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BS ENGLISH

FINAL EXAMINATION

Year, 2020

(8th SEMESTER/EVENING)

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Student Name : Zainab Ihsan

Roll Number : 42

Program : BS-English

Semester : V-III (Evening)

Course Title : Emerging form of Literature

Course Code : ENG - 414

Session : 2016-2020

Submitted To : Mam Sarwat Jabeen

Total no. of pages : 17

Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
QUESTION NUMBER 1:

What is a questionnaire and briefly discuss its types?

QUESTIONNAIRE:

THE INFORMATION GATHERED BY THE RESEARCHER

IS FORMED INTO A FORMAL SET OF QUERIES CALLED

THE QUESTIONNAIRE. THESE QUESTIONS ARE CRYSTAL

CLEAR AND EASILY ANSWERABLE.

TYPES OF QUESTIONNAIRE

If we classify the questionnaire according to the basic two types of questions then we get two
types of questionnaires that are:

STRUCTURED QUESTIONNAIRE
UNSTRUCTURED QUESTIONNAIRE

1 ) UNSTRUCTURED QUESTIONNAIRE:

In an unstructured questionnaire the questions are unrestricted and the respondent can fill the
questionnaire according to his own will and his opinions. These types of questionnaires are
mostly used in exploratory research. An open ended question may help the researcher in ways
that he never knew. May be some answers are given by the respondents that clear doubts that
were in the mind of the researcher or some may describe pieces of information that were not
really asked but that proves to be useful for the researcher.

For example,
Which brand is the best in your opinion to shop for shoes?
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Advantages:
• Extra informative can be obtained.
• Respondent feels at ease.
• Easy to design questions.

Disadvantages:
• The process of analysis of answers becomes complex.
• Recording the answers is difficult.
• It is a tough job to code that data.

2 ) STRUCTRED QUESTIONNAIRE:

Structured questionnaires are designed in such a way that the respondents are given a limited
amount of options to choose from. These questions are trickier to design and the researcher
has to put much thought in the designing process of this type of questionnaire. Sometimes the
number of options given is two but in this type of questionnaires the number of options may
vary from two to nine. A specific scheme is adopted by the researcher while designing these
structured questionnaires. There are different types of structured questionnaires,

• MULTIPLE CHOICE
• SCALES

3)MULTIPLECHOICE QUESTIONNAIRES:

The researcher provides many options to the respondent in this type of questionnaire. The
respondent has to choose from these types which one is most likely and which option does he
think might be suitable for the given statement according to him.

For example,
What is the mode of study that you are using during quarantine?

• Online learning
• Book reading
• Online apps
• E – books
• Any other ( please mention ) _________________
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The option “any other “may be added to show that respondents interests may vary and they
may want to write the option of their interest.

DISADVANTAGE:

• It would be difficult for the researcher to develop options that may suit the respondents.

4) SCALING QUESTIONNAIRE:

The type of scale that are mainly used in questionnaire is the LIKERT SCALE. It was
named after RENSIS LIKERT who developed this scale and proposed to use it in
questionnaire. According to this scale five number of categories are commonly given to the
respondent to choose from. The respondent chooses the option that he thinks suits the answer
the most in his / her opinion.

For example,
Do you think children should be sent abroad for higher studies so that they have a bright
future?

• Strongly Disagree
• Disagree
• Neutral
• Agree
• Strongly agree

5) POSTAL QUESTIONNAIRES:

These are the best kind of questionnaires through which data can be collected. As interviews
take time and are not economical so compared to them these postal questionnaires are an easy
option. These questionnaires can be sent through post and there is a 40% chance according to
a survey that the respondents may send it back. Otherwise follow up letters can be sent to
remind the respondent about the questionnaire.
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ADVANTAGES:

• Saves time and money

• Has a good response rate

DISADVANTAGES:

• The respondents may forget about the questionnaire

• May have to send follow ups

6) DICHOTOMOUS QUESTIONNAIRES:

These are the type of question is that only provide the respondent with two options to choose
from i.e.

Yes or no

The researcher can easily formulate the questions that have an answer that is either yes
or no but it is not easy for the respondent to choose these kinds of direct options.

For example,
Is the education in the government schools up to mark?

