Lecture No:01

What is Research

 Re + Search
 Re = Again, Anew or Over again
 Search = To examine closely and carefully
 Research is a careful, systematic, patient study and investigation in some field of
knowledge, undertaken to establish facts or principles.
 Research is a structured enquiry that utilizes acceptable scientific methodology to
solve problems and create new knowledge that is generally applicable.

Characteristics of Research

 Systematic (A logical sequence of steps)

 Valid and Verifiable (Your findings are correct and may be verified by you and
others)
 Empirical (Conclusion drawn are based on evidence collected from real life
experiences or observations)
 Critical (The process of investigation must be foolproof and free from drawbacks)

Types of Research

Pure Research
 explain how this world operates, what makes things happen, why social relations are a
certain way, and why society changes.
 is the source of most new scientific ideas and ways of thinking about the world.
 generates new ideas, principles and theories, which may not be immediately utilized;
though are the foundations of modern progress and development in different fields.

Applied research
 is done to solve specific, practical questions and understanding of a phenomenon.
 can be exploratory, but is usually descriptive
 can be carried out by academic or industrial institutions.

Classification based on objectives

Descriptive research
 Also known as statistical research, describes data and characteristics about the
population or
 Phenomenon being studied
 Often the best approach, prior to writing descriptive research, is to conduct a survey
 Investigation
 Deals with everything that can be counted and must have an impact to the lives of the
people
 Around you

Correlational research
 Tests for statistical relationships between variables.
 The researcher begins with the idea that there might be a relationship between two
variables
 She or he then measures both variables for each of a large number of cases and checks
to see if they are in fact related

Explanatory research
 attempts to clarify why and how there is a relationship between two or more aspects of
a situation or phenomenon.
 research attempts to identify the actual reasons a phenomenon occurs.

Exploratory research
 is conducted into an issue or problem where there are few or no earlier studies to refer
to.
 The focus is on gaining insights and familiarity for later investigation.
  It is used to identify and obtain information on a particular problem or issue.

Classification based on inquiry mode

Structured approach
• The structured approach to inquiry is usually classified as quantitative research.
• The structured approach is appropriate to determine the extent of a problem, issue or
phenomenon.
• The structured approach addresses the problems such as:
 how many people have a particular problem?
 How many people hold a particular attitude?

Unstructured approach
 The unstructured approach to inquiry is usually classified as qualitative research
 The unstructured approach is more appropriate to explore the nature of a problem,
issue or phenomenon without quantifying it.
 Common examples include:
 An account of different opinions different people have about a product or an
issue.
 description of working condition in a particular industry.

Lecture No : 02

Scientific Method
 The Scientific Method involves a series of steps that are used to investigate a
natural occurrence.

Steps of the Scientific Method

1. Problem/Question
 Develop a question or problem that can be solved through experimentation.

2. Observation/Research
 Make observations and research your topic of interest.

3. Formulate a Hypothesis
 Predict a possible answer to the problem or question.
 Example: If soil temperatures rise, then plant growth will increase

4. Experiment
 Develop and follow a procedure.
 Include a detailed materials list.
 The outcome must be measurable (quantifiable).

5. Collect and Analyze Results

 Modify the procedure if needed.
 Confirm the results by retesting.
 Include tables, graphs, and photographs

6. Conclusion
 Include a statement that accepts or rejects the hypothesis.
 Make recommendations for further study and possible improvements to the
procedure.

7. Communicate the Results

 Be prepared to present the project to an audience.
 Expect questions from the audience.

Hypothesis
  The hypothesis is an educated guess about the relationship between the
independent and dependent variables.

Independent Variable
 The independent, or manipulated variable, is a factor that’s intentionally
varied by the experimenter.

Dependent Variable
 The dependent, or responding variable, is the factor that may change as a
result of changes made in the independent variable.

Lecture No : 03

Identifying a Research Problem

 Practitioners in the field may encounter difficulties or problems in their daily
work that need to be researched.
 Graduate students on campus may have to search to find a “problem” they
can research for their thesis or class project.
– Whatever the situation, the identification and selection of a
research problem is the first step in the research process.

Problem
 A question raised for inquiry, consideration or solution
 An intricate unsettled question

What is a Research Problem

 It is a problem that someone would like to investigate.
 It is considered as a situation that needs to be changed or addressed.
 These problems consist of:
 Conditions to be improved
 Difficulties to be eliminated
 Questions seeking answers
 In educational research, the research problem is typically posed as a question.

