Focusing Your Research Efforts

From: Leedy, Paul D., and Jeanne Ellis Ormrod. Practical Research: Planning and Design. 8th Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Pretence Hall, 2005.

This article is to stimulate us, and to find reason to believe that research can engage enthusiasm and efforts by connecting it to everyday life.
The structure of the research process is:
+ The problem or question, this is the core which research effort revolves around.
+ The statement of the problem must be precisely expressed so that..
+ It can be divided into more manageable sub-problems.
This clarifies the goals and directions of research effort.

- The heart of every research project is the problem
- Look into Dissertation Abstracts International, look for general heading of your interest.
-The world of research and the world of everyday life are intertwined.

In the article, Ormrod and Leedy stated 2 types of research projects:

Basic Research - projects that advance human being's theoretical conceptualizations about a particular topic

Applied Research - projects which can inform human decision making about practical problems

-Research project must involve the interpretation of data.

4 situations to avoid when considering a problem for research purposes:
1. Research projects should not be a ruse for achieving self-enlightenment.
2. A problem whose sole purpose is to compare two sets of data is not a suitable research problem.
3. Calculating a coefficient of correlation between two sets of data to show a relationship between them is not acceptable as a problem for research.
4. Problems that result in a yes or no answer are not suitable problems for research.

Stating the research problem:
1. State the problem clearly and comletely
2. Think through the feasibility of the project that the problem implies.
3. Say precisely what you mean.
4. Edit your work