carefully in order to extract common themes. However, this process can be riddled with bias, as you often see only what you want to see in open-ended response answers. That’s why quantitative questions can be so great!

All you have to do is compute an average of the responses you get, a simple calculation in a spreadsheet with no hours of reading required. This also makes more complex analyses–like group comparisons–lightning fast. Simply compute an average for each group, compare, and you’re done!

3. What else is in it for me? The other thing to know about qualitative questions is that they take a really long time to answer. As a survey respondent, it’s much faster to choose one of five pre-formulated options than to have to take the time to write your own response. And, as we’ve mentioned before, keeping surveys short keeps respondents focused and interested. So not only will you get to ask more questions when you use quantitative questions, but it will also get you better data! Getting the most accurate data possible means that you’ll make the right decision every time.

So what’s the bottom line? Qualitative questions are a fantastic first step at exploring the minds of the people you want to survey, but they shouldn’t be your last. Using quantitative questions makes questions clearer, analysis simpler, and data quality better.

Take the time to think of specific quantitative questions to ask now—trust us, you’ll be glad that you did. As for Lisa, here’s hoping she figured out the right quantitative questions to ask to get the answers she needed.