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II. WHAT IS RESEARCH?
Now that you understand how areas of study are organized, it’s
time to look closely at the activity that defines academic inquiry:
research. Research is the process of gathering,
evaluating, and interpreting information, usually to answer a particular
question or problem. Research projects of various types and complexity
are an integral part of the college experience and offer you the
opportunity to learn a valuable set of skills. In fact, the ability
to locate and interpret information is essential for many areas
of life and a large part of what it means to be an educated person.
Research can be divided into two categories:
1) Original research (also known as Pure Research):
research that produces new knowledge, usually done by highly
educated people in universities, government, and private industry.
The end result of original research is to add something completely
new and unique to the storehouse of human knowledge. A person
conducting original research gathers information by one of
the following two methods:
empirical method: collecting data and
information through direct experience, observation, or experimentation.
Examples of original research that employ an empirical method
of data collection include: a laboratory experiment involving
mice; measuring pollution levels in the atmosphere; and
smashing atoms in a super-collider.
oral method: gathering information by
directly communicating with people. Examples of original
research that employ an oral method of data collection include:
interviews, surveys, polls and questionnaires.
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2) Bibliographic Research: research that
analyzes what others have written on a topic in order to reach
your own interpretation or conclusion. When conducting bibliographic
research, you gather information from published materials
such as books, magazines, journals, newspapers, and various
specialized documents. In addition to print materials,bibliographic
research may also include gathering information from audio
and video recordings, photographs, films, and computer-based
programs and online sources.
Most research projects assigned to undergraduate college
students require bibliographic research rather than original
research. This course, therefore, will focus entirely on bibliographic
research. But keep in mind that it is possible to incorporate
some aspects of original research into your overall bibliographic
research project. For example, personally interviewing an
expert about your topic can often give you insights and information
you might never find in published sources.
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