What is Research?

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 548.

READING

Condense and organize information provided, then create a scheme to represent the meaning of the concepts described.

1 Elicit your background knowledge on the following:

1. What do you know about the ways of getting new knowledge?
2. Have you ever done a research?
3. What do you know about the components of a research paper?

2 Put the following components of a research process in the correct order:

data collection, background and review of the existing literature, title page, notes, discussion of ‘limitations', introduction, or problem statement, results and analysis of the data, works cited, abstract, what is being studied and how, appendices, conclusions.

3 Read the following text and describe the concept of ‘research'.

The chief responsibility of a university is to produce and disseminate new knowledge. New knowledge is created through research. Research is based on primary and secondary sources, often together with original data collected via research "instruments" (surveys, interviews, questionnaires, "focus groups," etc.) to produce new knowledge on a particular topic.

In addition to primary sources and original instruments, secondary sources are used to provide an overview of existing published knowledge on a topic, and possible current debates about the topic. The background provided by secondary sources provides a contextual background and establishes how the new knowledge described in a paper differs from what is already known.

Research may be categorized as either Basic or Applied:

• Basic research looks at causes, effects, and the nature of things
• Applied research tries to find answers and solutions to specific problems.

All research focuses on "solving problems" — at minimum, as it concerns FIN-1, answering the defined research question(s). Otherwise, research addresses the perceived "problem" of missing or inadequate information on a particular topic. Research might be further categorized as follows:

• Research as description
• Research as understanding trends and operations
• Research as explanation

The emphasis and methodology of research may differ between different fields and disciplines, particularly between the Sciences and the Humanities. However, most fields share the following concerns:

• Discovering the relevant "facts" of an event, issue, procedure, or problem;
• Reviewing and evaluating contrasting explanations for the topic being researched, especially explanations which may differ from what the current research has concluded;
• Reviewing the consensus (or lack of it) of the research findings among researchers;
• Disseminating the findings and conclusions for critical review.

Research is most often published (in academic or professional journals, in online archives, or as a "monograph") as a research "paper," though it may also be presented orally (at least initially) as a conference address, or even in "poster" format at a scholarly conference. When published as a "full research paper" it will usually include the following components.