Characteristics of a Research - Part II

Salam all and a very good day,

Now that you have understood what research is, next is to understand how a process can be considered as a research.

  In the previous posting, I have posted the list of characteristics of research as suggested by Ormrod (2014). In this posting I will discuss each of the points briefly.

Upon completing this, you should be able to assess your ideas of research, whether it is a research, or it is not. ;-)

1. Research originates with a question or problem.
It means that research begins from a question, an unanswered questions. And questions are all around us in our daily life.

2. Requires clear articulation goal.
A researcher must be able to express the ultimate goal of doing the research. He/She must have must know what you are expected as the outcome of the research.

3. Divides problem into a more manageable sub problems.
Breaking the problem into a smaller sub problems makes it easier to solve and achieve. That is when you break your outcome into a series of objectives.

4. Guided by specific research problems, research questions or hypothesis.
You must have a prediction of what could the solution be, seek solution based on the prediction and test or evaluate to verify your prediction.

5. Plan or proceeding,
You must be able to plan or design how the research will take place. Plan and design how the research is going to be conducted.

6. Rely on certain critical assumption.
Your research must have assumptions that you could start to work with.
Example: You are solving problem about the interaction design with the assumption that the system is running well without any errors that will dissatisfy the user.

7. Requires collection and interpretation of data.
Your research will require you to do data collection in order to verify the findings and interprets it. Interpretation of data obtained through the experiment will verify the hypothesis and provides a result to your problem.

8. Cyclical; Helical
One research may lead to another research.
This is the answer why now Note4 and next is Note5 or now, iPhone5 and next is iPhone6. It's a never ending improvements to a better quality of life.


Now, is your idea is a research or is it just a project? ;-)

Wassalam.