CHOOSING

A
RESEARCH METHOD

An Assignment Report
Based on Paper-I (Research Methodology)

[As per requirement for pursuing M.Phil. under The Global Open University, Nagaland]

Submitted by

Shakil Ahmed Shakil

A student of M.Phil.
Abstract
Research is a scientific and systematic search for pertinent information on a
specific topic. Different people carry on research works to serve different purpose.
Whatever the purpose may be, a researcher should always aim at a successful
completion of his work. A successful and good research relies on the accuracy of
data collected which in turn relies upon the method used. So it is very important
for a researcher to know very clearly about the various data collection methods
and tools. The researcher then has to choose the method suitable for the specific
purpose or research. In this assignment report, I have discussed briefly about
various research methods, their advantages and disadvantages as well as few
design issues what I came to learn from various sources.
Table of Contents

1. Abstract ___ page 1

2. Choice of Research Method ___ page 5
3. Questionnaires ___ page 7
4. Interviews ___ page 11
5. Focused Group Discussions ___ page 17
6. Observation ___ page 21
7. Documentary Analysis ___ page 25
8. Experiments ___ page 27
9. Bibliography ___ page 31
Choice of Research Method
Generally, research is understood to follow a certain structural process.
Though step order may vary depending on the subject matter and researcher,
choosing a suitable method for collecting the relevant data is of utmost
importance in order to accomplish a research successfully.

In practice six main research methods tend to be used:

1. Questionnaires

2. Interviews

3. Focused group discussions

4. Observation

5. Documentary analysis

6. Experiments

The following discussion looks at the main pros and cons of using these
methods, some of the main design features of each and some issues relating to
their administration.
Questionnaires
A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions
and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents.
Although they are often designed for statistical analysis of the responses, this is
not always the case. The questionnaire was invented by Sir Francis Galton.

These are sets of questions and attitudinal statements administered to

individuals for self-completion. They can be posted to respondents, sent by email
or filled in by the researcher during face-to-face enquiries. They can be:

 wholly closed-ended, with every question having a fixed range of

alternative responses, or

 open-ended, with very broad questions designed to elicit the sample's own
views rather than their responses to a re-specified range of answers, or

 a mixture of the two.

Benefits and strengths

1. Questionnaires are a useful means of getting data from a relatively large

number of people or from a representative sample of that population.
2. Therefore they are very efficient in terms of the researcher's use of time
and effort. That is, you can distribute hundreds of them to students,
colleagues or clients and get them completed and returned in the time it
takes to set up and do half a dozen interviews. Questionnaires are also,
usually, quicker to code and analyze that semi-structured or unstructured
interviews.
3. Questionnaires are a means of standardizing the data collection process,
i.e. everyone who completes it is being asked exactly the same questions in
 Choosing a Research Method 8
Questionnaires

the same sequence [but of course this does not mean that they will choose
to answer every question].
4. The self-completion questionnaire may provide the respondent with time
to reflect on the questions before answering them [especially if they can
complete them in their own time].
5. Respondents may feel that they can say what they really think if the
questionnaire can be completed in privacy and anonymously [especially if
the researcher is known to them or might be thought to have a vested
interest in their answers].

Problems and criticisms

1. There are hidden costs in the use of questionnaires. It may be a quicker

method of collecting data and the format may facilitate data analyzed but
the design of a good questionnaire with clear instructions and
unambiguous questions can take a long time. Semi-structured and
unstructured interview schedules can be developed more quickly because
the researcher gets immediate feedback from the respondents if they do
not understand the questions.
2. You may not always know that your carefully constructed questionnaire is
not asking the 'right' questions until you start analyzing the data, i.e. when
it is too late to do anything about it. If they have sufficient time researchers
try to get round this problem by piloting the questionnaire with a small
group drawn from the population they are interested in before they make
the final adjustments to it. But this is time consuming and practitioners
doing research on a part-time basis do not always feel that they can spare
the time to do this. Pilot your questionnaire if you can. At the very least
send it to some colleagues and your tutor for comment.
 Choosing a Research Method 9
Questionnaires

3. Once you have sent out the questionnaire you have little control over the
situation. Suppose only a few completed ones are returned, i.e. what
researchers refer to as a low response rate. What can you do? You can try
several things to increase the likelihood of a good response rate:
i. Get a 'captive' population or sample to complete it, i.e. ask students to
complete it during a seminar or clients to complete it in your
presence;
ii. Explain at the beginning of the questionnaire (or in an accompanying
letter if it is a postal questionnaire) why their responses are important
and what use will be made of the data.
iii. Make the questionnaire as user friendly and attractive as possible by
using different font sizes, color printing, attractive layout and provide
as many opportunities as possible to tick boxes or ring code numbers
so that it can be filled in as quickly as possible.
iv. Distribute reminders perhaps with a second copy of the questionnaire.

