SMB31202: ENGLISH FOR

TECHNICAL
COMMUNICATION
WEEK 3:
Gathering Information (Primary vs Secondary Sources) & Designing Questionnaire

LECTURER: WAN SAFURAA WAN OSMAN

Department for Language & General Studies (JBPU)

Semester 1, 2022/2023
 What do you usually do when
What do you normally do you find yourself clueless about
when you develop an interest something?
on someone?

What do you normally do YOU GATHER

before you buy a new
smartphone? INFORMATION.
GATHERING
INFORMATION
Primary vs Secondary Sources
WHAT IS RESEARCH?
 A process of discovering new knowledge
 An inquiry-based process that involves identifying a question, gathering
information, analyzing and evaluating audience, and sharing the knowledge
gained
 Can be carried out by anyone in any field
 A critical skill
 Categories of research: (1) primary research; and (2) secondary research.
WHAT IS RESEARCH?
Primary Research
 Own research
 Requires researcher to participate directly
in data-gathering
 Involves going directly to a source to ask
questions and gather information
 Primary research fills the gaps in
information that the researcher was not
able to gather through secondary research
methods.
 Examples of primary research: (1)
interviews; (2) surveys; and (3)
experiments.
Secondary Research
 A “desk research” (or other people’s
research)
 A type of research that has already been
compiled, gathered, organized and
published by others
 Rely solely on existing research materials
 Data for secondary research can be
accessed from the internet, archives,
libraries, educational institutions and
organizational reports.
PRIMARY VS SECONDARY
RESEARCH ADVANTAGES
Primary Research  100% ownership
 Researcher can fully account for
the authenticity of the data since
he/she is an active participant in  Costly, especially when it
the data collection process.
Secondary Research  Fast, low cost and easy to find.
You can surf the internet for
information.
DISADVANTAGES
 Requires more time and effort
(researchers carry out the data
collection themselves).
involves more effort, time and
people.
 May have difficulty obtaining
information specific to his/her
needs
 Incomplete information
 Out-of-date information
(1) To give general overviews and useful
background information
(2) Help researchers understand what is already
known about the topic
When you want to conduct a (3) You may even learn that someone has
research, you should gather already discovered a solution.
secondary sources.
(4) Secondary sources are
usually easier and less
expensive to consult than
primary sources.

Why do you think this

is important?
HOW TO COLLECT PRIMARY
SOURCES
(1) Unsolicited Inquiries
 An inquiry made at the researcher’s own initiative
 Letters, phone calls, or email inquiries to experts listed in webpage who can
CLARIFY or SUPPLEMENT information which you already have.
2) Experiment
 A controlled form of observation
 To verify or proof assumption
 To test something untried
 Observation and experiment are NOT FOOLPROOF.
HOW TO COLLECT PRIMARY
SOURCES
Observation
3)
 Qualitative research method
 Observe participants’ ongoing
behaviours in a natural setting
 Advantage: Gather more reliable
insights (capture what the participants
do as opposed to what they say they do)

 Disadvantage: Observers may be biased

or the participants may act differently
around the researcher.
HOW TO COLLECT PRIMARY
SOURCES
Survey
4)
 Quantitative research method
 Collection of information from a sample of
individuals through their responses to questions
 Tool for survey: Questionnaire
 Survey can be conducted:
a) Face-to face – fastest response rate, but can be
costly
b) Telephone (requires more time and costly)
c) Online / Email (popular research method at a
minimal cost with accurate responses)
 HOW TO COLLECT PRIMARY
5)
SOURCES
Interview
 Qualitative research method
 Various structures: highly structured; questionnaire-
driven; unstructured; open-ended; focus group &
conversational interviews.
 Interviews can be conducted face-to-face or through a
platform/ medium
 Collects in-depth information on participants’
opinions, thoughts, experiences and feelings.
 Involves less number of participants (compared to
survey)
 It is important to reach DATA SATURATION.
HOW TO COLLECT PRIMARY
SOURCES
Interview
5)

ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Interview  Necessary when we cannot observe  Costly
behavior, feelings or how people  Time-consuming
interpret the world around them  Experts’ opinion are not always
 Access to experts’ facts, opinions reliable (biased)
and attitudes to any topic/ issue that
you may not find any other way.
 Lead to original and unpublished
material
 Interviewee may refer you to other
experts or sources.
HOW TO COLLECT PRIMARY
SOURCES
Interview
5)
Guidelines to conduct an interview:
 Make an appointment to request an interview. Ask the participant in advance
for a convenient time to conduct the interview.
 Know what information do you want from each interviewee.
 Good idea to ask for relatively neutral, descriptive information at the
beginning of the interview
 Plan and write your questions. Avoid asking multiple questions, leading
questions and yes-or-no questions.
 Do your homework. Make sure the information this person might provide is
unavailable in print.
 Conduct the interview in a competent and courteous manner.
HOW TO COLLECT PRIMARY
SOURCES
Interview
5)
Interview Guide (Valente, 2005):
 I understand that you are concerned about your health. Tell me about your
health.
 What motivated you to learn about your health?
 Tell me, in detail, about the kinds of things you have done to learn more about
your health.
 What kinds of things have you changed in your life because of your learning?
 What else would you like to share about your health-related learning?
HOW TO GATHER SECONDARY
SOURCES ADVANTAGES
Traditional  Books and periodicals (e.g., magazine or newspaper)
Secondary Sources  Reference books and encyclopedias
 Bibliographies
 Dictionaries
 Handbooks
 Abstracts, journals and review articles
Web-Based  General, commercial, organizational and academic websites
Secondary Sources  Online news and magazines
 Blogs
 Internet forums and discussion groups
 E-libraries
 Periodical databases (Science Direct, ProQuest, Sage, etc.)
 WHAT I KNOW IS = WIKIPEDIA
CAUTION!
 A good place to start to get an overview of a topic (when you have no prior
knowledge of a subject)
 Thousands of entries on various topics are available and can be found through
a quick Google search.
 But no way of knowing who the authors are so the information provided could
be inaccurate.
 Not a scientific source
 The useful part of a Wikipedia entry is the references the author used to create
the entry (can be found at the bottom of the article).
GUIDELINES:
HOW TO SEARCH FOR INFORMATION
ON THE INTERNET
 The most used search engine on the World
Wide Web (www).
 Helps you brainstorm ideas
 Develop approaches to get started. (WHAT
has been said / available about this topic?)
 So, how do you find reliable sources using
Google?
GUIDELINES:
HOW TO SEARCH FOR INFORMATION
ON
1. Vary THE
your searchINTERNET
engine. Get used of using several since they have different strengths.
2. Use specific keywords.
- Use nouns
- Drop the suffixes (-s, -ed, -ing)
- Use quotation marks (“…”) for exact phrases
- Use minus operator (-) to narrow down your search
- Use AND to glue your search terms together
3. Look beyond the styles of the sites.
- Is the information/ materials published on a trustworthy website?
4. Materials should be updated.
- Is the information up-to-date? Check when it is published.
GUIDELINES:
HOW TO SEARCH FOR INFORMATION
ON THE
5. Access/ INTERNET
check the author’s credentials.
- Author’s training and education in the
field is relevant to the information.
- Look for the author’s
degree/title/position of employment.
- If the source is from an organization or a
group, check if it is a respected body.
- Avoid citing from anonymous author.
6. Save or print the information/ materials
immediately.
DESIGNING
QUESTIONNAIRE
Types of Questions
OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS
 SUBJECTIVE questions
 Seek MORE THAN ONE word answers
 Allow individuals to give a free form answers using their own knowledge, personal feelings,
opinions or ideas about a subject
- What is it like to live in Perlis?
- What is your favourite childhood memory?
 Usually begin with the following words: Why, How, What, Describe, Tell me about…, or
What do you think about…
 TYPES OF OPEN-ENDED
1.
QUESTIONS
Unstructured
- Why did you choose to study at UniMAP?
- How can UniMAP improve itself to be the best public university in Malaysia?
2. Word Association
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the following words:
a) Exam : _______ (nervous, challenging)
b) Concert: _______ ( interesting, boring)
3. Sentence Completion
- On the day I arrived at UniMAP, I felt...
- A good student is someone who…
ADVANTAGES &
DISADVANTAGES OF OPEN-
ENDED QUESTIONS ADVANTAGES
Open-Ended  Provide rich qualitative data
Questions  Provide detailed information
 Provide researcher opportunity to
gain insight on all opinions on a
topic
 Highlight responses that researchers
could not have anticipated (allows
infinite range of answers)
DISADVANTAGES
 Take longer time to read through and
code
 Difficult to analyze and interpret
data
 Slow down the reporting process
 Low response rate
 Cannot be generalized
 Not a good way to find out
quantitative statistics
 Can gather a lot of irrelevant data
CLOSED-ENDED QUESTIONS
 OBJECTIVE questions
 Come in a multitude of
forms, but are defined by
their need to have explicit
options for a respondent to
select from.
 Respondents need to choose
from a list of pre-selected
options.
TYPES OF CLOSED-ENDED
QUESTIONS
Dichotomous Questions
1.
- A question which can have TWO possible answers.
- Examples: Yes/No, True/False or Agree/Disagree answers
Please enter your gender: Male / Female
Do you like the new hostel in the main campus? Yes / No

