Secondary Research

Secondary Research is when you find the information off another source and then put the evidence/research into an essay or anything that you need it in. There are many ways to conduct Secondary Research and the methods used are an easy way of getting evidence/research such as Internet Search, Books, The News and many more.

The advantages and disadvantages in Secondary Research below will state why each one is both a good and bad reason to use so that you can decide which is a suitable method for yourself when researching.

Internet Searches have the advantages of many websites/options to choose from, lots of information and quick results so that it isn’t time consuming. The disadvantages of the results you collect aren’t always correct and sites like Wikipedia can be altered very easily with inappropriate things (e.g. A random work, or swear word, that has nothing to do with the subject).

Books have the advantages of having being able to look up what others have written, you can go to a library to use books (its free!) and it is also a reliable source. The disadvantages are that you don’t always find the right book; the information in the book could be out of date (e.g. laws and such) and it can also be very time consuming.

The News has the advantages of reporters getting information on the same subject and then piecing it all together into one! Another advantage could be that you get many different opinions on a certain subject that you are researching. The disadvantages of the News are that it is sometimes exaggerated to make things seem much more badly than they are. Another disadvantage could be that the information that the News gets might be false because they are getting it from another source.