– Argument: Present your secondary argument, which supports your thesis and contributes to the overall narrative.
– Argument: Address potentially controversial data or arguments, striving for a balanced perspective.
This research essay structure is designed to guide your writing process and ensure that your arguments are presented logically and persuasively while maintaining objectivity and integrity in your research.
2️⃣ Importance of Citing Sources
Citing your sources isn’t merely a formality; it lends credibility to your arguments and respects the original authors’ contributions. Through accurate citations, a research essay example can also avoid plagiarism and uphold academic integrity.
Research essays require finding, evaluating, and integrating source material to support an analytical thesis. This process demands care and effort. Use these tips to write top-quality research essays.
Over-generalization, neglecting counterarguments, or providing superficial evidence are common pitfalls in research essays. Always consult diverse research paper examples to understand and sidestep these mistakes.
By following this checklist, you can better prepare yourself to critically evaluate research essay examples in a way that is aligned with your research goals and standards.
Be sure to review your grading rubric carefully, and consider studying at least one freely available research essay example. This will aid you in comparing the given guidelines with your specific task as you embark on the writing process.
Using these research and writing strategies will boost essay quality. Crafting a well-structured research essay is pivotal for academic and professional success. By harnessing the power of sample research essay resources and various research paper examples, anyone can elevate their writing and convey their arguments compellingly.
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Just like any research paper that a college student encounters, you must follow the classic pattern of “Introduction - Thesis - 3 Body Paragraphs - Conclusion”. Some cases may differ, depending on what you have been asked to do, yet a research paper is the one where you must synthesize available information and make a strong argument regarding the main topic or subject of your research. Check our research paper example to see how the sources and evidence are incorporated and mixed with the author’s opinion. Remember about formatting and style requirements in terms of indents and the spaces.
Unlike reflective or comparative writing, the research essay will always contain a strict academic structure. An example of a research paper usually represents writing with a thesis statement that makes a proposal, assumption, or uses a strong argument about some scientific idea. It is usually not written in the first person since an author must combine various resources, include quotations, and implement evidence to support certain ideas. The presence of focus on the ideas and the analysis of information is what makes it stand apart from the author-based essay writing.
In short, research always implements a certain methodology. While there is no universal formula that would explain what does the research mean in writing, it is sufficient to say that research must contain a topic, strong thesis statement (or an argument), a list of reliable sources, a counter-argument paragraph (if relevant) and the conclusion where information is summed up and stated in a clearer or simpler way. Check our college research paper example to examine the structure in practice and see the key differences when compared to the usual college essay papers.
Select a topic that interests you and is relevant to your field of study. Ensure it's specific enough to be manageable but broad enough to find sufficient research material.
Typically, it includes an introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion. However, structure may vary depending on the assignment or guidelines.
The introduction introduces your topic, provides context, and states your research question or thesis. It should engage readers and set the stage for your essay.
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Primary research is the collecting of original data.
Not all subjects permit the use of primary methods as part of the research process for the EE, so it is important to carefully check your subject guidelines before starting.
On this page, you can find information on:
Primary Research - What is Its Purpose? Primary Research - Preparation Before You Begin Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research Research Methods Considerations for Primary Research Ways That Primary Research Can Fail Video Tutorials
After the literature review or secondary research is completed, you must analyze your findings and:
At this point you may decide to investigate further by carrying out your own primary research , in other words by collecting your own data .
You will have to choose a method or methods that are appropriate to the research question and commonly used in the particular Diploma Programme subject. NOTE: although the method may be appropriate for the subject, in the instance of the EE it may not be permitted, so check the subject guide!
Possible data collection methods include:
The details of how the data was collected are crucial to the validity of any argument based on the findings. You must put in the main body of your essay the details of any primary research you carry out. These include:
Students must follow the accepted process for carrying out their chosen method of research—how the data is recorded, analysed and presented. Otherwise, their data will have little value.
Students need to plan carefully how to carry out their research. In most cases, there will be only one opportunity to collect primary data from a particular source.
It is extremely important that students approach their research in an ethical and legal manner. See:
Quantitative research follows a well-defined process that yields data that can be analyzed statistically. For example:
Qualitative research collects information that may reflect opinions or personal perspectives on a particular situation. The data that is collected gives an overall impression and generally cannot be analyzed statistically. For example:
B2Bwhiteboard. What is primary data? 3 January 2012. YouTube, https://youtu.be/yZgCam-sjCw. Accessed January 2017.
Learn how to conduct an online survey. Topics include: Developing research questions; designing a good questionnaire; choosing the right online survey tool (Google Forms, Sosci Survey, Survey Monkey).
Ebster, Claus. How to conduct an online survey. 5 August 2014. YouTube, https://youtu.be/uTIWl76_klI. Accessed January 2017.
This video from Ivory Research provides information on the top 3 primary research methods for graduate students writing a dissertation - including questionnaires, interviews and focus groups: how to collect research and use it for maximum effectiveness.
IvoryResearch. Dissertation tutorial: Top 3 primary research methods. 12 August 2013. YouTube., https://youtu.be/_lR7oCjutZE. Accessed May 2015.
Experiments can be conducted and their data collected using systematic methods and well-defined processes. For example:
Experiments usually involve quantitative processes to collect and analyze the resulting data.
Investigations
Types of investigation include:
Investigations of original source material can reveal whether a particular situation exists or to what extent it does. Investigations can also extract and analyze data from original sources to demonstrate that a particular outcome does occur.
Interviews can be with one person or a small group, also called a focus group. Face-to-face interviews have the advantage of allowing the interviewer to ask follow-up questions during the interview.
Question design
Questions should be designed to elicit the responses required to help answer the overall research question.
Recording the interview
Another consideration is how to record the response. You must ask the permission of the interviewee if you wish to use any audio-visual equipment during an interview. Please note that electronic submissions are not acceptable, and so an example of a transcript will need to be attached in the appendix. Refer to the section of this guide on appendices for further information.
Surveys can be carried out:
The researcher is better able to control who is responding to the questions when using paper surveys than online.
Successful surveys require:
Quantitative vs qualitative data
To collect quantitative data the survey must ask closed or multiple-choice questions. These:
To collect qualitative data , the survey must ask open-ended questions, which allow the respondents to write their own answer.
Sample size and selection
When collecting data from groups of people, you must make certain that:
Whichever method is used, your primary research must be well structured and collect data relating to people, events or objects.
The data collected must be:
Questions for you to consider are:
The analysis of primary research includes:
You time should be spent researching:
A badly designed or implemented experiment or investigation will lead to flawed results . The following list indicates some ways that primary research can fail.
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Published on 15 January 2023 by Tegan George .
Primary research is a research method that relies on direct data collection , rather than relying on data that’s already been collected by someone else. In other words, primary research is any type of research that you undertake yourself, firsthand, while using data that has already been collected is called secondary research.
Primary research is often used in qualitative research , particularly in survey methodology, questionnaires, focus groups, and various types of interviews . While quantitative primary research does exist, it’s not as common.
When to use primary research, types of primary research, examples of primary research, advantages and disadvantages of primary research, frequently asked questions.
Primary research is any research that you conduct yourself. It can be as simple as a 2-question survey, or as in-depth as a years-long longitudinal study . The only key is that data must be collected firsthand by you.
Primary research is often used to supplement or strengthen existing secondary research. It is usually exploratory in nature, concerned with examining a research question where no preexisting knowledge exists. It is also sometimes called original research for this reason.
Primary research can take many forms, but the most common types are:
Surveys and questionnaires collect information about a group of people by asking them questions and analyzing the results. They are a solid choice if your research topic seeks to investigate something about the characteristics, preferences, opinions, or beliefs of a group of people.
Surveys and questionnaires can take place online, in person, or through the mail. It is best to have a combination of open-ended and closed-ended questions, and how the questions are phrased matters. Be sure to avoid leading questions, and ask any related questions in groups, starting with the most basic ones first.
Observational studies are an easy and popular way to answer a research question based purely on what you, the researcher, observes. If there are practical or ethical concerns that prevent you from conducting a traditional experiment , observational studies are often a good stopgap.
There are three types of observational studies: cross-sectional studies , cohort studies, and case-control studies. If you decide to conduct observational research, you can choose the one that’s best for you. All three are quite straightforward and easy to design – just beware of confounding variables and observer bias creeping into your analysis.
Similarly to surveys and questionnaires, interviews and focus groups also rely on asking questions to collect information about a group of people. However, how this is done is slightly different. Instead of sending your questions out into the world, interviews and focus groups involve two or more people – one of whom is you, the interviewer, who asks the questions.
There are 3 main types of interviews:
While interviews are a rich source of information, they can also be deceptively challenging to do well. Be careful of interviewer bias creeping into your process. This is best mitigated by avoiding double-barreled questions and paying close attention to your tone and delivery while asking questions.
Alternatively, a focus group is a group interview, led by a moderator. Focus groups can provide more nuanced interactions than individual interviews, but their small sample size means that external validity is low.
Primary research can often be quite simple to pursue yourself. Here are a few examples of different research methods you can use to explore different topics.
Primary research is a great choice for many research projects, but it has distinct advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages include:
Disadvantages include:
The 3 main types of primary research are:
Exploratory research explores the main aspects of a new or barely researched question.
Explanatory research explains the causes and effects of an already widely researched question.
There are several methods you can use to decrease the impact of confounding variables on your research: restriction, matching, statistical control, and randomisation.
In restriction , you restrict your sample by only including certain subjects that have the same values of potential confounding variables.
In matching , you match each of the subjects in your treatment group with a counterpart in the comparison group. The matched subjects have the same values on any potential confounding variables, and only differ in the independent variable .
In statistical control , you include potential confounders as variables in your regression .
In randomisation , you randomly assign the treatment (or independent variable) in your study to a sufficiently large number of subjects, which allows you to control for all potential confounding variables.
A questionnaire is a data collection tool or instrument, while a survey is an overarching research method that involves collecting and analysing data from people using questionnaires.
When conducting research, collecting original data has significant advantages:
However, there are also some drawbacks: data collection can be time-consuming, labour-intensive, and expensive. In some cases, it’s more efficient to use secondary data that has already been collected by someone else, but the data might be less reliable.
If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.
George, T. (2023, January 15). Primary Research | Definition, Types, & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 3 September 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/research-methods/primary-research-explained/
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Listed below are some of the best examples of research projects and dissertations from undergraduate and taught postgraduate students at the University of Leeds We have not been able to gather examples from all schools. The module requirements for research projects may have changed since these examples were written. Refer to your module guidelines to make sure that you address all of the current assessment criteria. Some of the examples below are only available to access on campus.
These dissertations achieved a mark of 80 or higher:
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The following two examples have been annotated with academic comments. This is to help you understand why they achieved a good 2:1 mark but also, more importantly, how the marks could have been improved. Please read to help you make the most of the two examples. (Mark 68) (Mark 66) These final year projects achieved a mark of a high first:
For students undertaking a New Venture Creation (NVC) approach, please see the following Masters level examples:
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Projects which attained grades of over 70 or between 60 and 69 are indicated on the lists (accessible only by students and staff registered with School of Computer Science, when on campus).
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These are good quality reports but they are not perfect. You may be able to identify areas for improvement (for example, structure, content, clarity, standard of written English, referencing or presentation quality).
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The following examples have their marks and feedback included at the end of of each document.
The following examples have their feedback provided in a separate document.
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The following outstanding dissertation example PDFs have their marks denoted in brackets. (Mark 78) (Mark 91) (Mark 85) |
This dissertation achieved a mark of 84: . |
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The following outstanding dissertation example PDFs have their marks denoted in brackets. (Mark 70) (Mark 78) |
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Table of Contents
Primary research is a cornerstone of insightful, accurate, and effective decision-making in both academic and professional settings. At its core, primary research refers to the process of collecting data directly from sources rather than relying on previously gathered information, distinguishing it clearly from secondary research .
The process of directly controlling the collection of the data is pivotal for ensuring the accuracy and relevance of the analysis, enabling researchers to tailor their investigations to specific research questions or problems put to them by stakeholders. This direct involvement contrasts with primary vs secondary research , where the latter often involves analyzing existing data.
Primary research serves as a vital component when seeking answers to your business objectives, filling gaps in existing knowledge and providing new data for analysis. Particularly coming into play when solving research problems with a high degree of specificity and relevance.
By leveraging primary research, professionals can uncover unique insights, highly specific to their intended target market, tailored to their industry and unique to their product of interest. This level of tailoring is simply not possible through the use of secondary research.
Selecting the appropriate research method is a critical decision that hinges on the objectives of the study. Primary research is particularly beneficial in scenarios where recent, specific data is required to address a unique problem or question. This method is ideal for:
In the realm of academic research, primary research is indispensable when fresh insights or novel data are necessary to advance knowledge or contribute to scholarly debates. This type of research is crucial for:
Market research utilizes primary research extensively to understand consumer behaviors, preferences, and trends. This method is particularly advantageous for:
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Primary research is critical in policy formulation, particularly when policies need to be based on up-to-date and specific data regarding public opinion, needs, and conditions. Primary research methods such as public opinion polls and field observations are commonly used:
In each of these contexts, primary research not only provides the specificity needed for tailored insights but also offers the flexibility to adapt to emerging data and trends, thereby enhancing the overall impact and effectiveness of the research efforts.
Primary research methods are diverse, each tailored to fit specific study objectives and research environments. These methods enable researchers to gather fresh, firsthand data directly related to their study's focus.
Surveys are structured questionnaires designed to collect data from a target audience. They are used widely due to their versatility in capturing a broad spectrum of information, ranging from customer preferences to behavioral patterns. Surveys can be administered online, in person, or via phone, making them adaptable to various research needs. For instance, a company aiming to gauge customer satisfaction might deploy an online survey to understand the factors influencing their product's user experience. This method allows for quick data collection from a large audience, providing valuable insights into customer sentiment. The volume of respondent data collected via this method also enables analysis via a range of statistical methods, allowing us to understand if the answers we receive are robust, or if there are any hidden patterns which emerge from the data.
Interviews involve direct, one-on-one conversations where detailed information is solicited from participants. They are particularly useful for gathering qualitative data, offering deep insights into participants' attitudes, experiences, and emotions. Interviews can be structured, semi-structured, or unstructured, giving researchers flexibility in their approach. Imagine a study exploring the impact of remote work on employee well-being. Conducting semi-structured interviews with employees would offer nuanced understandings of personal experiences, challenges faced, and the overall satisfaction with remote work arrangements. The depth of understanding and information gathered via this process is particularly useful when speaking to participants about difficult or challenging topics of conversation.
Focus Groups are guided discussions with a small group of participants, typically used to explore new ideas or opinions about products, services, or concepts. This method is invaluable for generating rich, detailed data and for observing the dynamics of participants' interactions and consensus-forming processes. Consider a company developing a new smartphone app. Hosting a focus group session with potential users could unveil insights into user expectations, desired features, and usability concerns, directly influencing the app's development trajectory. Due to the small number of respondents involved in the groups, care must be taken to ensure that you are speaking to a representative sample of your intended audience.
