How to write the research method part of the thesis? Graduation thesis is a very important content for college students. If the graduation thesis fails, you may not graduate. The research method of the thesis is very important. Let me share with you how to write the research method part of the paper. Let's have a look.
How to write "1 1" and "investigation method" in the literature research method?
Investigation is one of the most commonly used methods, which refers to the purposeful and planned collection of actual and historical information related to the theme of the paper, and the analysis, comparison and induction of the collected information. The survey method will adopt the questionnaire survey method, distribute it to relevant personnel, and then collect and sort out the useful information for the paper.
2. Observation method
Observation means that researchers use their own senses or other auxiliary tools to directly observe the object of study, which can make people make new discoveries in the process of observation and better inspire people's thinking.
3. Literature research methods
Have a certain goal of investigation literature, so as to have a more comprehensive and correct understanding of the paper. Literature research is helpful to form an overall impression of the research object, and to analyze and compare related materials, so as to obtain the whole picture of things.
The most typical research methods in this paper are investigation, observation and literature research, which are all worth adopting.
How to write the research method part of the paper II. Research methods and steps of thesis writing.
First, the study of circular thinking mode
Second, the research path
Third, the analysis method of the study
Fourthly, the design and steps of the research process
Verb (abbreviation of verb) reflects on the traditional research thinking mode
In the process of guiding graduate students to write papers, even we who are engaged in research can't help but think about a series of basic problems related to research. For example, why write a paper? Why do you do research? In the process of discussing paper writing, are we trying to finish the writing of the paper itself or a research process? What is the connection and difference between writing a paper and doing research? If the thesis writing should reflect a research process, what should the research process be like? What kind of methods do we use for research? We find that the solution of these problems is very helpful to guide graduate students' thesis writing. Therefore, this paper will share with you some questions about research methods and research steps that I personally summarized in my teaching research and guiding graduate students to complete their papers. Welcome everyone to participate in the discussion.
There are many unknown things and many unknown laws in any field in the world. The main task of our researchers is to constantly sum up laws from a large number of facts and rise to a theory that can guide practice. However, the theory is not an absolute truth, and it has to be constantly revised in practice. Therefore, some people will question the premise and content of the theory and put forward new conjectures and new thoughts. Only when new conjectures and new ideas are verified in practice can the theoretical system be developed and improved. We need a research process to explore the unknown and its laws. This process is called the research cycle. Represented by conceptual model as [1]:
Fact-theory-speculation
Factual theory speculation
The above transition from "fact" to "theory" and then to "conjecture" constitutes the general research idea. People engaged in scientific research should not only pay attention to the research process from fact to theory, but also dare to question and guess in the research. And this idea is not an ultimate process, but a cyclical process. When conjectures and doubts are proved by facts, the theory will be further revised.
The circular thinking mode of the above research is the process in which theory comes from practice in the relationship between theory and practice. This process requires a rigorous logical thinking process. Deduction and induction are generally considered to be scientific, reasonable and effective logical thinking methods. These two logical thinking modes should run through the whole research process.
In addition, looking at the research process from the perspective of knowledge management, in a sense, the research process can also be understood as transforming tacit knowledge with experience in practice into explicit knowledge with systematic regularity for more people to enjoy. However, the enjoyment of explicit knowledge has a general influence on concrete practice. In addition to undertaking the research process and drawing conclusions, researchers should also express the research process and conclusions in an appropriate way for everyone to share. Any research results that cannot be disseminated and shared with others are meaningless to social progress.
We believe that researchers (including graduate students) write papers to reflect the above research process, constantly explore and summarize unknown things and their laws, and have an impact on practice. What we emphasize is that the writing of the paper is not an explanation of the idea, nor is it just a statement of the process. The writing of the thesis should follow certain research methods and steps, and infer and/or verify the general laws of things under certain assumptions and premises. Therefore, mastering research methods is the premise of writing a good paper.
Research method is the starting point or angle for us to study the laws of things. There are usually two research methods: empirical research and normative research.
