ENG216 Methodology

What is research?
 Definition
• Research is a systematized effort to gain new knowledge. Research
is a mean to increase the knowledge about people and process in
working organization.
• Research is the systematic process of collecting and analyzing
information (data) in order to increase our understanding of the
facts about which we are concerned or interested
• Research is an attempt to discover answers to intellectual and
practical problems through the application of the scientific
method.
• Research includes: Identify a problem, do background research,
generate a hypothesis, test the hypothesis, analyze data and draw
conclusions, report results.
 Research Characteristics
• Research activities are characterized by carefully designed procedures
• Research requires skill and knowledge i.e., skill necessary to carry out
investigation, search the related literature and to understand and analyze
the collected data
• Research is objective (QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH) and logical – applying
every possible test to validate the data collected and conclusions reached
• Research involves the search for answers to unsolved problems. Research is
conducted to find answers to questions
• Research is characterized by patient and unhurried activity
• Research is carefully recorded and reported
• Research is an iterative process, whereby the process of conducting
research will give rise to new ideas, which in turn feed back into the data
collection and analysis stage.
• Decisions made early in the research are often revisited in the light of new
insights or practical problems encountered along the way
 Principles of Good Research
Starts/ originates with a question or
problem/issue in the mind of the researcher
It requires a goal / Purpose is clearly defined
Research process detailed
Research design thoroughly planned
High ethical standards must be applied
Limitations are frankly revealed
Findings are presented clearly
Conclusions are justified
 Characteristics of a Good Research
1. Systematic: research is structured with specified steps to be taken in a
specified sequence in accordance with the well-defined set of rules.
Research rejects the use of guessing and intuition in arriving at
conclusions
2. Logical: research is guided by the rules of logical reasoning and the logical
process of induction (QUALITATIVE) and deduction (QUANTITATIVE) as
they are of great value in carrying out research. Induction (bottom-up) is
the process of reasoning from a part to the whole (generating a theory)
whereas deduction (top-down) is the process of reasoning from some idea
(hypothesis) to a conclusion which follows from that very idea (testing a
theory). Good for decision making.
3. Replicable: research results are verified by replicating the study and
thereby building a sound basis for decisions. (Research is replicable when
an independent group of researchers can copy the same process and
arrive at the same results as the original study)
 Properties of a Bad Research
• Looking for something when it simply is not to
be found

• Plagiarizing other people’s work

• Falsifying data to prove a point

• Misrepresenting information and misleading

participants
 Motivation in
Research
1. Desire to get a research degree along with its
consequential benefits
2. Desire to face the challenge in solving the unsolved
problems, i.e., concern over practical problems initiates
research
3. Desire to get intellectual joy of doing some creative
work
4. Desire to be of service to society
5. Desire to get respectability (name)
 Why to do research?
Cont’d
It is needless to say that scientific research helps us in many ways:
• Research provides basis for many government policies. For example,
research on the needs and desires of the people and on the
availability of revenues to meet the needs helps a government to
prepare a budget.
• Only through research, new cures for diseases can be made. For
examples, COVID-19 VACCINE
• Only through research, inventions can be made; for example, new
and novel phenomena and processes such as superconductivity (the
property of zero electrical resistance in some substances at very low
absolute temperatures) and cloning have been discovered only
through research
 Why to do research?
Cont’d
• It is important in industry and business for higher gain and productivity and
to improve the quality of products. It helps in decision making (throws light
on risks and uncertainty, identifies alternative courses of action, helps in
economic use of resources, solves investment problems, solves pricing
problems etc.…)
• It leads to the identification and characterization of new materials, new
living things, etc.
• Social research helps find answers to social problems. They explain social
phenomena and seek solution to social problems. E.g. How does
unemployment affect people’s mental health?
• It allows us to disprove lies/ myths and support truths.
• It promotes a love of and confidence in reading, writing, analyzing, and
sharing valuable information.
• It provides nourishment and exercise for the mind.
 The Research Process
1. Identification of general problem/question
2. Literature review
3. Specification of questions/hypotheses
4. Determination of design/methodology
5. Data collection
6. Data analysis/presentation
7. Interpretation of findings