Ethnographic Studies involve watching and recording the behavior of subjects in their natural environment without intervention. This method is critical for studies where interaction with the subject might alter the outcome. For example, a retailer interested in improving store layout might conduct an observational study to track customer navigation patterns, identifying areas of congestion or overlooked products. Ethnographic studies can uncover vital behaviours which respondents themselves may be unaware of, as researchers seek to identify the unconscious behaviors which may otherwise be hidden from other research methods.
Primary research data sources are the lifeblood of firsthand research, providing raw, unfiltered insights directly from the source. These include:
Customer Satisfaction Survey Results: Direct feedback from customers about their satisfaction with a product or service. This data is invaluable for identifying strengths to build on and areas for improvement and typically renews each month or quarter so that metrics can be tracked over time.
NPS Rating Scores from Customers: Net Promoter Score (NPS) provides a straightforward metric to gauge customer loyalty and satisfaction. This quantitative data can reveal much about customer sentiment and the likelihood of referrals.
Ad-hoc Surveys: Ad-hoc surveys can be about any topic which requires investigation, they are typically one-off surveys which zero in on one particular business objective. Ad-hoc projects are useful for situations such as investigating issues identified in other tracking surveys, new product development, ad testing, brand messaging, and many other kinds of projects.
A Field Researcher’s Notes: Detailed observations from fieldwork can offer nuanced insights into user behaviors, interactions, and environmental factors that influence those interactions. These notes are a goldmine for understanding the context and complexities of user experiences.
Recordings Made During Focus Groups: Audio or video recordings of focus group discussions capture the dynamics of conversation, including reactions, emotions, and the interplay of ideas. Analyzing these recordings can uncover nuanced consumer attitudes and perceptions that might not be evident in survey data alone.
Through these examples, it's clear that each primary research method and source serves a distinct purpose, providing unique insights that are crucial for informed decision-making and strategic planning in various contexts.
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Primary research, characterized by its ability to gather firsthand information directly from the source, plays a crucial role in the landscape of research methodologies. Despite its invaluable contributions to the acquisition of new, tailored data, primary research comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Understanding these can help researchers and organizations make informed decisions when planning their research strategies.
In conclusion, primary research is a valuable part of any researcher's toolkit, offering detailed, specific insights that are directly relevant to the research question. However, the decision to undertake primary research should be weighed against the potential costs, time requirements, and complexities involved.
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Note: This page offers a brief primer on primary research. For more information, see our dedicated set of pages on this topic .
Research isn't limited to finding published material on the Internet or at the library. Many topics you choose to write on may not already have been covered by an abundance of sources and hence may require a different kind of approach to conducting research. This approach involves collecting information directly from the world around you and can include interviews, observations, surveys, and experiments. These strategies are collectively called primary research.
For example, if you are writing about a problem specific to your school or local community, you may need to conduct primary research. You may be able to find secondary sources (such as those found at the library or online) on the more general topic you are pursuing, but may not find specifics on your school or town. To supplement this lack of sources, you can collect data on your own.
For example, Briel wants to research a proposed smoking ban in public establishments in Lafayette, Indiana. Briel begins by going to the library and then searching online. She finds information related to smoking bans in other cities around the United States, but only a few limited articles from the local newspaper on the ban proposed in Lafayette. To supplement this information, she decides to survey twenty local residents to learn what they think of the proposed smoking ban. She also decides to interview two local business owners to learn how they think the ban may affect their businesses. Finally, Briel attends and observes a town hall meeting where the potential ban is discussed.
Many different types of primary research exist. Some common types used in writing classes and beyond include:
Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms - Definition and Examples
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In research and academics, a primary source refers to information collected from sources that witnessed or experienced an event firsthand. These can be historical documents , literary texts, artistic works, experiments, journal entries, surveys, and interviews. A primary source, which is very different from a secondary source , is also called primary data.
The Library of Congress defines primary sources as "the raw materials of history—original documents and objects which were created at the time under study," in contrast to secondary sources , which are "accounts or interpretations of events created by someone without firsthand experience," ("Using Primary Sources").
Secondary sources are often meant to describe or analyze a primary source and do not give firsthand accounts; primary sources tend to provide more accurate depictions of history but are much harder to come by.
There are a couple of factors that can qualify an artifact as a primary source. The chief characteristics of a primary source, according to Natalie Sproull, are: "(1) [B]eing present during the experience, event or time and (2) consequently being close in time with the data. This does not mean that data from primary sources are always the best data."
Sproull then goes on to remind readers that primary sources are not always more reliable than secondary sources. "Data from human sources are subject to many types of distortion because of such factors as selective recall, selective perceptions, and purposeful or nonpurposeful omission or addition of information. Thus data from primary sources are not necessarily accurate data even though they come from firsthand sources," (Sproull 1988).
Primary sources are often called original sources, but this is not the most accurate description because you're not always going to be dealing with original copies of primary artifacts. For this reason, "primary sources" and "original sources" should be considered separate. Here's what the authors of "Undertaking Historical Research in Literacy," from Handbook of Reading Research , have to say about this:
"The distinction also needs to be made between primary and original sources . It is by no means always necessary, and all too often it is not possible, to deal only with original sources. Printed copies of original sources, provided they have been undertaken with scrupulous care (such as the published letters of the Founding Fathers), are usually an acceptable substitute for their handwritten originals." (E. J. Monaghan and D. K. Hartman, "Undertaking Historical Research in Literacy," in Handbook of Reading Research , ed. by P. D. Pearson et al. Erlbaum, 2000)
Primary sources tend to be most useful toward the beginning of your research into a topic and at the end of a claim as evidence, as Wayne Booth et al. explain in the following passage. "[Primary sources] provide the 'raw data' that you use first to test the working hypothesis and then as evidence to support your claim . In history, for example, primary sources include documents from the period or person you are studying, objects, maps, even clothing; in literature or philosophy, your main primary source is usually the text you are studying, and your data are the words on the page. In such fields, you can rarely write a research paper without using primary sources," (Booth et al. 2008).
There is certainly a time and place for secondary sources and many situations in which these point to relevant primary sources. Secondary sources are an excellent place to start. Alison Hoagland and Gray Fitzsimmons write: "By identifying basic facts, such as year of construction, secondary sources can point the researcher to the best primary sources , such as the right tax books. In addition, a careful reading of the bibliography in a secondary source can reveal important sources the researcher might otherwise have missed," (Hoagland and Fitzsimmons 2004).
As you might expect, primary sources can prove difficult to find. To find the best ones, take advantage of resources such as libraries and historical societies. "This one is entirely dependent on the assignment given and your local resources; but when included, always emphasize quality. ... Keep in mind that there are many institutions such as the Library of Congress that make primary source material freely available on the Web," (Kitchens 2012).
Sometimes in your research, you'll run into the problem of not being able to track down primary sources at all. When this happens, you'll want to know how to collect your own primary data; Dan O'Hair et all tell you how: "If the information you need is unavailable or hasn't yet been gathered, you'll have to gather it yourself. Four basic methods of collecting primary data are field research, content analysis, survey research, and experiments. Other methods of gathering primary data include historical research, analysis of existing statistics, ... and various forms of direct observation," (O'Hair et al. 2001).
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Published on June 20, 2018 by Raimo Streefkerk . Revised on May 31, 2023.
When you do research, you have to gather information and evidence from a variety of sources.
Primary sources provide raw information and first-hand evidence. Examples include interview transcripts, statistical data, and works of art. Primary research gives you direct access to the subject of your research.
Secondary sources provide second-hand information and commentary from other researchers. Examples include journal articles, reviews, and academic books . Thus, secondary research describes, interprets, or synthesizes primary sources.
Primary sources are more credible as evidence, but good research uses both primary and secondary sources.
What is a primary source, what is a secondary source, primary and secondary source examples, how to tell if a source is primary or secondary, primary vs secondary sources: which is better, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about primary and secondary sources.
A primary source is anything that gives you direct evidence about the people, events, or phenomena that you are researching. Primary sources will usually be the main objects of your analysis.
If you are researching the past, you cannot directly access it yourself, so you need primary sources that were produced at the time by participants or witnesses (e.g. letters, photographs, newspapers ).
If you are researching something current, your primary sources can either be qualitative or quantitative data that you collect yourself (e.g. through interviews , surveys , experiments ) or sources produced by people directly involved in the topic (e.g. official documents or media texts).
Research field | Primary source |
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History | |
Art and literature | |
Communication and social studies | |
Law and politics | |
Sciences |
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A secondary source is anything that describes, interprets, evaluates, or analyzes information from primary sources. Common examples include:
When you cite a secondary source, it’s usually not to analyze it directly. Instead, you’ll probably test its arguments against new evidence or use its ideas to help formulate your own.
Primary source | Secondary source |
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Novel | Article analyzing the novel |
Painting | Exhibition catalog explaining the painting |
Letters and diaries written by a historical figure | Biography of the historical figure |
by a philosopher | Textbook summarizing the philosopher’s ideas |
Photographs of a historical event | Documentary about the historical event |
Government documents about a new policy | Newspaper article about the new policy |
Music recordings | Academic book about the musical style |
Results of an opinion poll | Blog post interpreting the results of the poll |
Empirical study | that cites the study |
A secondary source can become a primary source depending on your research question . If the person, context, or technique that produced the source is the main focus of your research, it becomes a primary source.
If you are researching the causes of World War II, a recent documentary about the war is a secondary source . But if you are researching the filmmaking techniques used in historical documentaries, the documentary is a primary source .
If your paper is about the novels of Toni Morrison, a magazine review of one of her novels is a secondary source . But if your paper is about the critical reception of Toni Morrison’s work, the review is a primary source .
If your aim is to analyze the government’s economic policy, a newspaper article about a new policy is a secondary source . But if your aim is to analyze media coverage of economic issues, the newspaper article is a primary source .
To determine if something can be used as a primary or secondary source in your research, there are some simple questions you can ask yourself:
Most research uses both primary and secondary sources. They complement each other to help you build a convincing argument. Primary sources are more credible as evidence, but secondary sources show how your work relates to existing research. Tertiary sources are often used in the first, exploratory stage of research.
Primary sources are the foundation of original research. They allow you to:
If you don’t use any primary sources, your research may be considered unoriginal or unreliable.
Secondary sources are good for gaining a full overview of your topic and understanding how other researchers have approached it. They often synthesize a large number of primary sources that would be difficult and time-consuming to gather by yourself. They allow you to:
When you conduct a literature review or meta analysis, you can consult secondary sources to gain a thorough overview of your topic. If you want to mention a paper or study that you find cited in a secondary source, seek out the original source and cite it directly.
Remember that all primary and secondary sources must be cited to avoid plagiarism . You can use Scribbr’s free citation generator to do so!
If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , citation , and plagiarism , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.
Plagiarism
Common examples of primary sources include interview transcripts , photographs, novels, paintings, films, historical documents, and official statistics.
Anything you directly analyze or use as first-hand evidence can be a primary source, including qualitative or quantitative data that you collected yourself.
Common examples of secondary sources include academic books, journal articles , reviews, essays , and textbooks.
Anything that summarizes, evaluates or interprets primary sources can be a secondary source. If a source gives you an overview of background information or presents another researcher’s ideas on your topic, it is probably a secondary source.
To determine if a source is primary or secondary, ask yourself:
Some types of source are nearly always primary: works of art and literature, raw statistical data, official documents and records, and personal communications (e.g. letters, interviews ). If you use one of these in your research, it is probably a primary source.
Primary sources are often considered the most credible in terms of providing evidence for your argument, as they give you direct evidence of what you are researching. However, it’s up to you to ensure the information they provide is reliable and accurate.
Always make sure to properly cite your sources to avoid plagiarism .
A fictional movie is usually a primary source. A documentary can be either primary or secondary depending on the context.
If you are directly analyzing some aspect of the movie itself – for example, the cinematography, narrative techniques, or social context – the movie is a primary source.
If you use the movie for background information or analysis about your topic – for example, to learn about a historical event or a scientific discovery – the movie is a secondary source.
Whether it’s primary or secondary, always properly cite the movie in the citation style you are using. Learn how to create an MLA movie citation or an APA movie citation .
Articles in newspapers and magazines can be primary or secondary depending on the focus of your research.
In historical studies, old articles are used as primary sources that give direct evidence about the time period. In social and communication studies, articles are used as primary sources to analyze language and social relations (for example, by conducting content analysis or discourse analysis ).
If you are not analyzing the article itself, but only using it for background information or facts about your topic, then the article is a secondary source.
If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.
Streefkerk, R. (2023, May 31). Primary vs. Secondary Sources | Difference & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved September 5, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/working-with-sources/primary-and-secondary-sources/
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What is a primary resource .
Each academic discipline or field defines and uses primary sources differently. Therefore, the definition of a primary source is contextual and dependent on that specific discipline or field of inquiry. Furthermore, any definition of primary sources also includes distinguishing them from secondary sources. Some disciplines use the term tertiary sources which typically include all three types (primary & secondary).
The humanities and the arts define primary sources as text, images, artifacts, and architecture (any material) that conveys the experience or life at time they are from.
The sciences define primary sources as original research. The social sciences define primary sources similar to both the humanities, sciences, and author created data/evidence. They depend on the nature of the inquiry and research methodology.
The health sciences define primary sources as original research.
Walden by Henry David Thoreau published in 2016, is a primary resource as the text was written in 1897, and offers insight into life in rural Massachusetts in the late 19th century.
Rembrandt van Rijn, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp , 1632. This painting is a good visual example of medical history in 17th century Holland.
Ledgers of imports and exports, 1731, Held by The National Archives, Kew Gardens. This is a digital scan of an original ledger of imports and exports to London in 1731. This can give us a general idea of what trade looks like in 18th-Century England.
Tapestry Room from Croome Court, Various artists/makers, 1763–71, Metropolitan Museum of Art. This was designed in 1763–1771, . Around 1902 the ninth Earl sold the tapestries and seating to a Parisian dealer. The Samuel H. Kress Foundation purchased the ceiling, floor, chimneypiece, chair rails, doors and door surrounds in 1949; they were donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1958. This room provides insight as to what an 18th-century Country house room might look, and help historians understand domestic life.
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For many students, including those who are at postgraduate level or well-versed in the dissertation process, the prospect of primary research can be somewhat daunting.
But we are here to help quell those pesky nerves you may be feeling if you are faced with doing primary research for your dissertation.
Now, this is an ultimate guide and therefore contains plenty of information. To make it easier to digest and jump between sections, here's a summary of its contents:
Step 2: decide on primary research methodology.
Steps 3 – 8 if you have chosen a qualitative method
Steps 3 – 8 if you have chosen a quantitative method
Steps 3 – 8 if you have chosen a mixed method
The reasons that students can feel so wary of primary research can be many-fold. From a lack of knowledge of primary research methods, to a loathing for statistics, or an absence of the sufficient skills required… The apprehension that students can feel towards primary research for their dissertation is often comparable to the almost insurmountable levels of stress before exams.
And yet, there’s a significant difference between doing primary research and sitting exams. The former is far more engaging, rewarding, varied, and dare we say it, even fun. You’re in the driving seat and you get to ask the questions. What’s more, students carrying out primary research have an opportunity to make small contributions to their field, which can feel really satisfying – for many, it’s their first taste of being a researcher, rather than just a learner.