Avoid a lot of open-ended questions. As we have seen, one of the

advantages of a self-completion questionnaire is that it pre-codes people's
responses into a standardized set of answers to facilitate data analysis. Why lose
that advantage? If you feel the need to have a lot of open-ended questions
perhaps you have opted for the wrong method.

Design Issues

Some of the key issues when designing a questionnaire are as given below:

1. Avoid imprecise and ambiguous questions.

The ambiguity and imprecision will still be there when you try to analyze the
data.
 Choosing a Research Method 10
Questionnaires

2. Avoid trying to get too much information from one question

Two points here. First, if you have several sentences in your question simplify
it. Second, avoid trying to get information on more than one dimension in the
same question. For example, if you want to ask teaches (a) what they do in a
particular classroom situation and (b) how the students react, then it might be
possible to do this in one question but it would be better to do it in two separate
questions and cross-reference (or cross-tabulate) their answers.
3. Avoid leading questions, e.g. ‘do you agree that…?’ Or even ‘Most people
agree that…?’
Research shows that many people are inclined to agree with leading questions
regardless of the content (or their actual views). Its known as ‘acquiescence
response set’.
4. If you are using questions which include a list of statements on which the
respondent is asked to agree or disagree then make sure that there is a
good mix of positive and negative statements.
This also reduces the risk of acquiescence response set.
5. Do not ask too many open-ended questions.
They take too much time to answer and to analyze. Open questions are more
difficult to code, analyze and interpret. However, one or two of these can be a
useful means of allowing the respondent to express their views in their own words
and to provide you with more detail and depth, but as noted earlier, if you want to
ask a lot of open-ended questions consider using an interview schedule instead.
Use open-ended questions when not enough is known in advance to allow
you to decide on a list of response categories for a closed-ended question. But,
better still, pilot these open-ended questions with a small sample and use the
results to develop your response categories before you do the survey.
Interviews
An interview is a conversation between two or more people (the
interviewer and the interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to
obtain information from the interviewee.

The degree to which it is structured can vary greatly. It can be highly

structured (and then usually it looks like a questionnaire or checklist but
administered by the researcher rather than self-completed). It can be semi-
structured, mainly comprising a set of open-ended questions but often with
follow-up probes and prompts; or it can be relatively unstructured - a list of
themes or topics or headings which can be adjusted to each individual
interviewee.

Benefits and strengths

1. Provides an opportunity for the interviewee to give a more detailed

response than in a questionnaire.
2. The data will usually be richer and more full of contextual information than
the data provided by a questionnaire.
3. The data will be collected in a natural setting. For example, interviewing a
lecturer immediately after a seminar will probably generate more data than
a questionnaire which could be completed at any time. There is scope for
the interviewer to cross-reference to the seminar, particularly if he or she
also observed it [an example of triangulation at work].
4. An interview is a particularly useful tool if you are trying to understand the
experiences and actions of each individual respondent. The more unique
each respondent's experiences are the more important it is to use a
research technique which acknowledges and elicits that uniqueness.
 Choosing a Research Method 12
Interviews

5. An interview is also a useful method if the respondents are not very literate
or not used to expressing their views on paper.
6. It provides an opportunity to probe respondents' views in ways that might
be difficult to plan for in advance.
7. It provides the researcher with an opportunity to also observe and record
the non-verbal behavior of the respondent as well.

