语言教学 | 普渡大学写作教学系列Research&Citation4-Conducting Primary Research2
提示：点击上方"英语写作教学与研究"免费关注哦
征稿：二语写作
3、Common Pitfalls of Primary Research
There are a few issues that researchers must confront all of the time. Here are some of the most common ones:
Over generalizing your results
It is impossible to make sweeping generalizations about groups of people based solely on a few interviews, observations, or surveys. You can find general patterns or trends, but should never assume that what you have found is what exists or what will always exist. In fact, it is hard to make concrete generalizations about any occurrence that relates to people because people themselves are dynamic and situations are always changing.
Biased methodology
If you create a biased survey or ask biased questions, you’ll get biased results. See the Creating good survey and interview questions section for tips on how to make your questions non-biased.
Correlation does not imply causation
Remember that just because two results have a relationship between them does not necessarily mean that one causes another to occur. For example, although video games and violent behaviors are shown to have a link, it has not been proven that video games cause violent behavior (instead, it could be that individuals who are predisposed toward violent activity are drawn to violent video games).
Not considering other related factors
It is very difficult to be able to study all the factors that relate to a specific group of people, an event, or an occurrence. Even so, if you do not include these factors within your primary research, they should still be considered when you begin to analyze your data. For example, if you are studying the parking issue on campus and look at the amount of cars being parked on campus vs. the student population, you are omitting other factors like the amount of commuter students, the number of faculty who drive, accessibility of public transportation, as well as many other factors.
Being able to know what data is valid
Some participants in your research may not take it seriously and will provide silly, inaccurate answers or engage in purposely aberrant behaviors. This most likely occurs with surveys that individuals complete but occasionally can occur during interviews or even with observations. These answers can throw off your entire research project, so it is very important that you examine your surveys or interviews for this type of erroneous information. If you find information that is highly questionable, it is best to not include it in your analysis of results. It is important to note that if a participant provides an answer that goes against your hypothesis, you should not just discount that response.
Reported behavior vs. actual behavior
How people report on their behavior might not actually be how they behave. People will often report their own behavior in a more positive light than it may actually be. For example, if you are surveying college students about their study habits, they may report that they study for more hours than they actually do.
4、Interviewing
Interviewing is a great way to learn detailed information from a single individual or small number of individuals. It is very useful when you want to gain expert opinions on the subject or talk to someone knowledgeable about a topic.
Types of Interviewing
Several different types of interviews exist. You should choose one based on what kind of technology you have available to you, the availability of the individual you are interviewing, and how comfortable you feel talking to people.
Face to Face Interviews: Face to face interviews are when you sit down and talk with someone. They are beneficial because you can adapt your questioning to the answers of the person you are interviewing. You will need recording equipment for the interview, and it is highly recommended that you bring two recording devices with you in case one fails.
Phone Interviews: Phone interviews can be used when you need to interview someone who is geographically far away, who is too busy to meet with you to talk, or who does not want to use video or internet-based technology.
Email Interviews: Email interviews are less personal than face-to-face or phone interviews, but highly convenient for most individuals. You may not get as much information from someone in an email interview because you are not able to ask follow-up questions in the moment or play off the interviewee’s responses. However, email interviews are useful because they are already in a digital format.
Setting Up an Interview
When setting up an interview, be sure to be courteous and professional. Explain to the person being interviewed who you are, what you want to talk them about, and what project you are working on. Don’t be discouraged if not everyone you contact is willing to be interviewed.
Interview Do's and Dont's
When conducting interviews:
Do be careful of the types of questions you ask. See the page on Creating good survey and interview questions for more information.
Do start the interview with some small talk to give both yourself and the person you are interviewing a chance to get comfortable.
Do bring extra recording equipment in case something happens to one of your recording devices.
Do pay attention to what is being said during the interview and ask thoughtful follow-up questions.
Do come to the interview prepared. You should learn as much as you can about the person you are going to interview before the interview takes place so that you can tailor your questions to them.
Don't pester or push the person you are interviewing. If the interviwee does not want to talk about an issue, you should respect that desire.
Don't stick to your questions rigidly. If an interesting subject comes up that relates to your research, feel free to ask additional questions about it.
Don't allow the person you are interviewing to continually get off topic. If the conversation drifts, ask follow-up questions to redirect the conversation to the subject at hand.
5、Surveying
Surveying is a great way to discover what a large amount of people think about a particular issue or how a group of people report their behavior. Surveys can be done on a large range of topics and can be conducted relatively easily.
Things to consider when conducting surveys:
Who are you planning on surveying? Decide what group you are going to focus on surveying based on who you have access to and what your research is focused on.
How many people are you going to survey? You want to choose a target number of surveys to conduct. You don't want too few surveys because you won't have enough answers to support any generalizations or findings you may make. At the same time, you do not want too many surveys because you will be overwhelmed with analyzing your data.
How are you going to survey people? You can choose to conduct your survey in person (i.e. walk up to people and ask them questions); on paper (i.e. hand out surveys and ask people to return them); or even via the Internet. The survey method should be chosen based on the length of your survey and types of questions.
How long is your survey going to be? The answer to this question depends on what information you are attempting to discover and how much you want to find out. Longer surveys sometimes involve the same question asked in multiple ways to see if people are consistent in their answering strategies. For your first survey, however, it is better to keep things simple. Short questions are usually more effective than longer ones.
What type of questions are you going to ask? Do you want open-ended questions or closed questions? Open-ended questions are questions that allow the participant any type of response. An example of an open-ended question is: How are you feeling today? A closed question is one with a set of possible responses or yes/no responses. An example is: Did you feel that the new campus regulation about parking was fair? While closed questions are much easier to analyze they do not provide the rich responses you may get with open-ended questions. Ultimately, what type of question you ask depends on what you want to discover.
What questions are you going to ask? Carefully consider the wording of your questions. Please see the Creating Good Interview and Survey Questions section for more detailed information about creating good survey questions.