What is social research?

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Student number:
Assignment: A1 - What is social research?
Date: 2023

The subject of the two texts is to understand the meaning of social research and the
importance of it. In the first text, social research is described as the “means by which social
scientists understand, explain and predict the social world.” This text takes into account the
process of collecting data in order to analyze and interpret it and later on distribute it. This
may be done as a way of understanding and acknowledging the differences in societies,
communities, cultures and the relationships between people. The first text describes how
social research covers theoretical studies all the way to practical studies. The second text
generally focuses on how to help others understand your social research mostly by how well
you present your findings and convince them through different presentation methods. It
emphasizes on the differences between quantitative and qualitative research as well how they
can both be used simultaneously. The text further implies how important it is to consider the
target audience when planning to present your findings so as to make sense to all different
audiences.

Many questions were raised in the two texts and these include; What is social research? What
is the importance of social research? Who are the people required to conduct social research?
What is the importance of distinguishing audiences when presenting the research? To what
extent is the social research authentic?

According to the texts, these questions were answered. Social research was described to be a
way by which social scientists understand, explain and predict the social world. The
importance of social research is to understand and acknowledg the differences in societies,
communities, cultures and the relationships between people. The people conducting social
research include people who with specialized social science backgrounds, those who don’t
have any specialist social science background but probably obtained their social research
education whilst graduating from a different area and those who mastered the knowledge
whilst on the job. The importance of distinguishing audiences when presenting the research is
highly important as certain information may not be relevant to a certain audience, so it is
necessary to filter the research in order to satisfy the target audience. Authenticity is important
in social research as it helps people believe in what you are saying. In other words,
authenticity persuades the audience to “agree” to your findings.