• Yes
• No

ADVANTAGES:

• Easy for coding

• Comparatively takes less time to formulate results
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DISADVANTAGES:

• The results may not be reliable due to the dichotomous options given
• Takes longer time to design the questions.

7) IN – HOUSE QUESTIONNAIRES:

These are the type of questionnaires that allows the researcher to meet the respondent and to
ask him or her to fill the questionnaire in his presence. it allows the researcher to make a
personal relationship with the respondent .

ADVANTAGES:

• Developed relation with respondent

• More reliable results

DISADVANTAGES:

• Demands more time

• Is expensive in comparison to other types

8) TELEPHONIC QUESTIONNAIRES:

It is the type of questionnaire where the questions are asked from the respondent by the
researcher on a telephone call. The communication because of the call becomes easy and the
doubts could be cleared right away.
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QUESTION NUMBER 2:

BRIEFLY EXPLAIN THE IMPORTANCE OF OBSERVATION METHOD IN

RESEARCH AND WHY RESEARCHERS USE THIS METHOD TO COLLECT
DATA FOR THEIR PROJECTS?

OBSERVATION METHOD:

Observation as a general term means“ to notice something”. While method is a systematic

way to carry out an activity. But observation method in research is a very different term from
these individual meanings of both the words.

OBSERVATION METHOD IS SAID TO BE CARRIED OUT BY A RESEARCHER

WHEN HE SPOTS SOMETHING IN A SETTING THAT IS CHOSEN BY HIM.
THIS INFORMATION THAT THE RESEARCHER NOTICES BECOMES
THEPART OF RESEARCH. THIS MIGHT BE THE BEHAVIOUR CARRIED OUT
BY PEOP LE BUT THEY DON’T KNOW THAT THEY ARE BEING WATCHED.

IMPORTANCE IN RESEARCH:

Observation method is a kind of data that is collected by the researcher after his complete use
of technical abilities. The researcher uses all his intellectual capabilities and the techniques he
knows for producing that information that is necessary in his research. It is a difficult task to
notice someone behaviour without being noticed by them and only a qualified person can
perform this task.

AMALGAMATION OF ART AND SCIENCE:

Observation method is a mixture of both art and science. As an art it is the measure of of the
technical abilities of the researcher that how quickly he picks up things from the activity in
seconds. As a science it is a method that requires the exact description of the activities for the
right amount of information that would be included in the study.
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SPECIFIC OBSERVATION:
The observation that is carried out in this method is specific. By the specificity of the
observation I mean that only those aspects of individual's behaviour were given importance
that we needed for the research and others were overlooked.

ON THE SPOT RECORDING:

The record of the information is very important and that is why the researcher records, codes
or writes that information immediately as soon as he notice is it because afterwards there is a
chance that he might forget the information.

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL EXERTION:

It is both a physical and a mental activity as the researcher has to go to the settings where the
behavior is to be observed also there he has to notice all the importance things and
information needed for the research .

VERIFIABILITY:
Observation method can be verified and is the most reliable research method. It is verifiable
as the observation is directly done by the researcher himself and recorded by him directly so
it can be easily verified afterwards.

PURPOSIVE:
Observation method is used for purposive information only and not the general information
that is to be provided by the activity that is going on in this naturalistic environment. the
researcher goes for a specific purpose in this environment to be a part of it naturally. He gets
the information that is needed for other research and all the other elements off the activity are
neglected by him.
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Why researchers use this method :

ADAPTATION:
This method of observation can be adapted for the study of groups as well as for the study of
individuals. To study individuals the researcher can explain the behaviour by observing it on
his own and that's why the information is accurate. Whirl during the study of groups the
researcher knows that whom he has to give more importance and whose behaviour is to be
deeply analysed. Method can be used for both and that is why it is considered to be more
useful as compared to other methods of research.

DEEP UNDERSTANDING:
Observation method is very different from general surveys. In this method the researcher
does not have to go from person to person to ask for information that is opinionated and
biased. The researcher can himself observe the situation, notice every person's reaction, and
spot the complexities of the situation. And in that way the information obtained is pure.

FREE FROM BIASES:

The information obtained for the research but researchers an observation is free from viruses
in a way that it is the output of researchers own observation. He does not have to ask people
for their opinions rather he can collect information on his own and in that way that
information is free from biases.