Problems and criticisms

1. The interview is not necessarily a cost effective method for a researcher

who does not have any help in collecting data from a relatively large
sample or population of respondents.
2. The full transcription of interviews takes a lot of time. A one-hour tape
recorded interview takes about 8-10 hours to transcribe.
3. If you want to it is possible to quantify some of the answers (e.g. the
number of respondents who answered this question positively or
negatively) but other methods might be more appropriate for this purpose.
4. Good interviewing requires expertise and experience. It is not an easy
option for the inexperienced researcher. It requires, for example, good
listening skills; body language that encourages the interviewee to relax and
talk; a capacity to ask questions, perhaps take notes and yet maintain eye
contact; an ability to prompt people who are not very responsive; knowing
just how long to allow a silence to continue before intervening; an ability to
probe sensitive areas and issues; being able to 'think on your feet' and be
flexible in your questioning e.g. to recognize that someone has just
answered 3 of your questions in one response and therefore being able to
instantly adjust your schedule of questions accordingly to being able to
decide on-the-spot whether an interviewee is leading you down a blind
alley and needs to be brought back to the sequence of questions on your
 Choosing a Research Method 13
Interviews

schedule or is raising interesting issues and should be encouraged to

continue. In other words, interviewing is not a soft option. It requires
planning (including planning for unexpected contingencies) and it requires
skill.
5. There is always a high risk with interviews that the researcher will unduly
influence the responses of the interviewee: through the way the questions
are asked, the researcher's body language and manner, the interviewer's
position of authority in the interviewee's institution or vice versa (a
potential problem in practitioner research).

Design Issues

Following is a brief summary of some of the key issues when designing an

interview schedule.

1. Tape record it or take notes

Using a tape recorder may mean that you can concentrate on the interview
process and maintain eye contact with the interviewee. Plus you will have a
complete record of the interview. But some interviewees get nervous when being
recorded and some think you are not interested in what they have to say if you
don’t take notes.
Some researchers do both. But remember that taped interviews take a long time
to transcribe, your notes may be quicker (depends on the quality of your writing).
2. If you have sensitive questions that might affect the rapport between you
and the interviewee leave them until late in the interview.
Some researchers, for example, ask personal questions at the end of the
interview for the same reason.
3. Always start by explaining the purpose of the interview and what you will
do with the information.
 Choosing a Research Method 14
Interviews

You should use this introduction to also reassure the interviewee about
confidentiality and ask them if they mind being recorded, etc.
4. Avoid very long questions.
You cannot expect the interviewee to remember what you asked them if you
speak in paragraphs.
5. Avoid multiple questions, e.g. How many students are taking the course
this year, are they mostly school leavers or have you also got some
mature students and how do the two groups compare in performance?
Again, interviewees will not usually remember all of the elements of the
multiple questions. Ask separate shorter questions.
6. Plan some prompts in case the interviewee looks blank when you ask a
question or asks you to clarify the question or just says ‘What do you
mean?’
There is an art to designing and asking good prompts; they help the
respondent to understand the question without ‘feeding’ him or her the answers
you want. Knowing when to ask a prompt is critical. How long can you cope with
silence before jumping in with a prompt. Jump in too quickly and you annoy the
person who was thinking about their answer. Allow the silence to go on too long
and the respondent begins to lose confidence.
7. Plan some probes.
The probe is designed to get the interviewee to expand on his or her initial
response to a question. Some experienced interviewers rely on a raised eyebrow
or encouraging noises such as ‘mmmhm?’ or ‘uh huh?’ But most of us usually ask
the respondents if they want to add anything or ‘Could you tell me a bit more
about …….?’ Or ‘I’m interested in what you said about…..’; ‘Why/what do you think
that……?’
 Choosing a Research Method 15
Interviews

Administrative issues

1. Once you have explained what the interview is all about and why you are
interviewing the respondent try one or two 'warm-up' questions to
establish a good rapport.
2. Listen, listen, listen! You can lose rapport if you ask someone a question
which they have already answered when replying to an earlier question.
Also you may want to cross-reference the answer to one question again the
answers given to earlier questions, e.g. 'Earlier in the interview you said
that...'
3. Do not be afraid to leave out a question if you think it is not relevant to a
particular interviewee.
4. If your interviewee is talkative and giving you a lot of useful information do
not hesitate to change the sequence of your questions if you think it would
be appropriate (e.g. if the respondent has mentioned something that you
were not originally intending to ask about until later in the interview) but
remember to go back to the questions you have temporarily skipped when
the time is right.
5. Think about how you are going to end the interview. Don't let it simply 'trail
off' because you have both run out of time or things to say.
6. Even when you have switched off the tape recorder or put away your
notebook you need to stay 'switched on'. A common phenomenon in
interviewing is that people often give you very interesting and useful
information once the formal interview is over. Write it down as soon as you
can but don't foreclose the situation by either asking if you can switch on
your recorder again or by saying 'I'm afraid that I'm in a bit of a hurry!'
Focused group discussions
A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people
are asked about their attitude towards a product, service, concept, advertisement,
idea, or packaging. Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where
participants are free to talk with other group members.