Now, if you’re reading this and scoffing at our steadfast enthusiasm for primary research, we’ll let you in on a little secret – doing research actually isn’t that difficult. It’s a case of learning to follow specific procedures and knowing when to make particular decisions.
Which is where this guide comes in; it offers step-by-step advice on these procedures and decisions, so you can use it to support you both before and during your dissertation research process.
As set out below, there are different primary research methodologies that you can choose from. The first two steps are the same for whatever method you choose; after that, the steps you take depend on the methodology you have chosen.
Primary data has been collected by the researcher himself or herself. When doing primary research for your undergraduate or graduate degrees, you will most commonly rely on this type of data. It is often said that primary data is “real time” data, meaning that it has been collected at the time of the research project. Here, the data collection is under the direct control of the researcher.
Secondary data has been collected by somebody else in the past and is usually accessible via past researchers, government sources, and various online and offline records. This type of data is referred to as “past data”, because it has been collected in the past. Using secondary data is relatively easy since you do not have to collect any data yourself. However, it is not always certain that secondary data would be 100% relevant for your project, since it was collected with a different research question in mind. Furthermore, there may be questions over the accuracy of secondary data.
Big data is the most complex type of data, which is why it is almost never used during undergraduate or graduate studies. Big data is characterised by three Vs: high volume of data, wide variety of the type of data, and high velocity with which the data is processed. Due to the complexity of big data, standard data processing procedures do not apply and you would need intense training to learn how to process it.
Qualitative research is exploratory in nature. This means that qualitative research is often conducted when there are no quantitative investigations on the topic, and you are seeking to explore the topic for the first time. This exploration is achieved by considering the perspectives of specific individuals. You are concerned with particular meanings that reflect a dynamic (rather than fixed) reality. By observing or interviewing people, you can come to an understanding of their own perception of reality.
Quantitative research is confirmatory in nature. Thus, the main goal is to confirm or disconfirm hypotheses by relying on statistical analyses. In quantitative research, you will be concerned with numerical data that reflects a fixed and measurable (rather than dynamic) reality. Using large samples and testing your participants through reliable tools, you are seeking to generalise your findings to the broader population.
Mixed research combines qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The goal is to gain a more thorough understanding of a topic than would be possible by relying on a single methodological approach. Usually, a mixed method involves doing qualitative research first, which is then supplemented by quantitative research.
Thus, first you explore a phenomenon through a low-scale study that focuses on the meanings of particular individuals, and then you seek to form a hypothesis and test it with a larger sample. You can rely on other mixed methodologies as well, which will be described later.
Step 3: be aware of strengths and limitations.
Still, there are many things that you cannot achieve with qualitative research. Since you are investigating a select group of people, you cannot generalise your findings to the broader population. With qualitative methodology, it is also harder to establish the quality of research. Here, the quality depends on your own skills and your ability to avoid bias while interpreting findings. Finally, qualitative research involves interpreting multiple perspectives, which makes it harder to reach a consensus and establish a “bottom line” of your results and conclusions.
An observation, as its name implies, involves observing a group of individuals within their own setting. As a researcher, your role is to immerse yourself in this setting and observe the behaviour of interest. You may either become involved with your participants, therefore taking a participating role, or you can act as a bystander and observer. You will need to complete an observation checklist, which you will have made in advance, on which you will note how your participants behaved.
Interviews are the most common qualitative method. In interviews, your role is to rely on predetermined questions that explore participants’ understanding, opinions, attitudes, feelings, and the like. Depending on your research topic, you may also deviate from your question structure to explore whatever appears relevant in the present moment. The main aim is always to understand participants’ own subjective perspectives.
Focus groups are like interviews, except that they are conducted with more than one person. Participants in a focus group are several individuals usually from different demographic backgrounds. Your role is to engage them in an open discussion and to explore their understanding of a topic.
In both interviews and focus groups, you should record your sessions and transcribe them afterwards.
Case studies focus on a particular person or organisation relevant to your research topic. The reason why such individuals and organisations are chosen for the case study is that they offer an interesting, unusual, or particularly revealing set of circumstances. Your role is to explore how the case study informs your investigation.
To establish who these individuals (or organisation) will be, you must consult your research question. You also need to decide on the number of participants, which is generally low in qualitative research, and to decide whether participants should be from similar or different backgrounds. Ask yourself: What needs to connect them and what needs to differentiate them?
Selecting your participants involves deciding how you will recruit them. An observation study, usually has a predetermined context in which your participants operate, and this makes recruitment straightforward since you know where your participants are. A case study does not necessitate recruitment, since your subject of investigation is a predefined person or organisation.
However, interviews and focus groups need a more elaborate approach to recruitment as your participants need to represent a certain target group. A common recruitment method here is the snowball technique, where your existing participants themselves recruit more participants. Otherwise, you need to identify what connects your participants and try to recruit them at a location where they all operate.
Also remember that your participants always need to sign an informed consent, therefore agreeing to take part in the research (see Step 9 below for more information about informed consent and research ethics).
Observation studies usually involve a checklist on which you note your observations. Focus groups, interviews, and most case studies use structured or semi-structured interviews. Structured interviews rely on a predetermined set of questions, whereas semi-structured interviews combine predetermined questions with an opportunity to explore the responses further.
In most circumstances, you will want to use semi-structured interviews because they enable you to elicit more detailed responses.
When using observations, you will need to craft your observation checklist; when using interviews, you will need to craft your interview questions. Observation checklists are easy to create, since they involve your predetermined focuses of observation. These may include participants’ names (or numbers if they are to remain anonymous), their demographic characteristics, and whatever it is that you are observing.
When crafting interview questions, you will need to consult your research question, and sometimes also the relevant literature. For instance, if your interviews focus on the motivations for playing computer games, you can craft general questions that relate to your research question – such as, “what motivates you to play computer games the most?”.
However, by searching the relevant literature, you may discover that some people play games because they feel competent, and then decide to ask your subjects, “does playing games satisfy your need for competence?”
No matter what informs your creation of an observation checklist or interview questions, you should always consult your supervisor for advice.
With qualitative research, your data analysis relies on coding and finding themes in your data.
The process of coding should be straightforward. You simply need to read through your observation checklist or interview transcripts and underline each interesting observation or answer.
Finding themes in your data involves grouping the coded observations/answers into patterns. This is a simple process of grouping codes, which may require some time, but is usually interesting work. There are different procedures to choose from while coding and finding themes in your data. These include thematic analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis, constant comparative analysis, narrative analysis, and discourse analysis. Let’s define each of these.
Thematic analysis is the most commonly used procedure. The goal is to code data, search for themes among the codes, review themes, and name themes. Interpretative phenomenological analysis is done in the same way as a thematic analysis, but with a special focus on understanding how a given person, in a given context, makes sense of a phenomenon.
In constant comparative analysis, one piece of data (one theme, one statement) is compared to all others to detect similarities or differences; this comparison aims at understanding the relations between the data. Narrative analysis also extracts themes, but it focuses on the way that participants represent their experiences linguistically.
Finally, discourse analysis also focuses on language, but the goal is to understand how language relates to the influences that shape people’s thoughts and behaviours.
During observations and interviews, you are collecting your data. As noted previously, you always need to record your interviews and transcribe them afterwards. Observation checklists merely need to be completed during observations.
Once your data has been collected, you can then analyse your results, after which you should be ready to write your final report.
Quantitative research also enables you to test hypotheses and to determine causality. Determining causality is possible because a quantitative method allows you to control for extraneous variables (confounders) that may affect the relationship between certain variables. Finally, by using standardised procedures, your quantitative study can be replicated in the future, either by you or by other researchers.
At the same time, however, quantitative research also has certain limitations. For instance, this type of research is not as effective at understanding in-depth perceptions of people, simply because it seeks to average their responses and get a “bottom line” of their answers.
In addition, quantitative research often uses self-report measures and there can never be certainty that participants were honest. Sometimes, quantitative research does not include enough contextual information for the interpretation of results. Finally, a failure to correctly select your participants, measures and analyses might lower the generalisability and accuracy of your findings.
Let’s look at each of these separately.
Descriptive research is used when you want to describe characteristics of a population or a phenomenon. For instance, if you want to describe how many college students use drugs and which drugs are most commonly used, then you can use descriptive research.
You are not seeking to establish the relationship between different variables, but merely to describe the phenomenon in question. Thus, descriptive research is never used to establish causation.
Correlational research is used when you are investigating a relationship between two or more variables. The concept of independent and dependent variables is important for correlational research.
An independent variable is one that you control to test the effects on the dependent variable. For example, if you want to see how intelligence affects people’s critical thinking, intelligence is your independent variable and critical thinking is your dependent variable.
In scientific jargon, correlation tests whether an independent variable relates to the levels of the dependent variable(s). Note that correlation never establishes causation – it merely tests a relationship between variables.
You can also control for the effect of a third variable, which is called a covariate or a confounder. For instance, you may want to see if intelligence relates to critical thinking after controlling for people’s abstract reasoning.
The reason why you might want to control for this variable is that abstract reasoning is related to both intelligence and critical thinking. Thus, you are trying to specify a more direct relationship between intelligence and critical thinking by removing the variable that “meddles in between”.
Experiments aim to establish causation. This is what differentiates them from descriptive and correlational research. To establish causation, experiments manipulate the independent variable.
Or, to put this another way, experiments have two or more conditions of the independent variable and they test their effect on the dependent variable. Here’s an example: You want to test if a new supplement (independent variable) increases people’s concentration (dependent variable). You need a reference point – something to compare this effect to. Thus, you compare the effect of a supplement to a placebo, by giving some of your participants a sugary pill.
Now your independent variable is the type of treatment, with two conditions – supplement and placebo. By comparing the concentration levels (dependent variable) between participants who received the supplement versus placebo (independent variable), you can determine if the supplement caused increased concentration.
Experiments can have two types of designs: between-subjects and within-subjects. The above example illustrated a between-subjects design because concentration levels were compared between participants who got a supplement and those who got a placebo.
But you can also do a within-subjects comparison. For example, you may want to see if taking a supplement before or after a meal impacts concentration levels differently. Here, your independent variable is the time the supplement is taken (with two conditions: before and after the meal). You then ask the same group of participants to take on Day 1 the supplement before the meal and on Day 2 after the meal.
Since both conditions apply to all your participants, you are making a within-subjects comparison. Regardless of the type of design you are using, when assigning participants to a condition, you need to ensure that you do so randomly.
A quasi-experiment is not a true experiment. It differs from a true experiment because it lacks random assignment to different conditions. You would use a quasi-experiment when your participants are grouped into different conditions according to a predetermined characteristic.
For instance, you may want to see if children are less likely than adolescents to cheat on a test. Here, you are categorising your participants according to their age and thus you cannot use random assignment. Because of this, it is often said that quasi-experiments cannot properly establish causation.
Nonetheless, they are a useful tool for looking at differences between predetermined groups of participants.
A very good practice is to rely on a G-Power analysis to calculate how large your sample size should be in order to increase the accuracy of your findings. G-Power analysis, for which you can download a program online, is based on a consideration of previous studies’ effect sizes, significance levels, and power.
Thus, you will need to find a study that investigated a similar effect, dig up its reported effect size, significance level and power, and enter these parameters in a G-Power analysis. There are many guides online on how to do this.
When selecting participants for your quantitative research, you also need to ensure that they are representative of the target population. You can do this by specifying your inclusion and exclusion criteria.
For instance, if your target population consists of young women who have given birth and who have depression, then you will include only women who have given birth, who are younger than 35, and who have depression. Consequently, you will exclude women who do not fulfil these criteria.
Remember that here, just as in qualitative research, you need informed consent from your participants, therefore ensuring that they have agreed to take part in the research.
A questionnaire is reliable when it has led to consistent results across studies, and it is valid when it measures what it is supposed to measure. You can claim that a questionnaire is valid and reliable when previous studies have established its validity and reliability (you must cite these studies, of course).
Moreover, you can test the reliability of a questionnaire yourself, by calculating its Cronbach’s Alpha value in a statistics programme, such as SPSS. Values higher than 0.7 indicate acceptable reliability, values higher than 0.8 indicate good reliability, and values higher than 0.9 indicate excellent reliability. Anything below 0.7 indicates unreliability.
You can always consult your supervisor about which questionnaires to use in your study. Alternatively, you can search for questionnaires yourself by looking at previous studies and the kind of measures they employed.
Each questionnaire that you decide to use will require you to calculate final scores. You can obtain the guidelines for calculating final scores in previous studies that used a given questionnaire. You will complete this calculation by relying on a statistical program.
Very often, this calculation will involve reverse-scoring some items. For instance, a questionnaire may ask “are you feeling good today?”, where a response number of 5 means “completely agree”. Then you can have another question that asks “are you feeling bad today?”, where a response number of 5 again means “completely agree”. If your questionnaire measures whether a person feels good, then you will have to reverse-score the second of these questions so that higher responses indicate feeling more (rather than less) good. This can also be done using a statistics program.
However, there is no reason why they should, since the whole procedure of doing statistical analyses is not that difficult – you just need to know which analysis to use for which purpose and to read guidelines on how to do particular analyses (online and in books). Let’s provide specific examples.
If you are doing descriptive research, your analyses will rely on descriptive and/or frequencies statistics.
Descriptive statistics include calculating means and standard deviations for continuous variables, and frequencies statistics include calculating the number and percentage of the frequencies of answers on categorical variables.
Continuous variables are those where final scores have a wide range. For instance, participants’ age is a continuous variable, because the final scores can range from 1 year to 100 years. Here, you calculate a mean and say that your participants were, on average, 37.7 years old (for example).
Another example of a continuous variable are responses from a questionnaire where you need to calculate a final score. For example, if your questionnaire assessed the degree of satisfaction with medical services, on a scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (completely), and there are ten questions on the questionnaire, you will have a final score for each participant that ranges from 10 to 50. This is a continuous variable and you can calculate the final mean score (and standard deviation) for your whole sample.
Categorical variables are those that do not result in final scores, but result in categorising participants in specific categories. An example of a categorical variable is gender, because your participants are categorised as either male or female. Here, your final report will say something like “50 (50%) participants were male and 50 (50%) were female”.
Please note that you will have to do descriptive and frequencies statistics in all types of quantitative research, even if your research is not descriptive research per se. They are needed when you describe the demographic characteristics of your sample (participants’ age, gender, education level, and the like).
When doing correlational research, you will perform a correlation or a regression analysis. Correlation analysis is done when you want to see if levels of an independent variable relate to the levels of a dependent variable (for example, “is intelligence related to critical thinking?”).
You will need to check if your data is normally distributed – that is, if the histogram that summarises the data has a bell-shaped curve. This can be done by creating a histogram in a statistics program, the guidelines for which you can find online. If you conclude that your data is normally distributed, you will rely on a Pearson correlation analysis; if your data is not normally distributed, you will use a Spearman correlation analysis. You can also include a covariate (such as people’s abstract reasoning) and see if a correlation exists between two variables after controlling for a covariate.
Regression analysis is done when you want to see if levels of an independent variable(s) predict levels of a dependent variable (for example, “does intelligence predict critical thinking?”). Regression is useful because it allows you to control for various confounders simultaneously. Thus, you can investigate if intelligence predicts critical thinking after controlling for participants’ abstract reasoning, age, gender, educational level, and the like. You can find online resources on how to interpret a regression analysis.