ACCURATE INFORMATION:
The information obtained by observation method is accurate as the researcher went there with
a conceived plan of what he wants to observe and which points are important for his study. In
that way no information is left out or missed.

NATURAL SETTING:
This method has an edge over the others because the information that is collected in this
method if after the observation by the researcher in a natural setting when no one knows that
they are being observed and that is wide information included in the study is in its purest
form and due to this reason this method is given importance over other methods in the field
of research.
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SAVES TIME:
IN this method the time of the researcher is saved because he does not have to go from person
to person for his information and he can at the same time observe a group of people and note
down the information. That is why this method is considered to be one of the best methods
used for collecting information.

QUESTION NUMBER 3:

BRIEFLY EXPLAIN WHY REPORTS ARE WRITTEN AND HOW PLANNING

HELPS TO WRITE A GOOD REPORT?

REPORT WRITING:

REPORT IS A DOCUMENT FULL OF INFORMATION. THAT INFORMATION IS

EITHER TAKEN FROM A SOURCE OR IS WRITTEN BY SOMEONE. IT IS A
SYSTEMATIC COMPOSITION OF IDEAS. THE REPORT IS DIVIDED INTO
DIFFERENT SECTIONS.

Why reports are written:

CURIOSITY:
As far as my understanding is concerned reports are written out of curiosity. People who are
hungry and curious for knowledge just go out there in search of information and when they
get it there they become so excited that they want to share it with the world. These are the
people who are the keepers of the keys of knowledge and the share it with people like us.

MAKE A MARK:
THERE awesome people in the world who want to leave a mark when they die. They are of
the view that if you are in this world you are going to die at some point no one knows when.
What they want to do something because of which they are remembered. Not everyone does
it for their own profit, some of them really mean to have information and that is why they
write reports.
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ADD SOMETHING TO THE FIELD:

REPORTS can either be an analysis of so much of data combined or it can be some addition
to the previous information that is already available to us. So what these researches do, the
take up the information that is already available in that particular field and write their new
findings to make people aware of that new knowledge or to show analysis that is done with
their point of view.

TO SOLVE A PROBLEM:
Reports can also be written to solve the problem that has already been existed for so long in
the particular field that now the shape of you that it's the time that this problem has to be
taken up by someone for its solution. So the take up the problem, make a hypothesis out of it,
carefully analyse the previous studies and try to find a conclusion or a solution to that
particular problem.

PLANNING A REPORT:

Planning is the most important part of report writing. One should spend a handsome amount
of time on planning a report because it is the base of report writing. Data should be collected
from each and every source possible. If the plan of the report is wrong then the whole report
becomes faulty.

Five basic steps should be kept in mind while planning a report.

1) WELL DEFINED PLAN:

The researcher who is going to conduct a search must be clear about his purpose of doing that
research. he must have clear idea in his head about what is the problem that he is going to
search, what aspects of the problem he is going to define, why is it needed to do a research on
that particular topic only, why does she think that issue is of great importance and why
should the analysis be done on that problem?

The nature of the reports should be kept in mind while defining the problem. The researchers
must know what type of report he or she is going to write. Either the report is informational
or it is analytical. If the report is informational when more data is needed because an
informational report requires more in-depth study. And if the report is going to be analytical
then the problem statement should be kept in mind. The material that is gathered for this kind
of report must give a solution to the problem.
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2) PROBLEM TO BE EXPLORED:
IF the report is of analytical nature all the literature that is read for the data collection must be
summarized in that report in a way that every major aspect or study is given importance.
While if the report is of information on nature a short summary or outline should be given of
the studies that are read by the researcher before writing the report. The report needs a
systematic study and a pattern within it. Every system that is applied in the report writing
must be properly understood by the researcher.

3 MAKE A PLAN OF ACTION:

The researcher should have in mind that what procedure is to be adopted for the collection of
data. What techniques should be used for the collection? How is the report going to be
written? Who are the target audience that is going to read that report? What are the ways to
which their interest could be developed in the report? When all these things will be kept in
mind the process of report writing would be Swift.

