Research Methods Essays

Research Methods Essays Research Methods Essay Research Methods Essay Overview of various research methods When writing a Research Paper it is important to know different research methods. These methods help to gather and systematize the information and data In order to scientifically prove the validity of the work. Further will be explained ways how to collect the data. Research methods are divided In two big blocks: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative methods are those where results are explained In numbers, whereas qualitative methods define outcomes by what respondents answer. It Is more objective and more open, as results are not described by numbers, but rather as observations. To put both methods differences together: quantitative look more for statistical explanation, but qualitative are more in-depth. 1 Further will be in more detail explained methods that lay under quantitative and qualitative. There are many ways how to collect data for the research. One of them is doing experiments. It usually involves small amount of people who are doing some tests, for example, detecting how fast people read, what affects their reading skills and other objectives. This method is very in-depth and counted as qualitative as the behavior people is investigated in order to conclude some outcomes. One of the minuses of such methods is that it only researches small group of the society and does not give overall overview for all public. 2 Second type of methods is surveys. Surveys are conducted when a researcher wants quickly to gather a big amount of data. They have low cost, wide range of respondents, easy to conduct and systematize the results. Surveys are usually in a written form and they can be transferred to people in various ways- through e-mail, Web pages or questions can be asked in a person or through telephone call. This type also has few flaws- not all participants will answer to all questions, meaning they can skips some parts, it usually has a low return rate of answers and It also cannot present all society. 3 Third type of how to collect data for research Is to conduct a questionnaire. Questionnaire similarly to survey Is a method where Information Is gathered from a big amount of people and It Is analyses quantitatively and systematically. The pluses of such method are: easy and quick to fill In, easy to analyses the data and It Is easy to port the results. In questionnaires It Is Important to keep questions simple as people are usually lazy and not so eager to read long and complicated questions. A very good approach is to ask short answers and multiple choice answers for a quick response. It allows people just to circle the option and rapidly go to the next inquiry. For example, a question: How many hours do you sleep in a night? In a multiple placed a line where to write the number of hours. This shows how simply questions should be made. Moreover, questionnaires should not involve any sensitive topics, only general and common themes. Fourth type of research methods is interviewing people. It is not common to have yes/ no questions in this type, as the aim of it is to collect more in-depth data and have an open discussion with the respondent. Firstly, the interview has to be properly planned. It is relevant to create a pleasant atmosphere for a participant. If interview process will be chaotic and unplanned, researcher will not hear any true answers. For example, when interviewing a director of a bank. Researcher has to set a goal and objectives of the interview- what needs to be found out? Also it is important to come prepared not only with questions, but also materials which record the answers, such as paper, pencils or maybe a recorder. If a researcher wants to record the conversation with an electronic device a permission of the respondent has to be asked prior to the session. One of the drawbacks of recording an interview is that usually people are more thinking what they say and it can happen that half of the answers will be very short and lacking details, when purpose of the interview is getting deep explanation. 5 Fifth type of research method is observation. It can be an observation of a person or of some activity or some model. This method can include when over seeing what people do, what is their behavior, their relationship with others. Observation can also be on some cases or models, or even comparing two or more activities and making conclusions. This is more called analysis and is very detailed in its structure; therefore it is one of the qualitative methods. In conclusion, in this essay were described most popular research method types, which can be used almost by every chosen topic to investigate. Before choosing a epic it is important to consider what kind of data researcher wants to collect- quantitative or qualitative, because method aims differ. Surveys and questionnaires are used to collect quantitative and objective data, whereas interviews, experiments and observations are used to gather qualitative and subjective data. 2) Most suitable research methods for topic Marketing approaches in Real Estate companies in Riga In this research aim will be to explore what are the common marketing strategies which real estate companies utilize in Riga and what they aim at. Methods will be seed on three biggest real estate companies in Riga- Lotion, Arcos and Boer Hausa. Further will be explained most suitable research methods in order to achieve goal to get to know scheme of marketing in capital of Latvia. Impossible to do quantitative research methods. First of all, real estate companies do not present their marketing strategies, where they aim at the public, secondly the aim of research is to explore marketing strategies in depth, and therefore qualitative approaches will be used. Secondly, questionnaire and survey are given to a big amount of people, usually to a public. In this case, the goal is to get to know companies internal marketing strategies not to find out what society thinks about real estate advertising campaigns. Thirdly, quantitative methods would give numerical outcomes, meaning results will be expressed in numbers, whereas in this Research Paper the definitions of marketing strategies have to be explored. Therefore as defined above to reach the target qualitative methods must be used such as interviews and experiments. One of the qualitative approaches, which will be suitable for investigating real estate company marketing strategies, is interviews. This method will help researcher to have an insight into the companies policy and get more detailed view what is going on in the market of Latvia. The interview will be recorded either on recorder device or on the paper, which will help better to describe information in the Research Paper. Interviews will take place in real estate companies in Riga such as Lotion, Arcos, Boer Hausa and other enterprises. Marketing managers will be interviewed. If they will not be available, then discussion will be done with managers who are aware of companies marketing policy. By interviewing managers and professionals in arresting field who work in the companies, researcher will obtain very important and objective information of where these companies aim and how to they reach their target audience. Author will also try to collect information what are the most important target audiences and how to they get to them. It will promote a better understanding of each company policy and methods they use to maintain it. Therefore, main objective of the interview will be to find out what the society groups they focus on and what approaches they use to make them their customers. Second qualitative method will be used after having done the first one. In interview researcher will obtain information where companies publish their information and what parts of society they aim at. After this method, observation, comparison and analysis of these companies will be done. Here will be observed Web sites, magazines, radio and social media- everything where companies post and publish their information. It means that everything where real estate companies place their advertisements will be compared and analyzed through marketing theory.