When you are conducting experiments and quasi-experiments, you are using t-tests, ANOVA (analysis of variance), or MANCOVA (multivariate analysis of variance).
Independent samples t-tests are used when you have one independent variable with two conditions (such as giving participants a supplement versus a placebo) and one dependent variable (such as concentration levels). This test is called “independent samples” because you have different participants in your two conditions.
As noted above, this is a between-subjects design. Thus, with an independent samples t-test you are seeking to establish if participants who were given a supplement, versus those who were given a placebo, show different concentration levels. If you have a within-subjects design, you will use a paired samples t-test. This test is called “paired” because you compare the same group of participants on two paired conditions (such as taking a supplement before versus after a meal).
Thus, with a paired samples t-test, you are establishing whether concentration levels (dependent variable) at Time 1 (taking a supplement before the meal) are different than at Time 2 (taking a supplement after the meal).
There are two main types of ANOVA analysis. One-way ANOVA is used when you have more than two conditions of an independent variable.
For instance, you would use a one-way ANOVA in a between-subjects design, where you are testing the effects of the type of treatment (independent variable) on concentration levels (dependent variable), while having three conditions of the independent variable, such as supplement (condition 1), placebo (condition 2), and concentration training (condition 3).
Two-way ANOVA, on the other hand, is used when you have more than one independent variable.
For instance, you may want to see if there is an interaction between the type of treatment (independent variable with three conditions: supplement, placebo, and concentration training) and gender (independent variable with two conditions: male and female) on participants’ concentration (dependent variable).
Finally, MANCOVA is used when you have one or more independent variables, but you also have more than one dependent variable.
For example, you would use MANCOVA if you are testing the effect of the type of treatment (independent variable with three conditions: supplement, placebo, and concentration training) on two dependent variables (such as concentration and an ability to remember information correctly).
If you are doing an experiment, once you have recruited your participants, you need to randomly assign them to conditions. If you are doing quasi-experimental research, you will have a specific procedure for predetermining which participant goes to which condition. For instance, if you are comparing children versus adolescents, you will categorise them according to their age. In the case of descriptive and correlational research, you don’t need to categorise your participants.
Furthermore, with all procedures you need to introduce your participants to the research and give them an informed consent. Then you will provide them with the specific measures you are using.
Sometimes, it is good practice to counterbalance the order of questionnaires. This means that some participants will get Questionnaire 1 first, and others will be given Questionnaire 2 first.
Counterbalancing is important to remove the possibility of the “order effects”, whereby the order of the presentation of questionnaires influences results.
At the end of your study, you will “debrief” your participants, meaning that you will explain to them the actual purpose of the research. After doing statistical analysis, you will need to write a final report.
Quantitative research, on the other hand, is limited because it does not lead to an in-depth understanding of particular meanings and contexts – something that qualitative research makes up for. Thus, by using the mixed method, the strengths of each approach are making up for their respective weaknesses. You can, therefore, obtain more information about your research question than if you relied on a single methodology.
Mixed research has, however, some limitations. One of its main limitations is that research design can be quite complex. It can also take much more time to plan mixed research than to plan qualitative or quantitative research.
Sometimes, you may experience difficulties in bridging your results because you need to combine the results of qualitative and quantitative research. Finally, you may find it difficult to resolve discrepancies that occur when you interpret your results.
For these reasons, mixed research needs to be done and interpreted with care.
Let’s address each of these separately.
Sequential exploratory design is a method whereby qualitative research is done first and quantitative research is done second. By following this order, you can investigate a topic in-depth first, and then supplement it with numerical data. This method is useful if you want to test the elements of a theory that stems from qualitative research and if you want to generalise qualitative findings to different population samples.
Sequential explanatory design is when quantitative research is done first and qualitative research is done second. Here, priority is given to quantitative data. The goal of subsequent collection of qualitative data is to help you interpret the quantitative data. This design is used when you want to engage in an in-depth explanation, interpretation, and contextualisation of quantitative findings. Alternatively, you can use it when you obtain unexpected results from quantitative research, which you then want to clarify through qualitative data.
Concurrent triangulation design involves the simultaneous use of qualitative and quantitative data collection. Here, equal weighting is given to both methods and the analysis of both types of data is done both separately and simultaneously.
This design is used when you want to obtain detailed information about a topic and when you want to cross-validate your findings. Cross-validation is a statistical procedure for estimating the performance of a theoretical model that predicts something. Although you may decide to use concurrent triangulation during your research, you will probably not be asked to cross-validate the findings, since this is a complex procedure.
Concurrent nested design is when you collect qualitative and quantitative data at the same time, but you employ a dominant method (qualitative or quantitative) that nests or embeds the less dominant method (for example, if the dominant method is quantitative, the less dominant would be qualitative).
What this nesting means is that your less dominant method addresses a different research question than that addressed by your dominant method. The results of the two types of methods are then combined in the final work output. Concurrent nested design is the most complex form of mixed designs, which is why you are not expected to use it during your undergraduate or graduate studies, unless you have been specifically asked.
In summary, participants in the qualitative part of the investigation will be several individuals who are relevant for your research project. Conversely, your sample size for the quantitative part of the investigation will be higher, including many participants chosen as representative of your target population.
You will also need to rely on different recruitment strategies when selecting participants for qualitative versus quantitative research.
An in-depth explanation of these measures has been provided in the sections above dealing with qualitative and quantitative research respectively.
In summary, qualitative research relies on the use of observations or interviews, which you usually need to craft yourself. Quantitative research relies on the use of reliable and valid questionnaires, which you can take from past research.
Sometimes, within the mixed method, you will be required to craft a questionnaire on the basis of the results of your qualitative research. This is especially likely if you are using the sequential exploratory design, where you seek to validate the results of your qualitative research through subsequent quantitative data.
In any case, a mixed method requires a special emphasis on aligning your qualitative and quantitative measures, so that they address the same topic. You can always consult your supervisor on how to do this.
In general, qualitative investigations require you to thematically analyse your data, which is done through coding participants’ answers or your observations and finding themes among the codes. You can rely on a thematic analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis, constant comparative analysis, narrative analysis, and discourse analysis.
Quantitative investigations require you to do statistical analyses, the choice of which depends on the type of quantitative design you are using. Thus, you will use descriptive statistics if you do descriptive research, correlation or regression if you are doing correlational research, and a t-test, ANOVA, or MANCOVA if you are doing an experiment or a quasi-experiment.
The reverse is true if you are using the sequential explanatory design. Concurrent triangulation and concurrent nested designs require you to perform the qualitative and quantitative parts of the investigation simultaneously; what differentiates them is whether you are (or are not) prioritising one (either qualitative or quantitative) as a predominant method.
Regardless of your mixed design, you will need to follow specific procedures for qualitative and quantitative research, all of which have been described above.
Some studies deal with especially vulnerable groups of people or with sensitive topics. It is extremely important, therefore, that no harm is done to your participants.
Before beginning your primary research, you will submit your research proposal to an ethics committee. Here, you will specify how you will deal with all possible ethical issues that may arise during your study. Even if your primary research is deemed as ethical, you will need to comply with certain rules and conduct to satisfy the ethical requirements. These consist of providing informed consent, ensuring confidentiality and the protection of participants, allowing a possibility to withdraw from the study, and providing debriefing.
Informed consent ensures that participants have understood the research and have agreed to participate. Regardless of the type of research you are doing, you will solicit informed consents. Participants can provide consent by signing a printed or an online consent form. If your participants cannot provide an online signature, you can simply tell them that, by proceeding to the next page of the questionnaire, they are agreeing to take part in the research.
Informed consent needs to be signed by individuals who are older than 18. If your participants are younger, you will need to obtain consent from parents or legal guardians. Finally, for a variety of reasons it may sometimes be impossible to obtain an informed consent from your participants. If so, you can ask a similar group of people how they would feel to take part in your study; if they agree to participate, you have obtained a “presumptive consent”.
Confidentiality of your participants is ensured through keeping all data anonymous. Thus, you will never ask for your participants’ names – instead, you will provide each with a participant number. Even if you are reporting interviews with several participants, you shouldn’t refer to them by names, but by their initials.
It is also important to keep your data safe, so that it cannot be accessed by third parties. Moreover, the importance of protecting your participants means you must ensure that they will not suffer any physical and mental consequences during or after their participation. You shouldn’t embarrass them, frighten them, or offend them. If your participants represent vulnerable groups (children, the elderly, disabled, etc.), you need to provide them with special care during research.
Importantly, your participants should always be informed that they can withdraw from the research at any point. This can be done either during their participation (such as during an interview or a questionnaire) or after their participation. In the latter case, participants should be able to contact you and ask for their data to be destroyed.
Finally, you always need to debrief your participants at the end of the study. This is especially important when you have “deceived” your participants by not telling them the true purpose of your research in advance (so as to remove bias). You can debrief your participants either face-to-face or through providing a typed debriefing form.
If you’re an undergraduate student, your primary research will usually rely on qualitative or quantitative methodology, rather than on mixed methodology. When doing qualitative research, you will use interviews more often than observations, focus groups, or case studies. You may even get help from your supervisor to craft your interview questions.
When doing quantitative research, you may rely on the full range of methodologies (descriptive, correlational, experimental, and quasi-experimental), but your study will be simple and straightforward. Your sample size won’t be too high, you won’t need to calculate your sample size in advance, you will use only a few measures, and you will use simpler statistical analyses. The main goal of your undergraduate research project is to help you learn the basics of research.
Graduate studies demand more involvement with a research project. If you’re a graduate student, you need to think critically and decide on the best way to answer your research question. Thus, you should consider all the primary research procedures that were mentioned in this guide. You can use a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methodology.
If doing qualitative research, you need to select the most suitable method, craft your measures, and show an in-depth understanding of thematic analysis (or other similar methods). If doing quantitative research, you need to design your study well, calculate your sample size in advance, recruit a high number of participants, test multiple hypotheses, and rely on more complex statistical analyses. The main goal of your graduate research project is to help you learn more advanced methods of research.
The final thing that you need to know about doing primary research is that certain research methods are more commonly used in some disciplines than in others.
Qualitative research is mostly used in the social sciences, and slightly less in natural and formal (mathematical) sciences. Because of their frequent reliance on qualitative research, social sciences are often called “soft sciences” (which doesn’t make them easier disciplines!)
Observations are used in ethnology and cultural anthropology, but also in sociology, psychology, education, human geography, and communication studies; interviews are used in all disciplines that favour qualitative research; focus groups are used in library and information sciences, social sciences, business studies, and usability engineering; and case studies are used in administrative science, social work, clinical science, education, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and political science.
Quantitative research is favoured in all social sciences (although a little less in geography and anthropology) and it forms the basis of all natural and formal (mathematical) sciences (which is why they are called “hard sciences” – which doesn’t mean they are harder disciplines!). Regardless of the discipline, you need to be familiar with all basic quantitative methods (descriptive, correlational, experimental, and quasi-experimental). These are regarded as cornerstones of science, especially when such methods seek to establish causality.
Finally, mixed research is most favoured within the social sciences, although natural and formal sciences also benefit from it.
Decide on the type of data
Decide on methodology
Be aware of strengths and limitations of your methodology
Select a specific primary research method
Select participants
Select measures
Select analyses
Understand procedure
Think about ethics
Consider your level of study and discipline
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They might search existing research to find the data they need—a technique known as secondary research .
Alternatively, they might prefer to seek out the data they need independently. This is known as primary research.
Bring your primary research together inside Dovetail and uncover actionable insights
During primary research, the researcher collects the information and data for a specific sample directly.
Primary research can take several forms, depending on the type of information studied. Here are the four main types of primary research:
Observations
When conducting primary research, you can collect qualitative or quantitative data (or both).
Qualitative primary data collection provides a vast array of feedback or information about products and services. However, it may need to be interpreted before it is used to make important business decisions.
Quantitative primary data collection , on the other hand, involves looking at the numbers related to a specific product or service.
Data obtained from primary research may be more accurate than if it were obtained from previous data samples.
Primary research may be used for
Salary guides
Industry benchmarks
Government reports
Any information based on the current state of the target, including statistics related to current information
Scientific studies
Current market research
Crafting user-friendly products
Primary research can also be used to capture any type of sentiment that cannot be represented statistically, verbally, or through transcription. This may include tone of voice, for example. The researcher might want to find out if the subject sounds hesitant, uncertain, or unhappy.
Your methods for conducting primary research may vary based on the information you’re looking for and how you prefer to interact with your target market.
Surveys are a method to obtain direct information and feedback from the target audience. Depending on the target market’s specific needs, they can be conducted over the phone, online, or face-to-face.
In some cases, primary research will involve watching the behaviors of consumers or members of the target audience.
Communication with members of the target audience who can share direct information and feedback about products and services.
Explore customer response to a product or marketing campaign before a wider release.
Competitor visits allow you to check out what competitors have to offer to get a better feel for how they interact with their target markets. This approach can help you better understand what the market might be looking for.
This involves bringing a group of people together to discuss a specific product or need within the industry. This approach could help provide essential insights into the needs of that market.
Usability testing allows you to evaluate a product’s usability when you launch a live prototype. You might recruit representative users to perform tasks while you observe, ask questions, and take notes on how they use your product.
Primary research is needed when you want first-hand information about your product, service, or target market. There are several circumstances where primary research may be the best strategy for getting the information you need.
You might use it to:
Understand pricing information, including what price points customers are likely to purchase at.
Get insight into your sales process. For example, you might look at screenshots of a sales demo, listen to audio recordings of the sales process, or evaluate key details and descriptions.
Learn about problems your consumers might be having and how your business can solve them.
Gauge how a company feels about its competitors. For example, you might want to ask an e-tailer if they plan to offer free shipping to compete with Amazon, Walmart, and other major retailers.
Step one: Define the problem you’re trying to answer. Clearly identify what you want to know and why it’s important. Does the customer want you to perform the “usual?” This is often the case if they are new, inexperienced, or simply too busy and want to have the task taken care of.
Step two: Determine the best method for getting those answers. Do you need quantitative data , which can be measured in multiple-choice surveys? Or do you need more detailed qualitative data , which may require focus groups or interviews?
Step three: Select your target. Where will you conduct your primary research? You may already have a focus group available; for example, a social media group where people already gather to discuss your brand.
Step four: Compile your questions or define your method. Clearly set out what information you need and how you plan to gather it.
Step five: Research!
Primary research offers a number of potential advantages. Most importantly, it offers you information that you can’t get elsewhere.
It provides you with direct information from consumers who are already members of your target market or using your products.
You are able to get feedback directly from your target audience, which can allow you to immediately improve products or services and provide better support to your target market.
Primary data is current. Secondary sources may contain outdated data.
Primary data is reliable. You will know what methods you used and how the data relates to your research because you collected it yourself.
You might decide primary research isn’t the best option for your research project when you consider the disadvantages.
Primary research can be time-consuming. You will have to put in the time to collect data yourself, meaning the research may take longer to complete.
Primary research may be more expensive to conduct if it involves face-to-face interactions with your target audience, subscriptions for insight platforms, or participant remuneration.