These are widely used in market research. The method is also sometimes
used in health promotion research and social work research. As an approach it
tends to be used in combination with other research techniques.

Benefits and strengths

1. Group discussion produces data and insights that would be less accessible
without interaction found in a group setting -- listening to others’
verbalized experiences stimulates memories, ideas, and experiences in
participants.
2. A good medium for exploring a group of people's views without imposing
your own agenda on them too strongly.
3. Provides opportunities to explore the thinking behind the kinds of
responses which might have been given to a questionnaire but without
opting for the more expensive option of follow-up one-to-one interviews.
4. In the early stages of a project it can be a useful means of identifying issues
or areas of interest that could be followed-up using more quantitative
research methods.
5. It provides the researcher with an opportunity to cross-check responses,
e.g. 'Does everyone agree with that?'...Does that reflect your experience as
well? ..etc.
 Choosing a Research Method 18
Focused Group Discussions

Problems and criticisms

1. The researcher has less control over a group than a one-on-one interview,
and thus time can be lost on issues irrelevant to the topic.
2. Difficult to follow-up the views of individuals during the group discussion,
especially on topics which may be sensitive.
3. A fundamental difficulty with focus groups (and other forms of qualitative
research) is the issue of observer dependency: the results obtained are
influenced by the researcher, raising questions of validity.
4. Moreover, the number of members of a focus group is not large enough to
be a representative sample of a population; thus, the data obtained from
the groups is not necessarily representative of the whole population, unlike
in opinion polls.
5. This method can be heavily affected by the dynamics of the group,
especially if some members of the group are senior to others. One or two
people can easily dominate the proceedings if they have clear views and
are articulate. It is possible as a facilitator to counter this tendency but it
takes experience and self-confidence.

Design Issues

1. Keep the size of the group fairly small (8-12).

2. An hour is probably the minimum time to allow for the discussion to
develop. It takes a while for the group to settle and for the right
atmosphere to develop.
3. Draw up a list of topics or themes to be covered. These should loosely
guide the discussion. You want a balance between allowing the discussion
to develop its own momentum and making sure your issues are addressed.
 Choosing a Research Method 19
Focused Group Discussions

4. Introduce yourself (if they do not already know you) and explain the
purpose of the session, how long it will take and what you will do with the
information.
5. Get them to briefly introduce themselves (if they do not know each other).
6. Decide how you will record the discussion. Will you tape it? Take notes?
Get a colleague to take notes?

Good chairing skills are essential (a) to ensure that the discussion is dominated
by one or two and (b) to find out if there is a consensus within the group on a
particular issue or theme and (c) to judge when to move on to the next theme or
issue.
Observation
Observation is either an activity of a living being (such as a human),
consisting of receiving knowledge of the outside world through the senses, or the
recording of data using scientific instruments.

This tends to be classified along three dimensions. Firstly, whether the

observer is a participant in what he or she is observing or is detached. Secondly,
on whether or not those who are being observed are aware of this. Thirdly, the
extent to which the observation is structured. The degree of structure can range
from the observer taking notes or keeping a diary at one end of the spectrum to
using coding schemes, checklists and category systems at the other.

The scientific method requires observations of nature to formulate and test

hypotheses. It consists of these steps:
1. Asking a question about a natural phenomenon
2. Making observations of the phenomenon
3. Hypothesizing an explanation for the phenomenon
4. Predicting a logical consequence of the hypothesis
5. Testing the prediction in a controlled experiment, a natural experiment, an
observational study, or a field experiment
6. Creating a conclusion with data gathered in the experiment

Observation plays a role in the second and fifth steps. However the need
for reproducibility requires that observations by different observers be
comparable.
 Choosing a Research Method 22
Observation

Benefits and strengths

1. The biggest advantage of collecting data through direct observation is that

it is one of the most direct research techniques. You are not asking people
what they would do or think you are watching what they do and listening to
what they say.
2. Used in combination with questionnaires or interviews, observation can
therefore provide useful insights into the extent to which there is a
correspondence or discrepancy between what people say and what they
actually do. As such observation makes a useful contribution to the process
of triangulating evidence.
3. The researcher observing his or her own practice has an advantage because
the situation to be observed is familiar (which in turn reduces preparation
time).
4. It allows the researcher to describe the full complexity of the situation,
including the dynamics of the group being observed.

