Anyone, who sets out on the journey of research and academic writing can face number of concepts, confusions, and technicalities.
In the beginning the main questions would be like;
- Why we use word “Research” instead of “Search”?
- What is the difference between research and investigation?
- What is the difference between thesis and report? etc.
After getting satisfactory answers to these questions we enter the world of many new complexities like;
- What is plagiarism?
- What is literature review?
- What are formats?
- What is referencing?
- What is problem statement?
- What is hypothesis?
- What is inductive and deductive reasoning?
- What is theoretical framework? etc.
The job has not yet finished. Answers to above questions are actually qualifying you to step up the ladder and face some technicalities in this field. They are like;
- What is research design?
- What is questionnaire?
- How can I determine sample size?
- What is non-parametric statistics?
- What is inferential statistics?
- What is test of hypothesis?
- And many more.
When I started working, I went through all stages mentioned above. My learning was refined further as I had to teach research methodology to undergraduate students, and to supervise their final thesis. I had one advantage and that was my statistics and mathematics background. That really motivated me and helped in discovering answers to many questions and confusions. But, it does not mean that researcher should be a statistician. It can be an added advantage. Thanks to modern IT tools and software like SPSS, SAS, MS Excel, Minitab, Magastat etc., which have brought conveniences in the life of researcher.
The good news is that research is not something like passing an examination, or preparing for a comprehensive viva. It is really a journey, which is full of enjoyments and pleasure. It never ends. More you drive through, more you discover, and many more you still need to discover. It is amazing and every discovery will take you to higher level of confidence and nobility.
I will share my learning through this site, and try to explain answers to common questions that may help many new learners and researchers in their academic writing and real life research problems.This should not be understood in a way as if I am going to write an online book. I will gather such resources or information, which may give you some fundamental clarities and they may need further exploration on your part.
(Author: Muhammad Azeem)