The people you engage with for your research may feel disrupted by information-gathering methods, so you may not be able to use the same focus group every time you conduct that research.
It can be difficult to gather accurate information from a small group of people, especially if you deliberately select a focus group made up of existing customers.
You may have a hard time accessing people who are not already members of your customer base.
Biased surveys can be a challenge. Researchers may, for example, inadvertently structure questions to encourage participants to respond in a particular way. Questions may also be too confusing or complex for participants to answer accurately.
Despite the researcher’s best efforts, participants don’t always take studies seriously. They may provide inaccurate or irrelevant answers to survey questions, significantly impacting any conclusions you reach. Therefore, researchers must take extra caution when examining results.
Conducting primary research can help you get a closer look at what is really going on with your target market and how they are using your product. That research can then inform your efforts to improve your services and products.
Primary research is a research method that allows researchers to directly collect information for their use. It can provide more accurate insights into the target audience and market information companies really need.
Primary research sources may include surveys, interviews, visits to competitors, or focus groups.
The best method of primary research depends on the type of information you are gathering. If you need qualitative information, you may want to hold focus groups or interviews. On the other hand, if you need quantitative data, you may benefit from conducting surveys with your target audience.
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The organization of a scientific article.
Primary research articles are typically organized into sections: introduction, materials and methods, results, and discussion (called IMRD).
You may need to read an article several times in order to gain an understanding of it, but you can start by identifying key elements in a quick survey before you read.
Can you find?
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Dana Lynn Driscoll
How research is defined varies widely from field to field, and as you progress through your college career, your coursework will teach you much more about what it means to be a researcher within your field. [1] For example, engineers, who focus on applying scientific knowledge to develop designs, processes, and objects, conduct research using simulations, mathematical models, and a variety of tests to see how well their designs work. Sociologists conduct research using surveys, interviews, observations, and statistical analysis to better understand people, societies, and cultures. Graphic designers conduct research through locating images for reference for their artwork and engaging in background research on clients and companies to best serve their needs. Historians conduct research by examining archival materials— newspapers, journals, letters, and other surviving texts—and through conducting oral history interviews. Research is not limited to what has already been written or found at the library, also known as secondary research. Rather, individuals conducting research are producing the articles and reports found in a library database or in a book. Primary research, the focus of this essay, is research that is collected firsthand rather than found in a book, database, or journal.
Primary research is often based on principles of the scientific method, a theory of investigation first developed by John Stuart Mill in the nineteenth century in his book Philosophy of the Scientific Method . Although the application of the scientific method varies from field to field, the general principles of the scientific method allow researchers to learn more about the world and observable phenomena. Using the scientific method, researchers develop research questions or hypotheses and collect data on events, objects, or people that is measurable, observable, and replicable. The ultimate goal in conducting primary research is to learn about something new that can be confirmed by others and to eliminate our own biases in the process.
The essay begins by providing an overview of ethical considerations when conducting primary research, and then covers the stages that you will go through in your primary research: planning, collecting, analyzing, and writing. After the four stages comes an introduction to three common ways of conducting primary research in first year writing classes:
In addition, we will be examining two student projects that used substantial portions of primary research:
Derek Laan, a nutrition major at Purdue University, wanted to learn more about student eating habits on campus. His primary research included observations of the campus food courts, student behavior while in the food courts, and a survey of students’ daily food intake. His secondary research included looking at national student eating trends on college campuses, information from the United States Food and Drug Administration, and books on healthy eating.
Jared Schwab, an agricultural and biological engineering major at Purdue, was interested in learning more about how writing and communication took place in his field. His primary research included interviewing a professional engineer and a student who was a senior majoring in engineering. His secondary research included examining journals, books, professional organizations, and writing guides within the field of engineering.
Both projects listed above included primary research on human participants; therefore, Derek and Jared both had to consider research ethics throughout their primary research process. As Earl Babbie writes in The Practice of Social Research , throughout the early and middle parts of the twentieth century researchers took advantage of participants and treated them unethically. During World War II, Nazi doctors performed heinous experiments on prisoners without their consent, while in the U.S., a number of medical and psychological experiments on caused patients undue mental and physical trauma and, in some cases, death. Because of these and other similar events, many nations have established ethical laws and guidelines for researchers who work with human participants. In the United States, the guidelines for the ethical treatment of human research participants are described in The Belmont Report , released in 1979. Today, universities have Institutional Review Boards (or IRBs) that oversee research. Students conducting research as part of a class may not need permission from the university’s IRB, although they still need to ensure that they follow ethical guidelines in research. The following provides a brief overview of ethical considerations:
The above are only three of many considerations when involving human participants in your primary research. For a complete understanding of ethical considerations please refer to The Belmont Report .
Now that we have considered the ethical implications of research, we will examine how to formulate research questions and plan your primary research project.
The primary research process is quite similar to the writing process, and you can draw upon your knowledge of the writing process to understand the steps involved in a primary research project. Just like in the writing process, a successful primary research project begins with careful planning and background research. This section first describes how to create a research timeline to help plan your research. It then walks you through the planning stages by examining when primary research is useful or appropriate for your first year composition course, narrowing down a topic, and developing research questions.
When you begin to conduct any kind of primary research, creating a timeline will help keep you on task. Because students conducting primary research usually focus on the collection of data itself, they often overlook the equally important areas of planning (invention), analyzing data, and writing. To help manage your time, you should create a research timeline, such as the sample timeline presented here.
In Evaluating Scientific Research: Separating Fact from Fiction , Fred Leavitt explains that primary research is useful for questions that can be answered through asking others and direct observation. For first year writing courses, primary research is particularly useful when you want to learn about a problem that does not have a wealth of published information. This may be because the problem is a recent event or it is something not commonly studied. For example, if you are writing a paper on a new political issue, such as changes in tax laws or healthcare, you might not be able to find a wealth of peer-reviewed research because the issue is only several weeks old. You may find it necessary to collect some of your own data on the issue to supplement what you found at the library. Primary research is also useful when you are studying a local problem or learning how a larger issue plays out at the local level. Although you might be able to find information on national statistics for healthy eating, whether or not those statistics are representative of your college campus is something that you can learn through primary research.
However, not all research questions and topics are appropriate for primary research. As Fred Leavitt writes, questions of an ethical, philosophical, or metaphysical nature are not appropriate because these questions are not testable or observable. For example, the question “Does an afterlife exist?” is not a question that can be answered with primary research. However, the question “How many people in my community believe in an afterlife?” is something that primary research can answer.
Just like the writing process, you should start your primary research process with secondary (library) research to learn more about what is already known and what gaps you need to fill with your own data. As you learn more about the topic, you can narrow down your interest area and eventually develop a research question or hypothesis, just as you would with a secondary research paper.
As John Stuart Mill describes, primary research can use both inductive and deductive approaches, and the type approach is usually based on the field of inquiry. Some fields use deductive reasoning , where researchers start with a hypothesis or general conclusion and then collect specific data to support or refute their hypothesis. Other fields use inductive reasoning , where researchers start with a question and collect information that eventually leads to a conclusion.
Once you have spent some time reviewing the secondary research on your topic, you are ready to write a primary research question or hypothesis. A research question or hypothesis should be something that is specific, narrow, and discoverable through primary research methods. Just like a thesis statement for a paper, if your research question or hypothesis is too broad, your research will be unfocused and your data will be difficult to analyze and write about. Here is a set of sample research questions:
Poor Research Question : What do college students think of politics and the economy? Revised Research Question : What do students at Purdue University believe about the current economic crisis in terms of economic recoverability?
The poor research question is unspecific as to what group of students the researcher is interested in—i.e. students in the U.S.? In a particular state? At their university? The poor research question was also too broad; terms like “politics” and the “economy” cover too much ground for a single project. The revised question narrows down the topic to students at a particular university and focuses on a specific issue related to the economy: economic recoverability. The research question could also be rephrased as a testable hypothesis using deductive reasoning: “Purdue University college students are well informed about economic recoverability plans.” Because they were approaching their projects in an exploratory, inductive manner, both Derek and Jared chose to ask research questions:
Derek: Are students’ eating habits at Purdue University healthy or unhealthy? What are the causes of students’ eating behavior? Jared: What are the major features of writing and communication in agricultural and biological engineering? What are the major controversies?
A final step in working with a research question or hypothesis is determining what key terms you are using and how you will define them. Before conducting his research, Derek had to define the terms “healthy” and “unhealthy”; for this, he used the USDA’s Food Pyramid as a guide. Similarly, part of what Jared focused on in his interviews was learning more about how agricultural and biological engineers defined terms like “writing” and “communication.” Derek and Jared thought carefully about the terms within their research questions and how these terms might be measured.
Once you have formulated a research question or hypothesis, you will need to make decisions about what kind of data you can collect that will best address your research topic. Derek chose to examine eating habits by observing both what students ate at lunch and surveying students about eating behavior. Jared decided that in-depth interviews with experienced individuals in his field would provide him with the best information.
To choose a data collection method for your research question, read through the next sections on observations, interviews, and surveys.
Observations have lead to some of the most important scientific discoveries in human history. Charles Darwin used observations of the animal and marine life at the Galapagos Islands to help him formulate his theory of evolution that he describes in On the Origin of Species . Today, social scientists, natural scientists, engineers, computer scientists, educational researchers, and many others use observations as a primary research method.
Observations can be conducted on nearly any subject matter, and the kinds of observations you will do depend on your research question. You might observe traffic or parking patterns on campus to get a sense of what improvements could be made. You might observe clouds, plants, or other natural phenomena. If you choose to observe people, you will have several additional considerations including the manner in which you will observe them and gain their consent.
If you are observing people, you can choose between two common ways to observe: participant observation and unobtrusive observation. Participant observation is a common method within ethnographic research in sociology and anthropology. In this kind of observation, a researcher may interact with participants and become part of their community. Margaret Mead, a famous anthropologist, spent extended periods of time living in, and interacting with, communities that she studied. Conversely, in unobtrusive observation, you do not interact with participants but rather simply record their behavior. Although in most circumstances people must volunteer to be participants in research, in some cases it is acceptable to not let participants know you are observing them. In places that people perceive as public, such as a campus food court or a shopping mall, people do not expect privacy, and so it is generally acceptable to observe without participant consent. In places that people perceive as private, which can include a church, home, classroom, or even an intimate conversation at a restaurant, participant consent should be sought.
The second issue about participant consent in terms of unobtrusive observation is whether or not getting consent is feasible for the study. If you are observing people in a busy airport, bus station, or campus food court, getting participant consent may be next to impossible. In Derek’s study of student eating habits on campus, he went to the campus food courts during meal times and observed students purchasing food. Obtaining participant consent for his observations would have been next to impossible because hundreds of students were coming through the food court during meal times. Since Derek’s research was in a place that participants would perceive as public, it was not practical to get their consent, and since his data was anonymous, he did not violate their privacy.
The ethical concern of being unbiased is important in recording your observations. You need to be aware of the difference between an observation (recording exactly what you see) and an interpretation (making assumptions and judgments about what you see). When you observe, you should focus first on only the events that are directly observable. Consider the following two example entries in an observation log:
The first entry is biased and demonstrates judgment about the event. First, the observer makes assumptions about the internal state of the student when she writes “enjoys” and “clearly oblivious to the calorie content.” From an observer’s standpoint, there is no way of ascertaining what the student may or may not know about pizza’s nutritional value nor how much the student enjoys the pizza. The second entry provides only the details and facts that are observable.
To avoid bias in your observations, you can use something called a “double-entry notebook.” This is a type of observation log that encourages you to separate your observations (the facts) from your feelings and judgments about the facts.
Observations are only one strategy in collecting primary research. You may also want to ask people directly about their behaviors, beliefs, or attitudes—and for this you will need to use surveys or interviews.
Sometimes it is very difficult for a researcher to gain all of the necessary information through observations alone. Along with his observations of the dining halls, Derek wanted to know what students ate in a typical day, and so he used a survey to have them keep track of their eating habits. Likewise, Jared wanted to learn about writing and communication in engineering and decided to draw upon expert knowledge by asking experienced individuals within the field.
Interviews and surveys are two ways that you can gather information about people’s beliefs or behaviors. With these methods, the information you collect is not first-hand (like an observation) but rather “self-reported” data, or data collected in an indirect manner. William Shadish, Thomas Cook, and Donald Campbell argued that people are inherently biased about how they see the world and may report their own actions in a more favorable way than they may actually behave. Despite the issues in self-reported data, surveys and interviews are an excellent way to gather data for your primary research project.
How do you choose between conducting a survey or an interview? It depends on what kind of information you are looking for. You should use surveys if you want to learn about a general trend in people’s opinions, experiences, and behavior. Surveys are particularly useful to find small amounts of information from a wider selection of people in the hopes of making a general claim. Interviews are best used when you want to learn detailed information from a few specific people. Interviews are also particularly useful if you want to interview experts about their opinions, as Jared did. In sum, use interviews to gain details from a few people, and surveys to learn general patterns from many people.
One of the greatest challenges in conducting surveys and interviews is writing good questions. As a researcher, you are always trying to eliminate bias, and the questions you ask need to be unbiased and clear. Here are some suggestions on writing good questions:
A poorly written question can contain multiple questions, which can confuse participants or lead them to answer only part of the question you are asking. This is called a “double-barreled question” in journalism. The following questions are taken from Jared’s research:
Poor question: What kinds of problems are being faced in the field today and where do you see the search for solutions to these problems going? Revised question #1 : What kinds of problems are being faced in the field today? Revised question #2: Where do you see the search for solutions to these problems going?
A leading question is one where you prompt the participant to respond in a particular way, which can create bias in the answers given:
Leading question: The economy is clearly in a crisis, wouldn’t you agree? Revised question: Do you believe the economy is currently in a crisis? Why or why not?
Closed questions, or questions that have yes/no or other limited responses, should be used in surveys. However, avoid these kinds of questions in interviews because they discourage the interviewee from going into depth. The question sample above, “Do you believe the economy currently is in a crisis?” could be answered with a simple yes or no, which could keep a participant from talking more about the issue. The “why or why not?” portion of the question asks the participant to elaborate. On a survey, the question “Do you believe the economy currently is in a crisis?” is a useful question because you can easily count the number of yes and no answers and make a general claim about participant responses.
When you write questions, make sure they are clear, concise, and to the point. Questions that are too long, use unfamiliar vocabulary, or are unclear may confuse participants and you will not get quality responses.
Now that question creation has been addressed, we will next examine specific considerations for interviews and surveys.
Interviews, or question and answer sessions with one or more people, are an excellent way to learn in-depth information from a person for your primary research project. This section presents information on how to conduct a successful interview, including choosing the right person, ways of interviewing, recording your interview, interview locations, and transcribing your interview.
One of the keys to a successful interview is choosing the right person to interview. Think about whom you would like to interview and whom you might know. Do not be afraid to ask people you do not know for interviews. When asking, simply tell them what the interview will be about, what the interview is for, and how much time it will take. Jared used his Purdue University connection to locate both of the individuals that he ended up interviewing—an advanced Purdue student and a Purdue alum working in an Engineering firm.
