Primary Research

Primary Research is when you gather information that you have discovered without the help of the Wikipedia or other sources of information on the Internet. This means that you yourself do the research instead of going into the library to get the information out of books. This would be Secondary Research.  There are many ways to do Primary Research such as Interviews, Observations, Surveys and Focus groups.

There can be advantages and disadvantages of each method that people use in Primary Research. The bullet points below state both advantages and disadvantages of each one.

Observation has the advantages of being quite a reliable way of researching because you are seeing the evidence for yourself and another advantage is that you take in the information that you need. The disadvantages of Observation is that you could possibly miss something that you don’t see and another disadvantage is that you might not get enough just from observing.

Interviews have the advantage of getting an opinion on a subject that you are researching and another advantage is that you can control the interviewee to give you a certain answer you are looking for. A disadvantage of Interviews is that you can get information that isn’t relevant and that people can dodge the question easily if the interviewer isn’t persistent.

Surveys have the advantages of results turning into a set of statistics and can also tell facts. The disadvantages are that you don’t get reasons why or how and you don’t always get an honest answer.

Questionnaires posses the advantages of displaying set questions and another advantage are that people get a choice from a set answer (yes or no) so that it is closed questions. The Disadvantages of Questionnaires are that people often dismiss questionnaires and don’t like to answer them and another disadvantage is that it can an annoyance to people wanting to get on with their day.

Focus Groups can have the advantages of marking people out of ten and another advantage is that it singles out the few people that are in the group that a product is aimed at OR the product is going to be made for (e.g. Call Of Duty is 16-25 year olds). The disadvantages are that it sometimes displays short and dull questions and another disadvantage is that the Focus Group can be too small (e.g. only five out of twenty people aged 16-25 are interested in Call Of Duty). 

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. 

Qualitative Research

Qualitative Research is text based and it focuses on the how’s and whys of something. The methods of conducting Qualitative Research include gathering information such as Field Notes, Reflective Journals, Structured Interviews and Semi Structured Interviews.

In everything there are advantages and disadvantages; Qualitative Research certainly having some of its own.  The points below will state what advantages and disadvantages of this research method.

Field Notes have the advantages of the researcher being able to record whatever they observe; this allows them to refer back to their notes and then input it into their research/document. Another advantage of this method is that the researcher/person using this method gets information first had because the person is answering the questions that the researcher/person has asked them right there and then; therefore getting the information straight away. The disadvantages of Field Notes are that you cannot always gather every bit of information you observe. Another disadvantage is that you only get one chance to gather a certain piece of information.

 Reflective Journals have the advantages of the researcher being able to express their personal view on something; this allows the person to then criticize themselves on a personal level and not having to speak out their opinions. Another advantage is that this is active learning; this can help someone to become independent and then they would be able to deal with problems on their own. The disadvantages of Reflective Journals is that this method can be very time consuming which means it takes time to produce this type of Research. Another disadvantage is that if someone uses this method and chooses not to show anyone else, they cannot force the person to show them (e.g. Your friend wrote their opinion on a subject but you wanted to see but weren’t able to due to it being their choice). This is classed as confidential work.

Structured Interviews have the advantage of being easily analysed; this helps you pick out important bits of information that you wish to input into your work or that you want to use as an example (e.g. Looking over a subject on colours and picking the amount of people that pick red as an example). Another advantage of Structured Interviews is that its fast to complete, which means if you want to try out other methods you will have time to test them. The disadvantages of this method are that you can’t guarantee that the person you are interviewing will give you correct or valid information. Another disadvantage could be that you must understand the subject that you are researching well enough to be able to ask the correct or relevant questions.