Examples of Research Problems

 How do we keep teachers in active research?
 How do we get community support for our program?
 What technology is best in communicating with farmers?
 Does career and technical education classes prevent students from dropping
out?

Factors to consider in Selecting a Research Problem

 The topic should be important (significant)
– Writing a thesis or dissertation is an exercise to learn how to
conduct research.
– However, graduate students can learn the research process on an
important topic just as easy as learning the research process on a
piddle topic!
 Consider the feasibility of the project.
– How much available time do you have
 Do you really want to do a longitudinal study
that will take 3 years to complete for a MS
thesis?
– How difficult is it. Are data available?
– How much will it cost?
 Researchable vs. Non-researchable Questions

Writing Clear Questions

 Don’t use words open to interpretation
 Be very specific
 It is measurable

How does one find topics to research?

 Become a scholar in an area of specialization
 Read, listen, discuss and think critically
 Follow up on ideas that stem from present research
 Explore areas of dissatisfaction

Steps in finding a research problem

• Identify a broad area that interests you
• Read the literature
• Narrow the area to 2 or 3 topics
• Thoroughly examine the literature on the 2-3 topics
• Select a single problem from 2-3 topics

Lecture No : 04
RULES
• Use simple and precise words
• Cite sources
• Proofread carefully/check spelling
• Be consistent in tenses
• Observe correct grammar
• Make an outline

WHAT ARE THE PARTS OF THE SCIENTIFIC PAPER

TITLE
• SPECIFIC AND INFORMATIVE
• SCIENTIFIC
ABSTRACT
• BRIEF BUT COMPLETE
INTRODUCTION
• Background of the study
• Problem statement
• Hypothesis
• Objectives
• significance of the study
• scope and limitations
OR
• You will find background information and a statement of the
author's hypothesis in the introduction.

METHOD
• Complete list of materials
• Procedure must be clearly and accurately written ( passive form, third person)
• Actual methods or materials used in the experiment
OR
• The methods section will help you determine exactly how the authors
performed the experiment.

RESULTS
• Actual observations (DO NOT INTERPRET YET!)
• Use tables and figures to present the data
• When starting with a number, spell it out.
OR
• The results section contains the data collected during experimention.
• The results section is the heart of a scientific paper. In this section, much of
the important information may be in the form of tables or graphs.

DISCUSSION
• Interpret your observation
• Describe trends or patterns
• Compare with previous studies
• Explain the unexpected results (very important)
OR
• The discussion section will explain the authors interpret their data and how
they connect it to other work.
• Authors often use the discussion to describe what their work suggests and
how it relates to other studies.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• In reading the acknowledgments, you can see what sources provided financial
support for the study.
• You might want to know an industry group or the federal government funded
the study.

LITERATURE CITATION
• TEXT CITATION
 Ex. 1.
Some flies appear to mimic their predators to avoid attack (Greene et al.
1987).
OR
• This section provides the sources cited throughout the paper.
• This section offers information on the range of other studies cited:
– Does the author cite only his or her previous studies?
– Are both classic and modern sources influencing this work?
– Does the author look to the work of scientists in other disciplines?
The literature cited section is also helpful for generating a list of
background reading on the topic under study.

Bibliography
• Alphabetize literature citations by first author's last name.

Lecture No : 05
Why bother?
• Journal papers are current
 • Textbooks are often years out of date
• You can get enough details to replicate what you read about
• Adapt cutting edge ideas and techniques to your own research
• Training of critical faculties
– You can see whether you agree with conclusions
• Because one day soon you could be writing papers too!

What kind of paper

• Argumentative papers,
• Analytical papers,
• Definition papers,
• Compare and contrast papers,
• Cause and effect papers,
• Reports, and.
• Interpretive papers.

Organization of a paper
• IMRAD
– Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion
• Plus
– Title, abstract, authors, acknowledgements, declarations, references
– Tables and figures; legends

Reading a scientific paper

• This is not a novel
• No need for a linear approach
• Look at
– Title
– Abstract
– Figures, tables
– Introduction, results, discussion
– Then methods
• Struggle with the paper
– active not passive reading
– use highlighter, underline text, scribble comments or questions on it,
make notes
if at first you don’t understand, read and re-read, spiralling in on
central points
• Move beyond the text of the paper
– talk to other people about it
– read commentaries
– consult dictionaries, textbooks, online links to references, figure
legends to clarify things you don’t understand

Blame the authors if

• Logical connections are left out
– Instead of saying why something was done, the procedure is simply
described.
• Cluttered with jargon, acronyms
• Lack of clear road-map through the paper
• Difficulties determining what was done
– Ambiguous description

Evaluating a paper
• What questions does the paper address?
• What are the main conclusions of the paper?
• What evidence supports those conclusions?
• Do the data actually support the conclusions?
• What is the quality of the evidence?
• Why are the conclusions important?