When interviewing, you have a choice of conducting a traditional, face-to-face interview or an interview using technology over the Internet. Face-to-face interviews have the strength that you can ask follow-up questions and use non-verbal communication to your advantage. Individuals are able to say much more in a face-to-face interview than in an email, so you will get more information from a face-to-face interview. However, the Internet provides a host of new possibilities when it comes to interviewing people at a distance. You may choose to do an email interview, where you send questions and ask the person to respond. You may also choose to use a video or audio conferencing program to talk with the person virtually. If you are choosing any Internet-based option, make sure you have a way of recording the interview. You may also use a chat or instant messaging program to interview your participant—the benefit of this is that you can ask follow-up questions during the interview and the interview is already transcribed for you. Because one of his interviewees lived several hours away, Jared chose to interview the Purdue student face-to-face and the Purdue alum via email.
If you are conducting an in-person interview, it is essential that you find a quiet place for your interview. Many universities have quiet study rooms that can be reserved (often found in the university library). Do not try to interview someone in a coffee shop, dining hall, or other loud area, as it is difficult to focus and get a clear recording.
One way of eliminating bias in your research is to record your interviews rather than rely on your memory. Recording interviews allows you to directly quote the individual and re-read the interview when you are writing. It is recommended that you have two recording devices for the interview in case one recording device fails. Most computers, MP3 players, and even cell phones come with recording equipment built in. Many universities also offer equipment that students can check out and use, including computers and recorders. Before you record any interview, be sure that you have permission from your participant.
Once your interview is over, you will need to transcribe your interview to prepare it for analysis. The term transcribing means creating a written record that is exactly what was said—i.e. typing up your interviews. If you have conducted an email or chat interview, you already have a transcription and can move on to your analysis stage.
Other than the fact that they both involve asking people questions, interviews and surveys are quite different data collection methods. Creating a survey may seem easy at first, but developing a quality survey can be quite challenging. When conducting a survey, you need to focus on the following areas: survey creation, survey testing, survey sampling, and distributing your survey.
One of the keys to creating a successful survey is to keep your survey short and focused. Participants are unlikely to fill out a survey that is lengthy, and you’ll have a more difficult time during your analysis if your survey contains too many questions. In most cases, you want your survey to be something that can be filled out within a few minutes. The target length of the survey also depends on how you will distribute the survey. If you are giving your survey to other students in your dorm or classes, they will have more time to complete the survey. Therefore, five to ten minutes to complete the survey is reasonable. If you are asking students as they are walking to class to fill out your survey, keep it limited to several questions that can be answered in thirty seconds or less. Derek’s survey took about ten minutes and asked students to describe what they ate for a day, along with some demographic information like class level and gender.
Use closed questions to your advantage when creating your survey. A closed question is any set of questions that gives a limited amount of choices (yes/no, a 1–5 scale, choose the statement that best describes you). When creating closed questions, be sure that you are accounting for all reasonable answers in your question creation. For example, asking someone “Do you believe you eat healthy?” and providing them only “yes” and “no” options means that a “neutral” or “undecided” option does not exist, even though the survey respondent may not feel strongly either way. Therefore, on closed questions you may find it helpful to include an “other” category where participants can fill in an answer. It is also a good idea to have a few open-ended questions where participants can elaborate on certain points or earlier responses. However, open-ended questions take much longer to fill out than closed questions.
To make sure your survey is an appropriate length and that your questions are clear, you can “pilot test” your survey. Prior to administering your survey on a larger scale, ask several classmates or friends to fill it out and give you feedback on the survey. Keep track of how long the survey takes to complete. Ask them if the questions are clear and make sense. Look at their answers to see if the answers match what you wanted to learn. You can revise your survey questions and the length of your survey as necessary.
“Sampling” is a term used within survey research to describe the subset of people that are included in your study. Derek’s first research question was: “Are students’ eating habits at Purdue University healthy or unhealthy?” Because it was impossible for Derek to survey all 38,000 students on Purdue’s campus, he had to choose a representative sample of students. Derek chose to survey students who lived in the dorms because of the wide variety of student class levels and majors in the dorms and his easy access to this group. By making this choice, however, he did not account for commuter students, graduate students, or those who live off campus. As Derek’s case demonstrates, it is very challenging to get a truly representative sample.
Part of the reason that sampling is a challenge is that you may find difficulty in finding enough people to take your survey. In thinking about how get people to take your survey, consider both your everyday surroundings and also technological solutions. Derek had access to many students in the dorms, but he also considered surveying students in his classes in order to reach as many people as possible. Another possibility is to conduct an online survey. Online surveys greatly increase your access to different kinds of people from across the globe, but may decrease your chances of having a high survey response rate. An email or private message survey request is more likely to be ignored due to the impersonal quality and high volume of emails most people receive.
Once you collect primary research data, you will need to analyze what you have found so that you can write about it. The purpose of analyzing your data is to look at what you collected (survey responses, interview answers to questions, observations) and to create a cohesive, systematic interpretation to help answer your research question or examine the validity of your hypothesis.
When you are analyzing and presenting your findings, remember to work to eliminate bias by being truthful and as accurate as possible about what you found, even if it differs from what you expected to find. You should see your data as sources of information, just like sources you find in the library, and you should work to represent them accurately.
The following are suggestions for analyzing different types of data.
If you’ve counted anything you were observing, you can simply add up what you counted and report the results. If you’ve collected descriptions using a double-entry notebook, you might work to write thick descriptions of what you observed into your writing. This could include descriptions of the scene, behaviors you observed, and your overall conclusions about events. Be sure that your readers are clear on what were your actual observations versus your thoughts or interpretations of those observations.
If you’ve interviewed one or two people, then you can use your summary, paraphrasing, and quotation skills to help you accurately describe what was said in the interview. Just like in secondary research when working with sources, you should introduce your interviewees and choose clear and relevant quotes from the interviews to use in your writing. An easy way to find the important information in an interview is to print out your transcription and take a highlighter and mark the important parts that you might use in your paper. If you have conducted a large number of interviews, it will be helpful for you to create a spreadsheet of responses to each question and compare the responses, choosing representative answers for each area you want to describe.
Surveys can contain quantitative (numerical) and qualitative (written answers/descriptions) data. Quantitative data can be analyzed using a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel to calculate the mean (average) answer or to calculate the percentage of people who responded in a certain way. You can display this information in a chart or a graph and also describe it in writing in your paper. If you have qualitative responses, you might choose to group them into categories and/or you may choose to quote several representative responses.
In formal research writing in a variety of fields, it is common for research to be presented in the following format: introduction/background; methods; results; discussions; conclusion. Not all first year writing classes will require such an organizational structure, although it is likely that you will be required to present many of these elements in your paper. Because of this, the next section examines each of these in depth.
The purpose of an introduction and review of literature in a research paper is to provide readers with information that helps them understand the context, purpose, and relevancy of your research. The introduction is where you provide most of your background (library) research that you did earlier in the process. You can include articles, statistics, research studies, and quotes that are pertinent to the issues at hand. A second purpose in an introduction is to establish your own credibility (ethos) as a writer by showing that you have researched your topic thoroughly. This kind of background discussion is required in nearly every field of inquiry when presenting research in oral or written formats.
Derek provided information from the Food and Drug Administration on healthy eating and national statistics about eating habits as part of his background information. He also made the case for healthy eating on campus to show relevancy:
Currently Americans are more overweight than ever. This is coming at a huge cost to the economy and government. If current trends in increasing rates of overweight and obesity continue it is likely that this generation will be the first one to live shorter lives than their parents did. Looking at the habits of university students is a good way to see how a new generation behaves when they are living out on their own for the first time.
When writing, you need to provide enough information to your readers about your primary research process for them to understand what you collected and how you collected it. In formal research papers, this is often called a methods section. Providing information on your study methods also adds to your credibility as a writer. For surveys, your methods would include describing who you surveyed, how many surveys you collected, decisions you made about your survey sample, and relevant demographic information about your participants (age, class level, major). For interviews, introduce whom you interviewed and any other relevant information about interviewees such as their career or expertise area. For observations, list the locations and times you observed and how you recorded your observations (i.e. double-entry notebook). For all data types, you should describe how you analyzed your data.
The following is a sample from Jared about his participants:
In order to gain a better understanding of the discourse community in environmental and resource engineering, I interviewed Anne Dare, a senior in environmental and natural resource engineering, and Alyson Keaton an alumnus of Purdue University. Alyson is a current employee of the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), which is a division of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Here is a sample from Derek’s methods section:
I conducted a survey so that I could find out what students at Purdue actually eat on a typical day. I handed out surveys asking students to record what they ate for a day . . . I received 29 back and averaged the results based on average number of servings from each food group on the old food guide pyramid. The group included students from the freshman to the graduate level and had 8 women and 21 men respond.
In a formal research paper, the results section is where you describe what you found. The results section can include charts, graphs, lists, direct quotes, and overviews of findings. Readers find it helpful if you are able to provide the information in different formats. For example, if you have any kind of numbers or percentages, you can talk about them in your written description and then present a graph or chart showing them visually. You should provide specific details as supporting evidence to back up your findings. These details can be in the form of direct quotations, numbers, or observations.
Jared describes some of his interview results:
Alyson also mentioned the need for phone conversation. She stated, “The phone is a large part of my job. I am communicating with other NRCS offices daily to find out the status of our jobs.” She needs to be in constant contact in order to insure that everything is running smoothly. This is common with those overseeing projects. In these cases, the wait for a response to an email or a memo can be too long to be effective.
In formal research papers, the discussion section presents your own interpretation of your results. This may include what you think the results mean or how they are useful to your larger argument. If you are making a proposal for change or a call to action, this is where you make it. For example, in Derek’s project about healthy eating on campus, Derek used his primary research on students’ unhealthy eating and observations of the food courts to argue that the campus food courts needed serious changes. Derek writes, “Make healthy food options the most accessible in every dining hall while making unhealthy foods the least. Put nutrition facts for everything that is served in the dining halls near the food so that students can make more informed decisions on what to eat.”
Jared used the individuals he interviewed as informants that helped him learn more about writing in agricultural and biological engineering. He integrated the interviews he conducted with secondary research to form a complete picture of writing and communication in agricultural and biological engineering. He concludes:
Writing takes so many forms, and it is important to know about all these forms in one way or another. The more forms of writing you can achieve, the more flexible you can be. This ability to be flexible can make all the difference in writing when you are dealing with a field as complex as engineering.
The last part of presenting your primary research project is a works cited or references page. In general, since you are working with data you collected yourself, there is no source to cite an external source. Your methods section should describe in detail to the readers how and where the data presented was obtained. However, if you are working with interviews, you can cite these as “personal communication.” The MLA and APA handbooks both provide clear listings of how to cite personal communication in a works cited/references page.
This essay has presented an overview to three commonly used methods of primary research in first year writing courses: observations, interviews, and surveys. By using these methods, you can learn more about the world around you and craft meaningful written discussions of your findings.
For more information on the primary methods of inquiry described here, please see the following sources:
Babbie, Earl. The Practice of Social Research . 10th edition. Wadsworth Publishing, 2003. Print.
Creswell, John. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches . 3rd ed. Sage publications, 2008. Print.
Rubin, Herbert and Irene Rubin. Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data . 2nd edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2004. Print.
Fink, Arlene. How to Conduct Surveys: A Step-by-Step Guide. 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2008. Print.
Sanger, Jack. Compleat Observer? A Field Research Guide to Observation . New York: Routledge, 1996. Print.
The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. The Belmont Report . 18 April 1979. Web. < http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/belmont.html >.
Babbie, Earl. The Practice of Social Research . 10th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth publishing, 2003. Print.
Creswell, John. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches . 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage publications, 2008. Print.
Shadish, William, Thomas, Cook and Donald Campbell. Quasi-Experimentation: Design and Analysis Issues . Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1979. Print.
Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection . New York: L Hurst and Company, No date. Print.
Lauer, Janice and William Asher. Composition Research: Empirical Designs . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. Print.
Leavitt, Fred. Evaluating Scientific Research: Separating Fact from Fiction . Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2004. Print.
Mead, Margaret. Growing Up in New Guinea: A Comparative Study of Primitive Education. New York: Morrow, 193. Print.
Mill, John Stuart. John Stuart Mill’s Philosophy of Scientific Method. Ernest Nagel, Ed. New York: Hafner Publishing Co, 1950. Print.
Rubin, Herbert and Irene Rubin. Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data . 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2004. Print.
Introduction to Primary Research: Observations, Surveys, and Interviews Copyright © 2011 by Dana Lynn Driscoll is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
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Dana Lynn Driscoll
Dana Driscoll’s essay “Introduction to Primary Research: Observations, Surveys, and Interviews” comes from the book Writing Spaces: Readings on Writings, Volume 2 . Projects where students are asked to gather first-hand data are a common occurrence in first-year composition (FYC). However, FYC students may struggle with the ethical and practical issues of collecting, analyzing, and writing about survey results, interviews, and observations. This chapter introduces definitions of research from an interdisciplinary perspective, examines ethical considerations, and compares the research process to the writing process. The chapter concludes with information about writing from primary research, including integrating research and creating visuals. Two student examples – a nutrition observation/survey project and an agricultural and biological engineering interview project – are provided to give students concrete examples.
This reading is available below and as a PDF .
How research is defined varies widely from field to field, and as you progress through your college career, your coursework will teach you much more about what it means to be a researcher within your field. For example, engineers, who focus on applying scientific knowledge to develop designs, processes, and objects, conduct research using simulations, mathematical models, and a variety of tests to see how well their designs work. Sociologists conduct research using surveys, interviews, observations, and statistical analysis to better understand people, societies, and cultures. Graphic designers conduct research through locating images for reference for their artwork and engaging in background research on clients and companies to best serve their needs. Historians conduct research by examining archival materials— newspapers, journals, letters, and other surviving texts—and through conducting oral history interviews. Research is not limited to what has already been written or found at the library, also known as secondary research. Rather, individuals conducting research are producing the articles and reports found in a library database or in a book. Primary research, the focus of this essay, is research that is collected firsthand rather than found in a book, database, or journal.
Primary research is often based on principles of the scientific method, a theory of investigation first developed by John Stuart Mill in the nineteenth century in his book Philosophy of the Scientific Method . Although the application of the scientific method varies from field to field, the general principles of the scientific method allow researchers to learn more about the world and observable phenomena. Using the scientific method, researchers develop research questions or hypotheses and collect data on events, objects, or people that is measurable, observable, and replicable. The ultimate goal in conducting primary research is to learn about something new that can be confirmed by others and to eliminate our own biases in the process.
The essay begins by providing an overview of ethical considerations when conducting primary research, and then covers the stages that you will go through in your primary research: planning, collecting, analyzing, and writing. After the four stages comes an introduction to three common ways of conducting primary research in first year writing classes:
In addition, we will be examining two student projects that used substantial portions of primary research:
Derek Laan, a nutrition major at Purdue University, wanted to learn more about student eating habits on campus. His primary research included observations of the campus food courts, student behavior while in the food courts, and a survey of students’ daily food intake. His secondary research included looking at national student eating trends on college campuses, information from the United States Food and Drug Administration, and books on healthy eating.
Jared Schwab, an agricultural and biological engineering major at Purdue, was interested in learning more about how writing and communication took place in his field. His primary research included interviewing a professional engineer and a student who was a senior majoring in engineering. His secondary research included examining journals, books, professional organizations, and writing guides within the field of engineering.