Empirical research generally uses standard measurement methods or describes phenomena through observation, which is mainly used to summarize what the situation is. Usually researchers use this research path to put forward theoretical assumptions and verify the theory. Normative research: it is to solve the problem of what should be. Researchers usually establish a conceptual model and/or a quantitative model to infer the development law of things. Researchers will also use this path to establish theoretical norms.
We believe that the above two research paths are irreplaceable. They are interdependent and complementary. As far as the theory reflecting the development law of things is concerned, empirical research and normative research are indispensable. The former provides support and basis for the establishment of the theory. The latter provides a research framework and train of thought for the establishment of the theory.
In view of the above two paths, there is an analysis process in the research process, that is, explaining why the case is like this, and the analysis process needs specific research and analysis methods to support it.
[2]。 However, more scholars tend to think that quantitative and qualitative methods are more different from analytical techniques [3]. Because any research process involves the collection of data, which may be qualitative or quantitative. We can't put quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis in opposition. In the process of social science and business research, quantitative and qualitative research and analysis methods are needed. According to different research problems and different stages of the research process, different analysis methods have their own advantages. There is no doubt between the two. For how to give full play to their respective advantages, some foreign scholars are also exploring the organic combination of the two [4].
Therefore, qualitative analysis is a method to analyze and process the content expressed by words or other non-quantitative data. Quantitative analysis method is a method to analyze and process the content described by quantity or other data that can be converted into quantitative form. In a study, these two analytical methods often involve [5] at the same time. Qualitative analysis is used to define and express the basic features or the what of things, while quantitative analysis is used to measure the degree or amount. Qualitative analysis often summarizes the characteristics of things from the perspective of definition, analogy, model or metaphor; Quantitative analysis of the establishment of the hypothetical concept, and its numerical measurement [6].
The main tool of quantitative analysis is statistical method, which is used to reveal the quantitative relationship of the studied problems. Basic descriptive statistical methods include: frequency distribution, percentage, analysis of variance, deviation, etc. The methods to explore the relationship between variables include cross analysis, correlation analysis, multi-factor analysis among multiple variables, statistical test and so on. The reason why researchers emphasize quantitative research is that the process and results of quantitative analysis are systematic and controllable, and are not influenced by researchers' subjective factors. Quantitative analysis is considered as the main method of empirical research. Its advantage is to test the theory, not to create it. Of course, compared with natural science research, social science and business research are questioned because of human factors. Therefore, quantitative analysis is considered as a quasi-experimental method.
Qualitative research has its attractive side. Because writing, as the most common qualitative research data, is unique to human beings, the description of writing is considered to be "rich", "comprehensive" and "true". Qualitative data collection is also the most direct. Therefore, qualitative analysis has the greatest affinity with people. It is precisely this that qualitative analysis is also very subjective. If the scientificity of the research process is measured by systematicness and controllability. Qualitative analysis is more questioned than quantitative analysis [7]. However, qualitative data is considered to be of great value in assisting and interpreting quantitative data [8]. In fact, qualitative analysis methods often run through the whole research process, including the formation of research questions, the formation of theoretical assumptions and the establishment of descriptive analysis framework before data collection, all of which require qualitative analysis process, that is, the interpretation and description of data. If we follow the principles of systematicness and controllability, there are some auxiliary tools for qualitative analysis methods in the process of data collection, such as abstraction method, card method, cluster coding method and so on. Matrix diagram, conceptual model diagram, flow diagram, organization diagram and network diagram are all very popular qualitative analysis tools when making and describing research conclusions. In addition, qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis methods can also be combined from qualitative data through simple statistical means such as calculation and classification.
What needs to be pointed out here is that scientific research cannot be replaced by thought itself. Scientific research needs a process, which is to prove valuable ideas in a certain way and rise to theory; Or through certain methods to prove, create or improve the theory, thus affecting practice and decision-making. The scientific nature of the research process determines whether the research results will have a positive impact on practice and decision-making [9].
The fifth step is to process and analyze the data.