4 RESEARCH ; PERFORMED, ANALYSED, INTERPRETED:

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION are the most complex parts of report writing. The
analysis of the report should be on point while the interpretations should be as free of biases
as it can be.

5 RESULTS:
THIS is the last stage of the research where the conclusions are drawn. This part of the report
includes the recommendations that are given by the seniors and it can include suggestions
that the researcher wants to give to the readers.
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QUESTION NUMBER 4:

DO YOU AGREE WITH THE THOUGHT THAT LITERATURE REVIEW MAKES

FOUNDATION OF YOUR RESEARCH AND GIVES YOU IDEA HOW TO ESTABLISH
YOUR RESEARCH?

LITERATURE REVIEW:

THE LITERATURE REVIEW IS THE SECTION OF THE REPORT WHICH

INCLUDES THE SUMMARY OF ALL THE WORK THAT WAS STUDIED BY THE
RESEARCHER BEFORE CONDUCTING THE RESEARCH. IT MAIN ALSO
CONSIST OF THE ANALYSIS OF ALL THE STUDIES AND HOW THESE
STUDIES ARE INTERLINKED TO EACH OTHER AND TO THE RESEARCHERS
FINDINGS.

IS LITERATURE REVIEW THE FOUNDATION OF

RESEARCH?

Yes, I agree with the thought that literature review is the foundation of research. The reason
for this point is that if you don't know the history and the problems about which you are
going to write that means that you got no information on the subject and an illiterate person
in a particular field I mean to say a person who does not know anything about a particular
field cannot do research on that particular topic. For carrying out a research, handsome
amount of data is needed. The data is to be analysed , interpreted and completely understood
by the researcher to carry out that research.

If we have a look on the contents of the report we find the introductory parts, introduction,
text of the report , terminal section and supplemental parts.

Text an introduction is what we have to write after analysing all the data we have and
interlinking all the information that we got from different sources. So what do we have as a
base on which we are going to build our research? That brings us to the point that all we have
is the data that we have analysed which is the literature that we review for writing our report.
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For example,
We can take an example of literature review. It is the same as having your own collection of
something. For instance I miss a I like to have collection of makeup. so if I don't have enough
knowledge of makeup what I would do is to reach out to people who have knowledge about it
find other sources to know more about it. I would buy the products that they would
recommend me and like that I would have a collection that is not entirely my own choice on
my own idea as I took ideas for many people who already knew about it and also got my
ideas after listening to their experience and taking their advices

Same is the case with literature review. When won't accept the topic to write a report he or
she may be interested in that topic and don’t have enough knowledge about it so what they
are going to do is ask for help from other people who already know about it and in literature
it is done by reading books or by finding other sources through which the data can be
collected and that is how their own literature review of their research is built exactly like I
have my makeup collection.

LITERATURE REVIEW GIVES IDEA TO ESTABLISH

RESEARCH:

THE FIRST STAGE:

The first stage before writing the literature review is to review the literature that is previously
present about that field. Literature can be the historical views, knowledge about that
particular field and major issues that are prevailing in that field of study during the present
time.

BRAINSTORMING:
Before the literature is being studied the researcher has some kind of idea in his or her mind
that what kind of research he or she wants to do. So now what you ought to do it find out
what researches have previously taken place in that particular field. Before doing it the
brainstorm the ideas that they already have and note them down so that they can review them
and make amendments.

NEW IDEAS:
Even if the researcher has some kind of information about the field, after reading the
literature the researcher would feel how much more he knows about that particular field now
and these ideas would open his mind to his own new creations. Now that is the test of
creativity of the researcher himself that either having so many ideas he does want to stick
them only or he thinks of new ideas that he can include in his research and make it a powerful
one.
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MEET GAPS:
WHAT these new ideas do to the research work is that they give people another point of view
or new theories that they could other believe in without any doubt or there too , the readers
can carry out another research to prove that theory wrong and the cycle goes on. But what
that new idea does is that it meets the gaps and glue them down, the gaps that were present in
the study before this research.

QUESTION NUMBER 5:

DO YOU THINK AWARENESS OF DIFFERENT RESEARCH METHODS

FACILITATES THE PROCESS OF DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION?