What questions does the paper address

• Descriptive research
– often in early stages of our understanding can't formulate
hypotheses until we know what is there.
 • Comparative research
– Ask how general or specific a phenomenon is
• Analytical or hypothesis-driven research
o test hypotheses
• Methodological research
o Find out new and better ways of doing things
o Describe new resources
o Many papers combine all of the above

What are the main conclusions

• Look at Title and Abstract, then Discussion
• Do they matter?
– Of general relevance?
– Broad in scope?
– Detailed but with far-reaching conclusions?
– Accessible to general audience?

What evidence supports them

• Look at Results section and relevant tables and figures.
– May be one primary experiment to support a point.
– More often several different experiments or approaches combine to
support a particular conclusion.
– First experiment might have several possible interpretations, and
the later ones are designed to distinguish among these.
• In the ideal case, the Discussion begins with a section of the form "Three lines
of evidence provide support for the conclusion that...."

Judging the quality of the evidence

• You need to understand the methods thoroughly
– may need to consult textbooks
• You need to know the limits of the methods
• Are the results expected?
– Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence

Do the data support the conclusions

• Data may be believable but not support the conclusion the authors wish to
reach
– logical connection between the data and the interpretation is not
sound (often hidden by bad writing)
• Rule of thumb
– If multiple approaches, multiple lines of evidence, from different
directions, supporting the conclusions, then more credible.
• Question assumptions!
– Identify any implicit or hidden assumptions used by the authors in
interpreting their data?

Lecture No : 06
What is Literature Review?
• A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject
area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain
time period.
• A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually
has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis
• It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old
interpretations.
• The format of a review of literature may vary from discipline to discipline and
from assignment to assignment.
• Generally, the purpose of a review is to analyze critically a segment of a
published body of knowledge through summary, classification, and
comparison of prior research studies and theoretical articles
• A literature review is the effective evaluation of selected documents on a
research topic.
Why write Literature Review?
• Literature reviews provide you with a handy guide to a particular topic. If you
have limited time to conduct research, literature reviews can give you an
overview or act as a stepping stone
• For professionals, they are useful reports that keep them up to date with what
is current in the field.
• For scholars, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the
credibility of the writer in his or her field
• The purpose of a literature review is for you to take a critical look at the
literature (facts and views) that already exists in the area you are researching.
• A literature review is not a shopping list of everything that exists, but a critical
analysis that shows an evaluation of the existing literature and a relationship
between the different works
• Literature can include books, journal articles, internet (electronic journals),
newspapers, magazines, theses and dissertations, conference proceedings,
reports, and documentaries.
• In a broader context, Hart (1998) lists the following purposes of a review:
o Distinguishing what has been done from what needs to be done;
o Discovering important variables relevant to the topic;
o Synthesizing and gaining a new perspective;
o Identifying relationships between ideas and practice;
o Establishing the context of the topic or problem;
o Rationalizing the significance of the problem;
o Enhancing and acquiring the subject vocabulary;
o Understanding the structure of the subject;
o Relating ideas and theory to applications;
o Identifying methodologies and techniques that have been used
Showing familiarity with state-of-the-art developments

What should I do before writing the literature review?

• Find models:
o Look for other literature reviews in your area of interest or in the
discipline and read them to get a sense of the types of themes you
might want to look for in your own research or ways to organize
your final review.
o You can simply put the word "review" in your search engine along
with your other topic terms to find articles of this type on the
Internet or in an electronic database.
• Narrow your topic:
o There are hundreds or even thousands of articles and books on most
areas of study.
o The narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of
sources you need to read in order to get a good survey of the
material.
• Consider whether your sources are current:
o Some disciplines require that you use information that is as current
as possible.
o In the sciences, for instance, treatments for medical problems are
constantly changing according to the latest studies.
o Information even two years old could be obsolete.
o However, if you are writing a review in the humanities, history, or
social sciences, a survey of the history of the literature may be what
is needed, because what is important is how perspectives have
changed through the years or within a certain time period.
o Try sorting through some other current bibliographies or literature
reviews in the field to get a sense of what your discipline expects.
o You can also use this method to consider what is "hot" and what is
not.
• Find a focus:
o A literature review, like a term paper, is usually organized around
ideas, not the sources themselves as an annotated bibliography
would be organized. This means that you will not just simply list your
sources and go into detail about each one of them, one at a time.
o No.
• Construct a working thesis statement:
 o Then use the focus you've found to construct a thesis statement.
Yes! Literature reviews have thesis statements as well!
o Thesis statement introduces the reader to the purpose of the
document and outline the major topics that will be covered to
achieve that purpose.
o Some sample thesis statements for literature reviews are as
follows:
 The current trend in treatment for congestive heart failure
combines surgery and medicine.
 An analysis of the college admission process reveals one
challenge facing counselors: accepting students with high
test scores or students with strong extracurricular
backgrounds.