Data processing is mainly to ensure the accuracy of data and classify the original data in order to convert it into a form that can be further analyzed. Data processing mainly includes three steps: data editing, data coding and data entry. Data editing is to find out the errors and omissions of data and correct them as much as possible to ensure the accuracy, consistency and integrity of data and facilitate further coding and entry. Data coding is to classify the collected first-hand data (such as the answers to open questions in questionnaires) in a limited way and give them a number or other symbols. The main purpose of data coding is to simplify many different answers into a limited classification that is meaningful for future analysis. Data entry is to input the collected first-hand or second-hand data into a computer that can observe and process the data. Input devices include computer keyboards, photoelectric scanners, bar code recognizers, etc. Researchers can use statistical analysis software, such as SPSS, to analyze the data of the formed database. For a small amount of data, you can also use spreadsheets for input and processing.
Data analysis is to use the qualitative or quantitative analysis methods mentioned above to analyze the data. Researchers should adopt different statistical methods and verification methods according to different questions answered. For some studies, only descriptive statistical methods are needed, while for others, hypotheses may need to be verified. In statistics, the verification of hypothesis needs inferential statistics. For social science and business studies, some studies verify the statistical significance of the samples obtained, and finally come to the conclusion whether to reject or not to reject the hypothetical conditions. Other studies are all about measuring correlation, which usually involves correlation analysis and regression analysis. Correlation analysis is to measure the degree of correlation between variables through calculation; Regression analysis is to establish a mathematical formula to predict the value of the dependent variable.
It is worth noting that as the problems we study and analyze become more and more complex, the development of computers and statistical software makes the application of multivariate statistical tools more and more extensive. If the multivariate relationship is subordinate, we need to rely on technologies, such as multivariate regression analysis, discriminant analysis, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA, multivariate analysis of variance), canonical analysis, linear structural relationship (LISREL), joint analysis, etc. If multiple variables are interdependent, we need interdependent techniques, such as factor analysis, cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling. If the collected data has obvious time series, we don't consider the causal relationship between variables, but focus on the development and change law of variables in time, so we need time series analysis. At present, popular statistical software, such as SPSS, provides very good support for the above analysis methods.
Step 6: Draw a conclusion and complete the paper.
The writing of the paper should be reasonable in structure, clear in words and easy to understand. The form should be as intuitive as possible, such as using charts to express the research process and results. The writing of specific papers should include the following contents: abstract, research introduction (including background, research questions, research purposes), research methods and steps (sample selection, research design, data collection, data analysis, research limitations), research findings, conclusions (brief conclusions, suggestions, enlightenment significance), appendices and references.
For the study of problems in social science and business, the traditional thinking mode we follow is "asking questions, analyzing problems and solving problems". We admit that this is a creative thinking process. Following this way of thinking can help decision makers quickly find problems and solve them. However, using this mode of thinking to guide the research process is easy to confuse the status of researchers and decision makers, and it is difficult to find the position of researchers. First of all, this research idea and model confuse problem solving with problem research. Secondly, it does not highlight or cover up the discussion and compliance of research methods. This traditional way of thinking is a result-oriented way of thinking. It ignores the process of finding problems and following research methods. From the perspective of scientific research, the process of finding problems and the process of following research methods are two very important prerequisites in a research. The process of problem identification can ensure that the studied problems are targeted, the theory and practice are closely linked, and superficial articles can be prevented from appearing, which can not solve the fundamental problems. The follow-up process of the research method can ensure the reliability of the research results and make the research results convincing. Of course, here, we are not saying that the traditional model of "asking, analyzing and solving problems" is wrong, nor are we denying that the purpose of research is to guide practice. However, we feel that this traditional research thinking mode is too general and pays too much attention to the results, which is not enough to explain the general methods and research steps of scientific research.
