How To Conduct
Background
Research &
Choose Your
Participants
By: Reem Juraid
Once you have decided upon a research
project you have to start planning it.
The first thing you need to do is
background research this will help you
to be familiar with your topic & also
introduce you to other beneficial
researches.
There are two types of background
research:
1-Primary Research : which involves the
study of a subject through firsthand
observation & investigation.
Example: if I’m conducting a research
about a certain football team the best way
to learn about the team is to go talk to
them & observe their behavior or watch
videos of their matches & check their team
historical records & talk to all the coaches
who trained the team also gather some
statistics about them .
2-Secondary Research : involves the
collection of information from studies that
other researchers have made of the
subject.
Example: if I’m conducting a research
about the same football team the best way
to learn about them is to go to the library
read books about the team or new papers
pamphlets & encyclopedias or google them
on the internet & get all the previous
researches that were done about them.
Sources of Background Information
Primary
Secondary
Relevant People
Research Books
Researcher Observation
Research Reports
Researcher Experience
Journal Articles
Historical Records/texts
Articles Reproduced online
Company/organization Records
Scientific Debates
Personal Documents (diaries,etc)
Critiques of Literary Works
Statistical Data
Critiques of Art
Works of Literature
Analyses of Historical Events
Works of Art
Film/Video
Laboratory Experiments
For getting information the two easiest &
most accessible places are internet & libraries
As for the internet we have to be aware that
some information can be misleading or
incorrect so we have to take extra precautions
to check the reliability & quality of the
information so we only use the websites that
are run by trusted organizations or look for
the stamp of approval such as the which?
Stamp . Or uses the national source of the
data or specific websites created only for that
topic.
For the library, they offer interlibrary
loan service which means that you can
access books from other university
libraries if they are not available in your
library.
Keeping Records : is very essential ,so we
have to keep accurate records of the data
& the sources .This will save time &
frustration later especially when writing
the research proposal or the final report &
bibliography . So its better to organize
them into 2 files one for primary research
& it will include notes from each contact
with their name ,number, address & date &
time of meeting with the researcher. The
secondary file is used for bibliography.
How to Choose Your Participants
If its not possible to contact everyone in
the research population , researchers
select a manageable number of people to
contact .This is called sampling . In
Quantitative Research the result can be
generalized (generalization) but in
Qualitative research that’s not the goal
they would seek to describe or explain
what is happening within a smaller group
of people.(description)
There are two main types of
Sampling category:
1-Probability Samples
2-Purposive Samples
In Probability Samples: all people
within the research population have a
specifiable chance of being selected.
Only within random samples do
participants have an equal chance of
being selected.
Purposive Samples : a nonrepresentative subset of some larger
population are used with the
description goal rather than
generalization . Within these two
types,there are several different
sampling methods.
Probability Samples
Simple
Random
Quasi
Random
Stratified
sample
cluster
Purposive Samples
Quota
Sample
Snowball
sample
Theoretical
Samples
Convenience
samples
Sample Size:
In quantitative surveys you will need to contact many more
people than you would for small qualitative research. Cause
the larger the sample the more accurate results
sampling size should take into account issues of nonresponses.
In some purposive samples it is difficult to specify at
the beginning of the research how many people will
be contacted.
It is possible to use a mixture of sampling techniques
within one project which may help to overcome some
of the disadvantages found within different procedures.
Sampling Dos & Don’ts
Dos:1-Take time and effort to work
out your sample correctly if
you’re conducting a large
scale survey. Time taken at
the beginning will save
much wasted time later.
2- Discuss your proposed
sampling procedure and size
with your tutor, boss or
other researchers.
3-Be realistic about the size of
sample possible on your
budget and within your time
scale.
4-Be open and up front about
your sample. What are your
concerns? Could anything
have been done differently?
How might you improve
upon your methods?
5-Use a combination of
sampling procedures if it is
appropriate for your work.
Don’ts:
1-Rush into your work
without thinking very
carefully about sampling
issues. If you get it wrong it
could invalidate your whole
research.
2-Ignore advice from those
who know what they’re
talking about.
3-Take on more than you can
cope with. A badly worked
out, large sample may not
produce as much useful data
as a well-worked out, small
sample.
4-Make claims which cannot
be justified nor generalized
to the whole population.
5-Stick rigorously to a
sampling technique that is
not working. Admit your
mistakes, learn by them and
change to something more
appropriate