Is your research paper right around the corner and you are drowning because of no preparation? Worry not, you got us! We know this time is tough. Many of you might be full-time employees as well, right? We know how draining it can become. This is the time when all we want is someone to come forward and help us write the research. If the research is for the Ph.D. level, the blues of dissertation publication are all gloomy and even a thought can bring depression.
However, at such times you don’t have to panic. We don’t want you to go down in the dumps. If you are struggling hard with research and don’t know what method can go well with your paper, let us find a way for you. Below are the seven most common research methods that go well with almost all topics. Have a look over them and see how much each of them can benefit you. In the end, you also have a mix-method technique, which is a pick of most of the research experts.
So, let’s begin . . . . .
Case Study
Case studies are typically done on a single subject and mostly have an objective behind them. For instance, for your social sciences research paper, your instructor has asked you to write a case study on any social problem. How will you do it? Let me tell you the trajectory. What you need to do is pick a social topic and then look out for cases in the same. Such as gender equality and domestic violence. These are both two of the most popular social problems in the US.
What you have to do is pick out cases on the same topic and see what the victims got to say. You can do this by using other methods as well. Such as surveys and interviews, etc. and get your data. The case studies are in-depth and thorough and are mostly data-oriented.
Social Surveys
To cut down the effort of taking data from a whole lot of people, many use the social survey method. It typically includes forms and opinion polls that collect data from societies in a homogenous form. These surveys are used by the researcher and include a certain number of not very difficult questions.
If going places is tough for you, this is the right method to get maximum data in your hands by reaching the minimum places. The questions you will include must be not very long and swinging. Make them close ends and limited.
Experiments
We are sure you are not unfamiliar with this word and know how an experiment is carried out. Many of you from school life has been doing it and are aware of all the jot and bots of the method. Typically in the experiment, you perform tests to examine the relation between two or more variables. It tells the connection and association of indirect variable with direct variable and vice versa. You can also analyze the extraneous variable through the same.
You start the experiment with a hypothesis made with the help of available evidence to move towards further investigation. Now depending on your topic or objective, you can either do a laboratory experiment or field experiment. However, in the research paper, mostly field experiment is carried out.
Interviews
Easiest but the toughest method for your research. Interviews are easy to conduct but take a lot of time. The scheduling, time availability, and moving from one play to another at times gets exhausting. However, if you are ready to bear this for your research, there is no way method better than interviews. This one-to-one communication between the interviewer and interviewee makes it trouble-free to get relevant data as you know what may help you and what information is useless.
You can either perform this method orally or exchange the information via emails. Whatever suits you best? However, we recommend face-to-face as the first priority and voice exchange via telephones as the second.
Questionnaires
Do you like to fill out questionnaires that your friends or colleague send for their research paper? I bet you do. Content is now the gangster in every field and people like to read it. If the content is engaging, you can see more audience in lesser time. The same is the case with questionnaires. If your form or questionnaire is captivating, more audiences will partake. However, make sure these questions are also not too long. The maximum they should go is 25 words. Not more than that.
If you are using this method, rare are cases you will get any futile questions. If you need to get audiences’ private information like name, age, residential, qualification, occupation, it’s a good idea to ask for them too.
Ethnographies
Similar to social surveys, Ethnographies is also the research method conducted in societies. This study includes a thorough analysis of the way people live their lives in their particular society including their values and lifestyle. Being a researcher, you can also use different documents to know about the culture and traditions of the examined society. The techniques most of the researchers use for this method are longitudinal studies where information from the same people is collected over a short span of time.
Mixed-Method
Very evident from the name, mixed methods include the amalgamation of two or more above methods to conduct research. For better data collection, you can use as many methods as you want. However, not all objectives can get help with this. If your objective allows you to collect information in various ways, we suggest you go for a mixed method.
Conclusion
Now since you know what roles all these methods have towards your research and what all you have to keep in mind while performing them, release some burden about your dissertation publication. It is high time for you to start looking for what methods suit your timetable best and start collecting the data. We know you can do it.
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