In the research of social science and business, using this traditional research idea and mode to guide students to write papers is prone to two bad tendencies. First, we pay too much attention to the writing process of the paper itself, while ignoring the research process and research methods behind the writing of the paper. That is, only the results are emphasized, not the process. In this case, most of the writing of the paper is to piece together and integrate the information. Of course, we should not underestimate the value of piecing together and integrating data. However, if the writing of the thesis is blindly positioned in such a process, it is obviously suspected of being practical, which will not help to clarify and solve the problem, and it also runs counter to the original intention of knowledge creation. In particular, there is neither the process of finding problems, nor the formation of research problems and research hypotheses, nor even any general description of a problem that can be followed by research and analysis methods, and then a sensory solution is put forward. The results of this research are hard to accept. The second bad tendency is that the above traditional research ideas and models make us unable to tell whether we are doing research or making decisions. Research is usually carried out within a limited scope and under certain assumptions, so as to draw certain conclusions. We hope this conclusion will have an impact on decision makers. But after all, policy makers and researchers have different positions, and the problems they consider may be consistent with the researchers, or they may be very inconsistent. Valuable research is to inspire decision makers (or practitioners) with different positions and urge them to make win-win choices. Therefore, the traditional research thinking mode lacks the standard of judging the quality of research, and lacks systematicness, controllability and operability, which makes researchers eager for quick success and instant benefit and blindly pursue one-sided ultimate solutions.
In university of international business and economics's practice of guiding graduate students, we try to change the traditional thinking mode, try to make our graduate students combine the writing and research process of the thesis, pay special attention to the research process and research methods, and demand that these research methods and steps be reflected in the writing of the thesis. For example, the master thesis written by Wan Lianlian, a graduate student in 2002, "Management factors in the implementation of e-procurement system-a case study of Motorola's e-procurement system implementation" is a preliminary exploration in this regard. The structure of this paper is divided into five main parts: overview, guiding theory, methodology, data analysis, research conclusions and enlightenment, and various qualitative and quantitative methods such as questionnaire survey and in-depth interview are adopted. The research conclusion is very convincing, because researchers are not limited to the collection, sorting and processing of second-hand materials, but draw lessons from previous theoretical research frameworks, use questionnaires and other means, follow the method of case study, and draw conclusions after collecting, processing and analyzing first-hand materials, which has strong guiding significance for practice. The same research method has also been applied to other graduate students' thesis writing, such as Research on the Main Influencing Factors of Information Technology Implementation in Insurance Enterprises written by Gong Tuo in 2002, Research on the Current Situation of Copper Hedging in China written by Wang Wei in 2003, and Research on the Relationship between the Knowledge Management Level of China Banking Industry and the Development Level of Internet Banking written by Ma in 2003. Through thesis writing, these graduate students really mastered the general research methods and steps. The above conclusions are of direct reference significance to teaching and practice. In the process of teaching and consulting, its methods and conclusions have been affirmed. According to feedback from many parties, the effect is still very good.
Precautions:
[1] This was inspired by the basic research ideas of American scientists when I watched the dinosaur exhibition at the Natural Museum in Chicago, USA.
[2] Robson, Colin (1993), Real world research: resources for social scientists and practitioners-researchers. Blackwell Press, P303.
[3] Breiman, A. (1988), Quality and Quantity in Social Studies. London: Unwin Hyman. We find that many documents refer to quantitative and qualitative analysis methods as quantitative and qualitative techniques.
[4] Cook, T.D. and Reichardt, C.S. (1979) Qualitative and quantitative methods in evaluation research. Newbury Park and London. Comparative methods: Beyond qualitative and quantitative strategies. Berkeley, California University of California Press.
[5]Robson, Colin (1993), Real world research: resources for social scientists and practitioners-researchers. Blackwell Press, P307.
[6] John Van Manen, James M. Dabbous, Jr. and Robert R. Faulkner, A Study of Various Qualities (Beverly Hills: California: Sage Publishing Company, 1982), p. 32.
[7] This is because social science and business research contain human factors, and people themselves have their own defects as analysts. For example, the limitations of data, preconceived impression, availability of information, tendency of inference, continuity of thinking, reliability of data sources, incompleteness of information, error in judging information value, tendency of comparison, overconfidence, judgment of concurrent events and correlation, inconsistency of statistical data, etc. The summary and analysis of the above defects comes from Sadler, D.R. (198 1) intuitive data processing as a potential source of deviation in educational evaluation. Educational evaluation and policy analysis, 3, P25-3 1.
[8] Robson, Colin (1993), Real world research: resources for social scientists and practitioners-researchers. Blackwell Press, P37 1.
[9] Ronald R. Cooper, C. William Emory (1995, 5th edition) Business Research Methods, Owen, P352.