There is no hope of doing perfect research (Griffiths,1998,p97). Do you agree?

In Griffith article There is No Hope of Doing Perfect Research, he deliberates there are two styles of examination and both being either logical or inductive has set backs, therefore, no research in his opinion, is perfect (Griffith, 97). It would be supremely cynical to think that research, which literally means to search again, can be flawless in a world where there is a continuous voyage of discovery and the inquisitiveness of man to probe and attain full and fuller understanding of the unknown forms is the driving force. The term research is derived from the French recherche, from rechercher, to search closely where "chercher" means "to look for" or "to search" (Wikipedia). John W. Best defines research as a systematic and objective analysis and recording of controlled observations that may leave to development of generalizations, principles or theories result in prediction and possibly ultimate control of events (qtd. in Kumar 2). Based on this definition, research is obtaining accurate, reliable information, with the use of a method. Now, in a world where human beings dominate, how can we possibly define the accuracy and reliability? If research was perfect, there world would not have progressed as it has today. Research has been advancing for the last few decades now. It has become an indispensable part of human existence. As research is an essential key in innovation, we would never have progressed from black and white television to latest coloured plasma television, there would not have been a move from using candle light to using electricity, and we would have never found the cure for many terminal illnesses. In one of my undergraduate studies, we conducted a research in the area of criminology in relation to the link between drugs, crime and social exclusion. Several researches made reference to the factor that drug addiction, and drug related crimes are caused because people are poor, and these poor people live in clustered neighbourhoods that

are usually connected with social disadvantage and unemployment. However, such research results have been negated and challenged by the subsequent research into the same topic. These other studies conducted show that it is the habit of drug addiction that cause people poverty and social exclusion. For every ongoing or conducted research, we either see two views or we see that current research unravels something that an earlier research did not or it might not have discovered. There could have been various factors that influences the firmness and outcome of each research including cultural restrictions, social acceptance, pressure mounted by peer groups, or certain biases This reinstates that the state of perfect in research can never be achieved, as it is nearly impossible to avoid personal bias and eliminate operational errors completely in any human activities. The person doing the research can strongly influence and override the true outcome of research. A typical example of this scenario research I conducted in my marketing course during my Postgraduate studies in Management. We conducted a research on the effectiveness of marketing communications in the promotion of a newly launched product to the British population via methods such as television, newspapers, radio and Internet. Even though many studies conducted revealed that television, newspapers and radio were the best communication methods of promotion I found the usage of the Internet to be the most effective way to promote the item as most people today, both young and old have access to the internet through their personal computers and even cellular phones. I looked for and found supporting research that have been conducted that showed that the Internet has more power in communicating a certain information as people are more exposed to it. However my research could have been biased as I personally use the internet more than I am exposed to the other sources, hence my results could have been subconsciously driven towards the favour of the internet. As no one is perfect, it goes without saying that their research as well

could not be so. Different people can claim completely opposite results of a topic because of the varying test data or differing environment they have. Even though research serves its purpose of being able to provide answers to problems, there is always room for improvement, and research is an ongoing process and the outcomes are not predictable many a time. If research is perfect, we would not find that results of research on the same topic adds something new to the existing stock of knowledge or sometimes even proves that the previous finding was wrong. As Scheurich (1994) rightly said, ones historical position, ones class (which may or may not include changes over the course of a lifetime), ones race, ones gender, ones religion, and so on, interact and influence, limit and constrain production of knowledge (Mehra 7:1). As such, it is clear that that there is no hope in doing a perfect research and the idea of it ever being perfect will always remain a unrealistic concept rather than a practical reality.

Works Cited Kumar, Rajendrar. Research Methodology. New Delhi, India: APH Publishing Corporation, 2008.

Mehra, Beloo. Bias in qualitative research: Voices from an online classroom. The Qualitative Report, 7(1). 2002. 25 March 2011. http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR7-1/mehra.html Research Wikipedia. 2009.Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. . 22 March 2011 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research>.