• Consider organization:
o You've got a focus, and you've narrowed it down to a thesis
statement.
o Now what is the most effective way of presenting the information?
o What are the most important topics, subtopics, etc., that your
review needs to include?
o And in what order should you present them?
o Develop an organization for your review
• First, cover the basic categories :
o Just like most academic papers, literature reviews also must contain
at least three basic elements: an introduction or background
information section; the body of the review containing the
discussion of sources; and, finally, a conclusion and/or
recommendations section to end the paper.
o Introduction: Gives a quick idea of the topic of the literature review,
such as the central theme.
o Body: Contains your discussion of sources and is organized either
chronologically, thematically, or methodologically (see below for
more information on each).
o Conclusions/Recommendations: Discuss what you have drawn from
reviewing literature so far.
• Organizing the body :
o Once you have the basic categories in place, then you must consider
how you will present the sources themselves within the body of your
paper. Create an organizational method to focus this section even
further.
o To help you come up with an overall organizational framework for
your review, consider the six typical ways of organizing the sources
into a review:
 Chronological
 By publication
 By trend
 Thematic
 Methodological

What should you write?

• the accepted facts in the area
• the popular opinion
• the main variables
• the relationship between concepts and variables
• shortcomings in the existing findings
• limitations in the methods used in the existing findings
• the relevance of your research
• suggestions for further research in the area.
• Literature reviews should comprise the following elements:
– Layout:
Make your literature review have an academic and professional
appearance. Here are some points to make the look of your report
appealing to the reader
– White space:
leave space between sections, especially from the abstract. This gives an
uncluttered effect.
– Headings/sub-headings: these help to separate ideas.
 – Text boxes:
you can use these for quotations or paraphrasing to separate them from
the rest of your text. It is also pleasing to the eye.
– Graphics:
centre your graphics, such as diagrams or tables, to have space around
them. Try not to bury graphics in your text.
– Pagination:
you can number pages or sections or both, but the important thing to do
is to be consistent.
The cover page normally is not numbered. The content page and abstract
page usually have a separate numbering system to the body of your
literature review.
– Language focus
• Avoid too much direct quoting. The verb tense chosen depends on
your emphasis:
• When you are citing a specific author's findings, use the past tense:
(found, demonstrated);
• When you are writing about an accepted fact, use the present tense:
(demonstrates, finds); and
• When you are citing several authors or making a general statement,
use the present perfect tense: (have shown, have found, little
research has been done).
– Final checklist
• Have I fulfilled the purpose of the literature review?
• Is it written at a level appropriate to its audience?
• Are its facts correct?
• Is all the information included relevant?
• Are the layout and presentation easy on the eye?
• Is the language clear, concise and academic?
• Does the abstract summarise the entire review?
• Does the introduction adequately introduce the topic?
• Is the body organised logically?
• Does the conclusion interpret, analyse and evaluate?
• Are the recommendations reasonable?
• Does the table of contents correspond with the actual contents? Are
page numbers correct?
• Have I acknowledged all sources of information through correct
referencing?
• Have I checked spelling, grammar and punctuation?
• Have I carefully proof-read the final draft?

How to review?
 The whole process of reviewing includes:
a. Searching for literature
b. Sorting and prioritising the retrieved literature
c. Analytical reading of papers
d. Evaluative reading of papers
e. Comparison across studies
f. Organising the content
g. Writing the review

Comparison across studies

– The aim is to extract key points by comparing and contrasting
ACROSS studies, instead of reading one paper after another.
– Key points for a review may concern areas of similarities and/or
differences in:
 Research aim(s) or hypotheses
 Research design and sampling
 Instruments and procedures used
 How data were analysed
 Results or findings
 Interpretations

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