Problems and criticisms

1. It is very time consuming. How many times do you need to observe a

situation or a group before you can be sure that you are describing with
confidence what is really happening.
2. When the observer is also a practitioner observing his or her own practice
then there is a potential problem of how to ensure that the observer can
detach himself or herself sufficiently.
3. It is difficult to estimate the effect of the observer on the situation being
observed.
4. The analysis of observational data is time consuming and often open to
very different interpretations.
 Choosing a Research Method 23
Observation

Design Issues

Here is a brief summary of some of the key issues when designing an

observation schedule:

1. The first key question is: 'Are you going to be a participant or detached
observer? What are the advantages to either role in this particular setting?
2. Linked to that question is: 'Are you going to observe your own practice or
the practice of your colleagues and are you going to observe your students
or a colleague's?'
3. Are you going to tell the group that you will be observing them?
4. Do you want a narrative description of what is happening or do you want to
design a specific observation schedule. The former approach is often
described as 'naturalistic' and used by social anthropologists and some
sociologists. Some form of observation schedule is more often used by
psychologists and educational researchers. Look at the different kinds of
schedule in the recommended reading before making up your mind on this.
5. What specifically do you want to observe:
a. Do you need to describe the setting? [the layout of the room, where
people are sitting, the equipment used, etc)
b. Do you need to describe the people involved?
c. Do you need to describe every event and activity over a specific time
period or just a sample of events, or select the ones you are
interested in?
d. Are you just interested in the interactions between the tutor and the
students or are you also interested in the interactions between the
students?
e. Will it be useful to time each event or activity? What will this tell
you? How will you use this data?
 Choosing a Research Method 24
Observation

6. When will you record your observations: at the time or immediately

afterwards or much later? [This can be a real problem when you are a
participant observer].
7. How will you record your observations? Pen and paper, video recording, audio
recording?
8. If you are using an observation schedule can you use a coding system to make
the data collection process easier?
9. Is observation the only source of data for your research or will it be
complemented by interviews, questionnaires or other methods? If the latter
how will you relate one kind of data to another?
Documentary Analysis
Sources of documentary research include historical documents such as
laws, declarations, statutes and people’s accounts of events and periods. Also,
reports based on official statistics would be covered, as well as governmental
records, mass media, novels, plays, drawings, and personal documents such as
dairies and biographies.

Documentary research method has had little attention compared to other

methods because of the dominance of positivism and empiricism so that statistics
and quantification are popular forms of data collection and analysis.

Benefits and strengths

1. Unlike most research instruments and data sources, documents are not so
prone to being influenced by the researcher.
2. Documents enable the researcher to investigate the background and
context of the situation and the specific problem they are interested in.
3. A useful means of evaluating the extent to which the rhetoric (or the policy)
is actually put into practice [but of course you also need other means and
other sources for evaluating practice].
4. Documentary analysis is a useful means of analyzing the 'official' view and
accessing the 'official' record of events, decisions and plans.
5. Some documents [e.g. student assessments] can provide a measure of the
impact of changes introduced during the Action Research process.
 Choosing a Research Method 26
Documentary Analysis

Problems and criticisms

1. Documentary research is regarded as being not clear-cut, not having a

method and nothing on how a researcher uses it. Yet these criticisms are
misplaced
2. Research bias may be restricted in one sense because the researcher has
not produced the documents [in the same way as he or she has devised the
questionnaire or interview schedule] but bias can still be present in the
selection of the documents.
3. Documentary analysis - if it is to be systematic - is time consuming. Analysis
can range from reading and commenting on it to undertaking a full-scale
content analysis or from quoting a mission statement to undertaking a
statistical analysis of student assessment results for the last five years.
4. There is little guidance available from experienced researchers on how to
analyze some kinds of documents [e.g. students' diaries or reflective
journals].
5. Documents require a critical reading similar to the skills employed by the
historian when analyzing primary sources. Each document was written for a
particular purpose and within a specific context which may not necessarily
be obvious from the document itself. Documents have to be interpreted as
well as read and this calls for expertise and experience.