Both projects listed above included primary research on human participants; therefore, Derek and Jared both had to consider research ethics throughout their primary research process. As Earl Babbie writes in The Practice of Social Research , throughout the early and middle parts of the twentieth century researchers took advantage of participants and treated them unethically. During World War II, Nazi doctors performed heinous experiments on prisoners without their consent, while in the U.S., a number of medical and psychological experiments on caused patients undue mental and physical trauma and, in some cases, death. Because of these and other similar events, many nations have established ethical laws and guidelines for researchers who work with human participants. In the United States, the guidelines for the ethical treatment of human research participants are described in The Belmont Report , released in 1979. Today, universities have Institutional Review Boards (or IRBs) that oversee research. Students conducting research as part of a class may not need permission from the university’s IRB, although they still need to ensure that they follow ethical guidelines in research. The following provides a brief overview of ethical considerations:
The above are only three of many considerations when involving human participants in your primary research. For a complete understanding of ethical considerations please refer to The Belmont Report .
Now that we have considered the ethical implications of research, we will examine how to formulate research questions and plan your primary research project.
The primary research process is quite similar to the writing process, and you can draw upon your knowledge of the writing process to understand the steps involved in a primary research project. Just like in the writing process, a successful primary research project begins with careful planning and background research. This section first describes how to create a research timeline to help plan your research. It then walks you through the planning stages by examining when primary research is useful or appropriate for your first year composition course, narrowing down a topic, and developing research questions.
When you begin to conduct any kind of primary research, creating a timeline will help keep you on task. Because students conducting primary research usually focus on the collection of data itself, they often overlook the equally important areas of planning (invention), analyzing data, and writing. To help manage your time, you should create a research timeline, such as the sample timeline presented here.
In Evaluating Scientific Research: Separating Fact from Fiction , Fred Leavitt explains that primary research is useful for questions that can be answered through asking others and direct observation. For first year writing courses, primary research is particularly useful when you want to learn about a problem that does not have a wealth of published information. This may be because the problem is a recent event or it is something not commonly studied. For example, if you are writing a paper on a new political issue, such as changes in tax laws or healthcare, you might not be able to find a wealth of peer-reviewed research because the issue is only several weeks old. You may find it necessary to collect some of your own data on the issue to supplement what you found at the library. Primary research is also useful when you are studying a local problem or learning how a larger issue plays out at the local level. Although you might be able to find information on national statistics for healthy eating, whether or not those statistics are representative of your college campus is something that you can learn through primary research.
However, not all research questions and topics are appropriate for primary research. As Fred Leavitt writes, questions of an ethical, philosophical, or metaphysical nature are not appropriate because these questions are not testable or observable. For example, the question “Does an afterlife exist?” is not a question that can be answered with primary research. However, the question “How many people in my community believe in an afterlife?” is something that primary research can answer.
Just like the writing process, you should start your primary research process with secondary (library) research to learn more about what is already known and what gaps you need to fill with your own data. As you learn more about the topic, you can narrow down your interest area and eventually develop a research question or hypothesis, just as you would with a secondary research paper.
As John Stuart Mill describes, primary research can use both inductive and deductive approaches, and the type approach is usually based on the field of inquiry. Some fields use deductive reasoning , where researchers start with a hypothesis or general conclusion and then collect specific data to support or refute their hypothesis. Other fields use inductive reasoning , where researchers start with a question and collect information that eventually leads to a conclusion.
Once you have spent some time reviewing the secondary research on your topic, you are ready to write a primary research question or hypothesis. A research question or hypothesis should be something that is specific, narrow, and discoverable through primary research methods. Just like a thesis statement for a paper, if your research question or hypothesis is too broad, your research will be unfocused and your data will be difficult to analyze and write about. Here is a set of sample research questions:
Poor Research Question : What do college students think of politics and the economy?
Revised Research Question : What do students at Purdue University believe about the current economic crisis in terms of economic recoverability?
The poor research question is unspecific as to what group of students the researcher is interested in—i.e. students in the U.S.? In a particular state? At their university? The poor research question was also too broad; terms like “politics” and the “economy” cover too much ground for a single project. The revised question narrows down the topic to students at a particular university and focuses on a specific issue related to the economy: economic recoverability. The research question could also be rephrased as a testable hypothesis using deductive reasoning: “Purdue University college students are well informed about economic recoverability plans.” Because they were approaching their projects in an exploratory, inductive manner, both Derek and Jared chose to ask research questions:
Derek: Are students’ eating habits at Purdue University healthy or unhealthy? What are the causes of students’ eating behavior?
Jared: What are the major features of writing and communication in agricultural and biological engineering? What are the major controversies?
A final step in working with a research question or hypothesis is determining what key terms you are using and how you will define them. Before conducting his research, Derek had to define the terms “healthy” and “unhealthy”; for this, he used the USDA’s Food Pyramid as a guide. Similarly, part of what Jared focused on in his interviews was learning more about how agricultural and biological engineers defined terms like “writing” and “communication.” Derek and Jared thought carefully about the terms within their research questions and how these terms might be measured.
Once you have formulated a research question or hypothesis, you will need to make decisions about what kind of data you can collect that will best address your research topic. Derek chose to examine eating habits by observing both what students ate at lunch and surveying students about eating behavior. Jared decided that in-depth interviews with experienced individuals in his field would provide him with the best information.
To choose a data collection method for your research question, read through the next sections on observations, interviews, and surveys.
Observations have lead to some of the most important scientific discoveries in human history. Charles Darwin used observations of the animal and marine life at the Galapagos Islands to help him formulate his theory of evolution that he describes in On the Origin of Species . Today, social scientists, natural scientists, engineers, computer scien- tists, educational researchers, and many others use observations as a primary research method.
Observations can be conducted on nearly any subject matter, and the kinds of observations you will do depend on your research question. You might observe traffic or parking patterns on campus to get a sense of what improvements could be made. You might observe clouds, plants, or other natural phenomena. If you choose to observe people, you will have several additional considerations including the manner in which you will observe them and gain their consent.
If you are observing people, you can choose between two common ways to observe: participant observation and unobtrusive observation. Participant observation is a common method within ethnographic research in sociology and anthropology. In this kind of observation, a researcher may interact with participants and become part of their community. Margaret Mead, a famous anthropologist, spent extended periods of time living in, and interacting with, communities that she studied. Conversely, in unobtrusive observation, you do not interact with participants but rather simply record their behavior. Although in most circumstances people must volunteer to be participants in re- search, in some cases it is acceptable to not let participants know you are observing them. In places that people perceive as public, such as a campus food court or a shopping mall, people do not expect privacy, and so it is generally acceptable to observe without participant consent. In places that people perceive as private, which can include a church, home, classroom, or even an intimate conversation at a restaurant, participant consent should be sought.
The second issue about participant consent in terms of unobtrusive observation is whether or not getting consent is feasible for the study. If you are observing people in a busy airport, bus station, or campus food court, getting participant consent may be next to impossible. In Derek’s study of student eating habits on campus, he went to the campus food courts during meal times and observed students purchasing food. Obtaining participant consent for his observations would have been next to impossible because hundreds of students were coming through the food court during meal times. Since Derek’s research was in a place that participants would perceive as public, it was not practical to get their consent, and since his data was anonymous, he did not violate their privacy.
The ethical concern of being unbiased is important in recording your observations. You need to be aware of the difference between an observation (recording exactly what you see) and an interpretation (making assumptions and judgments about what you see). When you observe, you should focus first on only the events that are directly observable. Consider the following two example entries in an observation log:
The first entry is biased and demonstrates judgment about the event. First, the observer makes assumptions about the internal state of the student when she writes “enjoys” and “clearly oblivious to the calorie content.” From an observer’s standpoint, there is no way of ascertaining what the student may or may not know about pizza’s nutritional value nor how much the student enjoys the pizza. The second entry provides only the details and facts that are observable.
To avoid bias in your observations, you can use something called a “double-entry notebook.” This is a type of observation log that en courages you to separate your observations (the facts) from your feelings and judgments about the facts.
Observations are only one strategy in collecting primary research. You may also want to ask people directly about their behaviors, beliefs, or attitudes—and for this you will need to use surveys or interviews.
Sometimes it is very difficult for a researcher to gain all of the necessary information through observations alone. Along with his observations of the dining halls, Derek wanted to know what students ate in a typical day, and so he used a survey to have them keep track of their eating habits. Likewise, Jared wanted to learn about writing and com- munication in engineering and decided to draw upon expert knowledge by asking experienced individuals within the field.
Interviews and surveys are two ways that you can gather information about people’s beliefs or behaviors. With these methods, the in- formation you collect is not first-hand (like an observation) but rather “self-reported” data, or data collected in an indirect manner. William Shadish, Thomas Cook, and Donald Campbell argued that people are inherently biased about how they see the world and may report their own actions in a more favorable way than they may actually behave. Despite the issues in self-reported data, surveys and interviews are an excellent way to gather data for your primary research project.
How do you choose between conducting a survey or an interview? It depends on what kind of information you are looking for. You should use surveys if you want to learn about a general trend in people’s opinions, experiences, and behavior. Surveys are particularly useful to find small amounts of information from a wider selection of people in the hopes of making a general claim. Interviews are best used when you want to learn detailed information from a few specific people. Interviews are also particularly useful if you want to interview experts about their opinions, as Jared did. In sum, use interviews to gain details from a few people, and surveys to learn general patterns from many people.
One of the greatest challenges in conducting surveys and interviews is writing good questions. As a researcher, you are always trying to eliminate bias, and the questions you ask need to be unbiased and clear. Here are some suggestions on writing good questions:
A poorly written question can contain multiple questions, which can confuse participants or lead them to answer only part of the question you are asking. This is called a “double-barreled question” in journalism. The following questions are taken from Jared’s research:
Poor question: What kinds of problems are being faced in the field today and where do you see the search for solutions to these problems going?
Revised question #1 : What kinds of problems are being faced in the field today?
Revised question #2: Where do you see the search for solu- tions to these problems going?
A leading question is one where you prompt the participant to respond in a particular way, which can create bias in the answers given:
Leading question: The economy is clearly in a crisis, wouldn’t you agree?
Revised question: Do you believe the economy is currently in a crisis? Why or why not?
Closed questions, or questions that have yes/no or other limited responses, should be used in surveys. However, avoid these kinds of questions in interviews because they discourage the interviewee from going into depth. The question sample above, “Do you believe the economy currently is in a crisis?” could be answered with a simple yes or no, which could keep a participant from talking more about the issue. The “why or why not?” portion of the question asks the participant to elaborate. On a survey, the question “Do you believe the economy currently is in a crisis?” is a useful question because you can easily count the number of yes and no answers and make a general claim about participant responses.
When you write questions, make sure they are clear, concise, and to the point. Questions that are too long, use unfamiliar vocabulary, or are unclear may confuse participants and you will not get quality responses.
Now that question creation has been addressed, we will next examine specific considerations for interviews and surveys.
Interviews, or question and answer sessions with one or more people, are an excellent way to learn in-depth information from a person for your primary research project. This section presents information on how to conduct a successful interview, including choosing the right person, ways of interviewing, recording your interview, interview locations, and transcribing your interview.
One of the keys to a successful interview is choosing the right person to interview. Think about whom you would like to interview and whom you might know. Do not be afraid to ask people you do not know for interviews. When asking, simply tell them what the interview will be about, what the interview is for, and how much time it will take. Jared used his Purdue University connection to locate both of the individuals that he ended up interviewing—an advanced Purdue student and a Purdue alum working in an Engineering firm.
When interviewing, you have a choice of conducting a traditional, face-to-face interview or an interview using technology over the Internet. Face-to-face interviews have the strength that you can ask follow-up questions and use non-verbal communication to your advantage. Individuals are able to say much more in a face-to-face interview than in an email, so you will get more information from a face-to-face interview. However, the Internet provides a host of new possibilities when it comes to interviewing people at a distance. You may choose to do an email interview, where you send questions and ask the person to respond. You may also choose to use a video or audio conferencing program to talk with the person virtually. If you are choosing any Internet-based option, make sure you have a way of recording the interview. You may also use a chat or instant messaging program to interview your participant—the benefit of this is that you can ask follow-up questions during the interview and the interview is already transcribed for you. Because one of his interviewees lived several hours away, Jared chose to interview the Purdue student face- to-face and the Purdue alum via email.
If you are conducting an in-person interview, it is essential that you find a quiet place for your interview. Many universities have quiet study rooms that can be reserved (often found in the university library). Do not try to interview someone in a coffee shop, dining hall, or other loud area, as it is difficult to focus and get a clear recording.
One way of eliminating bias in your research is to record your interviews rather than rely on your memory. Recording interviews allows you to directly quote the individual and re-read the interview when you are writing. It is recommended that you have two recording devices for the interview in case one recording device fails. Most computers, MP3 players, and even cell phones come with recording equipment built in. Many universities also offer equipment that students can check out and use, including computers and recorders. Before you record any interview, be sure that you have permission from your participant.
Once your interview is over, you will need to transcribe your interview to prepare it for analysis. The term transcribing means creating a writ- ten record that is exactly what was said—i.e. typing up your interviews. If you have conducted an email or chat interview, you already have a transcription and can move on to your analysis stage.
Other than the fact that they both involve asking people questions, interviews and surveys are quite different data collection methods. Creating a survey may seem easy at first, but developing a quality survey can be quite challenging. When conducting a survey, you need to focus on the following areas: survey creation, survey testing, survey sampling, and distributing your survey.
One of the keys to creating a successful survey is to keep your survey short and focused. Participants are unlikely to fill out a survey that is lengthy, and you’ll have a more difficult time during your analysis if your survey contains too many questions. In most cases, you want your survey to be something that can be filled out within a few minutes. The target length of the survey also depends on how you will distribute the survey. If you are giving your survey to other students in your dorm or classes, they will have more time to complete the survey. Therefore, five to ten minutes to complete the survey is reasonable. If you are asking students as they are walking to class to fill out your sur- vey, keep it limited to several questions that can be answered in thirty seconds or less. Derek’s survey took about ten minutes and asked students to describe what they ate for a day, along with some demographic information like class level and gender.
Use closed questions to your advantage when creating your survey. A closed question is any set of questions that gives a limited amount of choices (yes/no, a 1–5 scale, choose the statement that best describes you). When creating closed questions, be sure that you are accounting for all reasonable answers in your question creation. For example, ask- ing someone “Do you believe you eat healthy?” and providing them only “yes” and “no” options means that a “neutral” or “undecided” option does not exist, even though the survey respondent may not feel strongly either way. Therefore, on closed questions you may find it helpful to include an “other” category where participants can fill in an answer. It is also a good idea to have a few open-ended questions where participants can elaborate on certain points or earlier responses. However, open-ended questions take much longer to fill out than closed questions.
To make sure your survey is an appropriate length and that your questions are clear, you can “pilot test” your survey. Prior to administering your survey on a larger scale, ask several classmates or friends to fill it out and give you feedback on the survey. Keep track of how long the survey takes to complete. Ask them if the questions are clear and make sense. Look at their answers to see if the answers match what you wanted to learn. You can revise your survey questions and the length of your survey as necessary.