2. Multiple-Choice Questions
- Questions with three or more answer options/ choices.
- Example: What is your favourite pizza topping?
A. Pepperoni B. Mushrooms
C. Anchovies D. Tuna
TYPES OF CLOSED-ENDED
QUESTIONS
3. Scaled Questions
- Examples: a) Likert Scale questions; b) importance questions; c) rating scale
questions; and d) semantic differential

a) Likert Scale Questions

- Help you ascertain how strongly your respondents AGREE or DISAGREE to a
series of statements
- Help you assess your respondents feels towards certain issue, product or service
 TYPES OF CLOSED-ENDED
QUESTIONS
b) Importance Questions
- To assess what is the MOST IMPORTANT to your respondents with rating scale of 1 to 5
- Help you to understand what the respondents like BEST and LEAST about the
program or service that you chose.
- Measuring the level of importance will garner critical information that allow the
service/ program to continue or to be modified.
- E.g.:
 TYPES OF CLOSED-ENDED
QUESTIONS
c) Rating Scale Questions
- Respondents are asked to RATE a particular issue on a scale that ranges between POOR
to GOOD
- A Likert scale is a specific type of rating scale that exclusively focuses on a range of
answers on a spectrum.
- A rating scale can consist of any number of rating choices, such as stars or numeric
responses.
 TYPES OF CLOSED-ENDED
QUESTIONS
d) Semantic Differential
- Asks a person to rate a product, brand, or company based upon a seven-point rating
scale that has two bi-polar adjectives at each end
- Example: Would you say our web site is:
(7) Very Attractive
(6)
(5)
(4)
(3)
(2)
(1) Very Unattractive
- Notice that unlike the rating scale, the semantic differential scale does not have a neutral or
middle selection. A person must choose, to a certain extent, one or the other adjective.
ADVANTAGES &
DISADVANTAGES OF CLOSED-
ENDED QUESTIONS ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Closed-  Easier and quicker to answer  Lack detailed information
Ended  Provide quantifiable data which is  Cannot help in getting opinions and
Questions useful for calculating statistical data comments
and percentages  Don’t cover all possible answers and
 Allow researchers to categorize questions
respondents into group based on the  Many choices and possibilities
options they have selected create confusion
 Help get rid of irrelevant answers  Can be suggestive and hence, lead to
 Give answers that can be compared bias
 Can be customized easily  Those without any answer also have
to answer
 Can lead to misinterpretation of
question
PROBLEMATIC QUESTIONS
A) Leading Questions
- Pushes respondents to answer in a specific manner (due to the way they are framed)
- Often contain information that researcher wants to confirm rather than to get the true
and unbiased answer to that question
- If such questions are included in a survey, the purpose of the survey is diluted since
the response will be biased and the collected data will not lead to insightful
research reports and conclusions.
Examples:
- Most employees hate working for more than 10 hours a day.
What do you have to say about it?
- You are satisfied with our products, aren’t you?
- Do you like our excellent service?
PROBLEMATIC QUESTIONS
B) Questions which Rely on Memory
- Questions which tax the respondent’s memory too much are likely to lead to
inaccurate reply.
Examples:
How many times did you WhatsApp your friends last week?
What were you doing on the night of 24th December last year?
When was the last time you use the product?
How many times in the past year have you purchased toothpaste?
PROBLEMATIC QUESTIONS
C) Questions Requiring Prior Knowledge
- Example: Do you think UniMAP’s clean room is the best in Malaysia?

- For people who are not familiar with UniMAP or never been to UniMAP, they will not
know.
PROBLEMATIC QUESTIONS
D) Long Wordy Questions
- Questions that have many words
- If the questions are too long and detailed, the respondents may get lost and their
responses will relate only the beginning or the end of the question.

E) Hypothetical Questions
- Questions that are based on SPECULATION and FANTASY.
- Examples:
a) What would you do if ‘X’ happened?
b) If you were given a million dollar, how would you spend the money?
c) If you were the President of the Student’s Representative Council, how would you
change the university rules concerning…..
PROBLEMATIC QUESTIONS
F) Double-Barreled Questions
- Questions that address more than one issue but provides for only one response
- Also known as double direct question because it weaves multiple issues into one
and expect respondents to address these issues with only one answer
Examples:
- Do you find our product interesting and useful?
- How satisfied are you with our customer service and service delivery?
- The food at the cafeteria is delicious and cheap? Y/N
- How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the pay and work benefits of your current job?
PROBLEMATIC QUESTIONS
G) Sensitive Questions
- Personal details such as age, health, personal habits, and income
- But people are likely to give honest replies to personal questions if some rapport
has been developed with the interviewer.
- Generally best to keep all questions dealing with demographic (such as age) at the
end of the questionnaire.

QUESTION ORDER
Start with the easiest questions ( usually close-ended)
PILOT STUDY
 To test how long it takes to complete
 To check that the questions are not ambiguous
 To check that the instructions are clear
 To allow you to eliminate questions that do not produce usable data
 Ideally it should be piloted on a group similar to the one that will form the
population of your study
Any questions?