Design Issues

Historians, political scientists and economists may design their research

around the analysis of documents, records and statistics but for most action
researchers investigating their own and others' practice documentary analysis is
mainly a supplementary method employed for collecting background information
and for triangulating with the main methods used.
Experiments
The key feature of any experiment is that the researcher deliberately
controls and manipulates the conditions under which the effects of a change or
intervention can be measured. Cohen, Manion & Morrison (2000) provide a useful
brief description of experimental research in the natural and physical sciences:

Imagine that we have been transported to a laboratory to investigate the

properties of a new wonder fertilizer that farmers could use on their cereal crops,
let us say wheat. The scientist would take the bag of wheat seed and randomly
split it into two equal parts. One part would be the grain under normal existing
conditions - controlled and measured amount s of soil, warmth, water and light
and no other factors. This would be called the control group. The other part would
be grown under the same conditions - the same controlled and measured
amounts of soil, warmth and light as the control group but, additionally, the new
wonder fertilizer. Then, four months later, the two groups are examined and their
growth measured. The control group has grown half a meter and each ear of
wheat is in place but the seeds are small. The experimental group, by contrast has
grown half a meter as well but has significantly more seeds on each ear, the seeds
are larger, fuller and more robust."

The key features of the experiment are:

 An experimental group and a control group;

 A random allocation to each group to eliminate the possibility that any

variables not thought to be crucial to the experiment might have any
unintended effects;

 The identification of key variables that will have some effect;

 Choosing a Research Method 28
Experiments

 The control of these key variables

 The application of the special treatment to the experimental group but not
the control group;

 Measurement of the effect of the treatment and comparison of the

outcomes for the two groups.

Will this classical experimental design still work when the subjects of the
experiment are people rather than wheat seeds?

The experiment is still the norm in medical research and is widely used in all
forms of psychology, research into health care and, to a lesser extent, research
into social care. One particular form of the experimental design, the randomized
controlled trial (through which, for instance, new drugs and forms of medical
treatment are tested) is still generally regarded in those disciplines as the 'gold
standard' of research. It is used to test new drugs and forms of medical treatment
and to evaluate the effectiveness of new interventions in health and social care
[Gomm & Davies (2000) p.xi].

In each case the experiment is designed in such a way that it reduces the
likelihood that the prior knowledge of the subjects, the practitioners and the
researchers taking part in the trial might unduly influence the results of the
experiment.

However, in many social situations it is simply not practical (or sensible) to try
to control all of the possible variables that might influence the outcomes of a
specific change or intervention. Indeed, in some instances it would also be
unethical to use a controlled experiment if, for instance, the subjects were not in a
position to give their informed consent to participation in the experiment or if
participation meant that they might suffer or be treated unfairly or if the
 Choosing a Research Method 29
Experiments

experiment required them to do something illegal or immoral. Also, in the real

world, it may not be possible to assign people randomly to either the
experimental or the control group.

In such circumstances some researchers have introduced the idea of a quasi-

experiment. Perhaps the most common kinds of quasi-experiment employed in
social research are: Where the researchers collect data that enable them to
compare the same subjects before-and-after an intervention or change has been
introduced.

Where the researchers establish a pilot or study group (the subjects of their
research) who experience the change or intervention and a reference or
comparator group from whom data are collected using the same research
instruments even though they are not experiencing the change or intervention.

Therefore the quasi-experiment retains the element of comparison which is so

central to the experimental research design but subjects are seldom allocated to
their groups and, if they are, this is rarely done at ransom. In practice, in most
quasi-experiments the researcher does not have any control at all over the so-
called 'control group' (or reference or comparator group).

Ultimately the central question for any researcher opting for a quasi-
experimental design will be: 'Am I comparing like with like?' If the answer is: 'I
believe so' then the follow-up question will inevitably be: 'How do I know?’

There are a variety of different kinds of quasi-experimental research design

and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Rather than outline all of
them here it is recommended that you read the relevant section in Colin Robson's
book, Real World Research (1993 Oxford) Chapter Four: Experimental Design
Outside the Laboratory, especially pp.96-108.
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 BLAXTER, L., HUGHES, C. & TIGHT, M. (1996), How to Research,
Buckingham, Open University Press, pp. 153-156

 BURGESS, R. G. (1984), In the field: an introduction to field research,

London, Allen & Unwin (see especially the chapter on 'Interviews as
Conversations'.

 COHEN, L., MANION, L. & MORRISON, K (2002) Research Methods in

Education, London, RoutledgeFalmer

 HAKIM, C. (1982), Secondary analysis in Social Research: a guide to data

sources and methods with examples, London, Allen & Unwin

 HOINVILLE, G. et al (1977), Survey Research Practice, London, Heinemann

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