“Sampling” is a term used within survey research to describe the subset of people that are included in your study. Derek’s first research question was: “Are students’ eating habits at Purdue University healthy or unhealthy?” Because it was impossible for Derek to survey all 38,000 students on Purdue’s campus, he had to choose a representative sample of students. Derek chose to survey students who lived in the dorms because of the wide variety of student class levels and majors in the dorms and his easy access to this group. By making this choice, however, he did not account for commuter students, graduate students, or those who live off campus. As Derek’s case demonstrates, it is very challenging to get a truly representative sample.
Part of the reason that sampling is a challenge is that you may find difficulty in finding enough people to take your survey. In thinking about how get people to take your survey, consider both your everyday surroundings and also technological solutions. Derek had access to many students in the dorms, but he also considered surveying students in his classes in order to reach as many people as possible. Another possibility is to conduct an online survey. Online surveys greatly increase your access to different kinds of people from across the globe, but may decrease your chances of having a high survey response rate. An email or private message survey request is more likely to be ignored due to the impersonal quality and high volume of emails most people receive.
Once you collect primary research data, you will need to analyze what you have found so that you can write about it. The purpose of analyzing your data is to look at what you collected (survey responses, interview answers to questions, observations) and to create a cohesive, systematic interpretation to help answer your research question or ex- amine the validity of your hypothesis.
When you are analyzing and presenting your findings, remember to work to eliminate bias by being truthful and as accurate as possible about what you found, even if it differs from what you expected to find. You should see your data as sources of information, just like sources you find in the library, and you should work to represent them accurately.
The following are suggestions for analyzing different types of data.
If you’ve counted anything you were observing, you can simply add up what you counted and report the results. If you’ve collected descriptions using a double-entry notebook, you might work to write thick descriptions of what you observed into your writing. This could include descriptions of the scene, behaviors you observed, and your overall conclusions about events. Be sure that your readers are clear on what were your actual observations versus your thoughts or interpretations of those observations.
If you’ve interviewed one or two people, then you can use your summary, paraphrasing, and quotation skills to help you accurately describe what was said in the interview. Just like in secondary research when working with sources, you should introduce your interviewees and choose clear and relevant quotes from the interviews to use in your writing. An easy way to find the important information in an interview is to print out your transcription and take a highlighter and mark the important parts that you might use in your paper. If you have conducted a large number of interviews, it will be helpful for you to create a spreadsheet of responses to each question and compare the responses, choosing representative answers for each area you want to describe.
Surveys can contain quantitative (numerical) and qualitative (written answers/descriptions) data. Quantitative data can be analyzed using a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel to calculate the mean (average) answer or to calculate the percentage of people who responded in a certain way. You can display this information in a chart or a graph and also describe it in writing in your paper. If you have qualitative responses, you might choose to group them into categories and/or you may choose to quote several representative responses.
In formal research writing in a variety of fields, it is common for research to be presented in the following format: introduction/background; methods; results; discussions; conclusion. Not all first year writing classes will require such an organizational structure, although it is likely that you will be required to present many of these elements in your paper. Because of this, the next section examines each of these in depth.
The purpose of an introduction and review of literature in a research paper is to provide readers with information that helps them understand the context, purpose, and relevancy of your research. The introduction is where you provide most of your background (library) research that you did earlier in the process. You can include articles, statistics, research studies, and quotes that are pertinent to the issues at hand. A second purpose in an introduction is to establish your own credibility (ethos) as a writer by showing that you have researched your topic thoroughly. This kind of background discussion is required in nearly every field of inquiry when presenting research in oral or writ- ten formats.
Derek provided information from the Food and Drug Administration on healthy eating and national statistics about eating habits as part of his background information. He also made the case for healthy eating on campus to show relevancy:
Currently Americans are more overweight than ever. This is coming at a huge cost to the economy and government. If current trends in increasing rates of overweight and obesity continue it is likely that this generation will be the first one to live shorter lives than their parents did. Looking at the habits of university students is a good way to see how a new generation behaves when they are living out on their own for the first time.
When writing, you need to provide enough information to your readers about your primary research process for them to understand what you collected and how you collected it. In formal research papers, this is often called a methods section. Providing information on your study methods also adds to your credibility as a writer. For surveys, your methods would include describing who you surveyed, how many surveys you collected, decisions you made about your survey sample, and relevant demographic information about your participants (age, class level, major). For interviews, introduce whom you interviewed and any other relevant information about interviewees such as their career or expertise area. For observations, list the locations and times you observed and how you recorded your observations (i.e. double-entry notebook). For all data types, you should describe how you analyzed your data.
The following is a sample from Jared about his participants:
In order to gain a better understanding of the discourse community in environmental and resource engineering, I interviewed Anne Dare, a senior in environmental and natural resource engineering, and Alyson Keaton an alumnus of Purdue University. Alyson is a current employee of the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), which is a division of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Here is a sample from Derek’s methods section:
I conducted a survey so that I could find out what students at Purdue actually eat on a typical day. I handed out surveys asking students to record what they ate for a day . . . I received 29 back and averaged the results based on average number of servings from each food group on the old food guide pyramid. The group included students from the freshman to the graduate level and had 8 women and 21 men respond.
In a formal research paper, the results section is where you describe what you found. The results section can include charts, graphs, lists, direct quotes, and overviews of findings. Readers find it helpful if you are able to provide the information in different formats. For example, if you have any kind of numbers or percentages, you can talk about them in your written description and then present a graph or chart showing them visually. You should provide specific details as supporting evidence to back up your findings. These details can be in the form of direct quotations, numbers, or observations.
Jared describes some of his interview results:
Alyson also mentioned the need for phone conversation. She stated, “The phone is a large part of my job. I am communicating with other NRCS offices daily to find out the status of our jobs.” She needs to be in constant contact in order to insure that everything is running smoothly. This is common with those overseeing projects. In these cases, the wait for a response to an email or a memo can be too long to be effective.
In formal research papers, the discussion section presents your own interpretation of your results. This may include what you think the results mean or how they are useful to your larger argument. If you are making a proposal for change or a call to action, this is where you make it. For example, in Derek’s project about healthy eating on campus, Derek used his primary research on students’ unhealthy eat- ing and observations of the food courts to argue that the campus food courts needed serious changes. Derek writes, “Make healthy food options the most accessible in every dining hall while making unhealthy foods the least. Put nutrition facts for everything that is served in the dining halls near the food so that students can make more informed decisions on what to eat.”
Jared used the individuals he interviewed as informants that helped him learn more about writing in agricultural and biological engineering. He integrated the interviews he conducted with secondary research to form a complete picture of writing and communication in agricultural and biological engineering. He concludes:
Writing takes so many forms, and it is important to know about all these forms in one way or another. The more forms of writing you can achieve, the more flexible you can be. This ability to be flexible can make all the difference in writing when you are dealing with a field as complex as engineering.
The last part of presenting your primary research project is a works cited or references page. In general, since you are working with data you collected yourself, there is no source to cite an external source. Your methods section should describe in detail to the readers how and where the data presented was obtained. However, if you are working with interviews, you can cite these as “personal communication.” The MLA and APA handbooks both provide clear listings of how to cite personal communication in a works cited/references page.
This essay has presented an overview to three commonly used methods of primary research in first year writing courses: observations, interviews, and surveys. By using these methods, you can learn more about the world around you and craft meaningful written discussions of your findings.
Suggested Resources
Babbie, Earl. The Practice of Social Research. 10th edition. Wadsworth Publishing, 2003. Print.
Creswell, John. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches . 3rd ed. Sage publications, 2008. Print.
Rubin, Herbert and Irene Rubin. Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data. 2nd edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2004. Print.
Fink, Arlene. How to Conduct Surveys: A Step-by-Step Guid e. 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2008. Print.
Sanger, Jack. Compleat Observer? A Field Research Guide to Observation . New York: Routledge, 1996. Print.
The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. The Belmont Report . 18 April 1979. Web. <http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/belmont.html>.
Babbie, Earl. The Practice of Social Research . 10th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth publishing, 2003. Print.
Creswell, John. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches . 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage publications, 2008. Print.
Shadish, William, Thomas, Cook and Donald Campbell. Quasi-Experimentation: Design and Analysis Issues . Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1979. Print.
Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection . New York: L Hurst and Company, No date. Print.
Lauer, Janice and William Asher. Composition Research: Empirical Designs . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. Print.
Leavitt, Fred. Evaluating Scientific Research: Separating Fact from Fiction . Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2004. Print.
Mead, Margaret. Growing Up in New Guinea: A Comparative Study of Primitive Education . New York: Morrow, 193. Print.
Mill, John Stuart. John Stuart Mill’s Philosophy of Scientific Method . Ernest Nagel, Ed. New York: Hafner Publishing Co, 1950. Print.
Rubin, Herbert and Irene Rubin. Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data . 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2004. Print.
primary research, observations, interviews, surveys, research ethics, research questions
college-level general education writing and communication courses
The Muse: Misunderstandings and Their Remedies Copyright © by Dana Lynn Driscoll is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
COMMENTS
Examples of primary research include studies that collect data through interviews, questionnaires, original text analysis, observation, surveys, focus groups, case studies, and ethnography. It is the opposite of secondary research which involves looking at existing data to identify trends or new insights. Both secondary and primary research are ...
Examples of primary research. Primary research can often be quite simple to pursue yourself. Here are a few examples of different research methods you can use to explore different topics.. Example: Survey questionnaire You are interested in the perceptions of your fellow students on universal healthcare. You decide to conduct a survey of students, asking them their thoughts.
Conclusion. This essay has presented an overview to three commonly used methods of primary research in first year writing courses: observations, interviews, and surveys. By using these methods, you can learn more about the world around you and craft meaningful written discussions of your findings.
Introduction: the "WHY" section (min: 1 page) state the purpose and rationale for your project. state your research question succinctly, clearly, and thoroughly. state why it is important to address this question. n to be studiedidentify the impact of your research results (think "big picture")Wr.
Here are some of the primary research methods organizations or businesses use to collect data: 1. Interviews (telephonic or face-to-face) Conducting interviews is a qualitative research method to collect data and has been a popular method for ages. These interviews can be conducted in person (face-to-face) or over the telephone.
This research essay structure is designed to guide your writing process and ensure that your arguments are presented logically and persuasively while maintaining objectivity and integrity in your research.. 2️⃣ Importance of Citing Sources. Citing your sources isn't merely a formality; it lends credibility to your arguments and respects the original authors' contributions.
Primary research involves either quantitative or qualitative research methods. Quantitative research follows a well-defined process that yields data that can be analyzed statistically. For example: outcomes from experiments. data collected from surveys where responses involve closed or multiple-choice responses.
What types of primary research can be done? Many types of primary research exist. This guide is designed to provide you with an overview of primary research that is often done in writing classes. Interviews: Interviews are one-on-one or small group question and answer sessions. Interviews will provide a lot of information from a small number of ...
Primary research is any research that you conduct yourself. It can be as simple as a 2-question survey, or as in-depth as a years-long longitudinal study. The only key is that data must be collected firsthand by you. Primary research is often used to supplement or strengthen existing secondary research.
The first question asks for a ready-made solution, and is not focused or researchable. The second question is a clearer comparative question, but note that it may not be practically feasible. For a smaller research project or thesis, it could be narrowed down further to focus on the effectiveness of drunk driving laws in just one or two countries.
Table of contents. Step 1: Introduce your topic. Step 2: Describe the background. Step 3: Establish your research problem. Step 4: Specify your objective (s) Step 5: Map out your paper. Research paper introduction examples. Frequently asked questions about the research paper introduction.
Dissertation examples. Listed below are some of the best examples of research projects and dissertations from undergraduate and taught postgraduate students at the University of Leeds We have not been able to gather examples from all schools. The module requirements for research projects may have changed since these examples were written.
Definitions, Methods, Sources, Examples, and More. Primary research is a cornerstone of insightful, accurate, and effective decision-making in both academic and professional settings. At its core, refers to the process of collecting data directly from sources rather than relying on previously gathered information, distinguishing it clearly from.
Primary research, the focus of this essay, is research that is collected firsthand rather than found in a book, database, or journal. ... Essay Overview and Student Examples The essay begins by providing an overview of ethical considerations when conducting primary research, and then covers the stages that ...
Primary research, the focus of this essay, is research that is collected firsthand rather than found in a book, database, or journal. Primary research is often based on principles of the scientific method, a theory of investigation first developed by John Stuart Mill in the nineteenth century in his book Philosophy of the Scientific Method.
For example, if you are writing about a problem specific to your school or local community, you may need to conduct primary research. You may be able to find secondary sources (such as those found at the library or online) on the more general topic you are pursuing, but may not find specifics on your school or town.
In history, for example, primary sources include documents from the period or person you are studying, objects, maps, even clothing; in literature or philosophy, your main primary source is usually the text you are studying, and your data are the words on the page. In such fields, you can rarely write a research paper without using primary ...
When you do research, you have to gather information and evidence from a variety of sources. Primary sources provide raw information and first-hand evidence. Examples include interview transcripts, statistical data, and works of art. Primary research gives you direct access to the subject of your research. Secondary sources provide second-hand ...
Examples of Primary Resources. Walden by Henry David Thoreau published in 2016, is a primary resource as the text was written in 1897, and offers insight into life in rural Massachusetts in the late 19th century.. Rembrandt van Rijn, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp, 1632. This painting is a good visual example of medical history in 17th century Holland.
Step 1: Decide on the type of data. Step 2: Decide on primary research methodology. Steps 3 - 8 if you have chosen a qualitative method. Steps 3 - 8 if you have chosen a quantitative method. Steps 3 - 8 if you have chosen a mixed method. Other steps you need to consider. Summary.
Here are the four main types of primary research: Surveys. Observations. Interviews. Focus groups. When conducting primary research, you can collect qualitative or quantitative data (or both). Qualitative primary data collection provides a vast array of feedback or information about products and services.
Primary research articles are typically organized into sections: introduction, materials and methods, results, and discussion (called IMRD). Identify key elements You may need to read an article several times in order to gain an understanding of it, but you can start by identifying key elements in a quick survey before you read.
Here's a quick list of some common types of primary sources: Photograph and video records. Archaeological artifacts. Data from scientific studies. Artworks (paintings, poems, sculptures, etc.) Live recordings of speeches, music, and other performances. Correspondence letters. Diaries, memoirs, and autobiographies.
10 Introduction to Primary Research: Observations, Surveys, and Interviews . Dana Lynn Driscoll. Primary Research: Definitions and Overview. How research is defined varies widely from field to field, and as you progress through your college career, your coursework will teach you much more about what it means to be a researcher within your field. [1] For example, engineers, who focus on ...
Primary market research gathers original data directly from your target audience. Unlike secondary research, it provides customized insights for your business needs. ... often require larger samples and strive for statistical reliability in findings. This approach helps in gathering robust data that can be analyzed to uncover market trends and ...
Dana Driscoll's essay "Introduction to Primary Research: Observations, Surveys, and Interviews" comes from the book Writing Spaces: Readings on Writings, Volume 2.Projects where students are asked to gather first-hand data are a common occurrence in first-year composition (FYC). However, FYC students may struggle with the ethical and practical issues of collecting, analyzing, and writing ...