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION:

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION MEANS AFTER STUDYING A

LARGE SUM OF DATA TRUE ANALYSIS THE DATA IS BEING REDUCED
TO A SMALL FABLE AND THROUGH INTERPRETATION THE
CONCLUSION OF THE RESEARCH IS FORMULATED.

Yes I think that the awareness of research methods are important for the processing of data .
Analysing the data and interpreting it would be easier and the researcher would not have to
take any external help from anyone to understand or to know about the methods and how they
are carried out in the research.

The first thing that is most important in the research is to know the type of data that you are
dealing with. The researcher should know what kind of data is that he is dealing with and
how would he convert it into a report.
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TYPES OF DATA

For data analysis and interpretation one should be sure about the type of data that is being
collected. There are two main types of data.

QUALITATIVE DATA:
Qualitative data is basically the data that consists of narration, it is a data that is in descriptive
form. The stator is basically taken up by the psychological or the language studies and also
the studies that I carried out in humanities subjects so the students of these particular subjects
know that they are dealing with this narrative data but it is not important that they may know
about the methods that they have to use for data analysis and interpretation. But a knowledge
of these methods is very important and it me add the researcher in completing his research in
a nice way and in short amount of time

METHODS:

Many methods can be used for analysing and interpreting the data that is in descriptive form.
The main methods that are mostly and commonly used are,

1. CONTENT ANALYSIS:
Content analysis is used for interpreting and analysing the text that is having narration,
images and even this analysis can be done of physical entities. The researchers must know
about this analysis because most of the books consists of both visuals and images and also
there are times in research when one has to observe objects or people’s behaviour and that is
the point where this content analysis would be of work.

2. NARRATIVE ANALYSIS:
Narrative analysis is the analysis that is done of a text that is taken from different sources.
When a research is being carried out the data is not taken from one source only and that is a
common practice because you cannot interlink one data more amount of data is needed to be
entering together. And that is why this method is needed.
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3. DISCOURSE ANALYSIS:
Discourse analysis is a very important study of language because if you cannot decode
communication then you can not say that you are aware of language. That is what discourse
analysis is in research. During the search maybe the researcher has to take some kind of
interviews or it is not possible to reach to the respondent so a telephonic interview may be
arranged with the respondent. At that time this research method would be used to decode the
questions and information that is given by the respondent.

4. GROUNDED THEORY:
Grounded theory is explanation of an incident that had happened. What the researcher wants
to do is to analyse the incident and draw some kind of conclusions by giving the examples of
other incidents that are related or somehow of the same nature of the incident that is being
researched upon. So in this kind of research we use the grounded theory to analyse and
interpret qualitative data.

QUANTITATIVE DATA:

Quantitative data is a type of data that contains numbers, digits, decimals, graphs and
estimates that are made about the numerical figures and are to be used in the research. For the
interpretation of this kind of data the researchers who are from the field of social sciences
may need the help of some person who has knowledge of statistics but if the knowledge of
these methodologies which are related to quantitative data is already known to the researcher
then he or she may not face many problems related to this issue.

METHODS:

There are two mean methods that are used by the people having the knowledge of
statistics to interpret the numerical data in these two types are;

1) Inferential statistics
2) Descriptive statistics

These two have further subdivisions of the methods that are used in analysis of data in
research.
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DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS:

1) Measure of frequency:
Measure of frequency basically shows that how often a response is given in the data.
Frequency is basically the measure of occurrence or I may say frequent occurrence of a
numerical value throughout the data.

2) MEASURE OF CENTRAL TENDENCY:

CENTRAL TENDENCY is basically a measure of mean, median and mode in the data. This
method of research is basically used to find the average response that is given in the data. It is
used for the measure of the response that is given in the form of questionnaires or interviews
that are being coded.

INFERENTIAL STATISTICS

1) CORRELATION:
If doing the research two variables are related and the comparison between them is carried
out then the frequency of the relation between two variables is measured to the method of
correlation.

2) CROSS TABULATION:
Cross tabulation is the method through which the relationship between more than two
variables is shown. It is related to correlation but in that method we can only compare two
variables and show the relation between them but in this method we can show the
relationship between more than two variables.

The knowledge of these methods is very important for a researcher because the researcher has
to analyse and interpret data at the end of the research and it is the most complex part of the
report writing.