Many children who live in the Bronx, a borough of New York City, are developing asthma. In a descriptive study investigating this problem, parents whose children have asthma are asked about whether they smoke around their child, whether they live near a freeway, whether their child regularly sees a healthcare provider, their family income level and also if there is a history in their family of asthma.
Prior research has shown that these factors may have an influence on the development of asthma in children. Printer Friendly. Module 3: Elements of Research - Section 1. BRC Home Glossary. Section 1: Variables The purpose of all research is to describe and explain variance in the world. Case Examples for Independent and Dependent Variables Example 1: In an experimental study looking at classical music exposure and reading ability in children, the researcher divided the children into two groups Groups A and B.
Example 2: In a study with a similar design as the previous example, researchers looked at the effects of nutrition on reading ability. Section 1: Discussion Questions In the second example what is the independent variable? In the second example, what is the dependent variable? Identify which variables are dependent and independent in the following examples: Example: Physical activity and weight loss Dependent Variable: weight loss Independent Variable: physical activity Positive feedback and self confidence Dependent Variable: Independent Variable: Headache and aspirin Dependent Variable: Independent Variable: Muscle mass and weight-training Dependent Variable: Independent Variable: Calcium consumption and bone density Dependent Variable: Independent Variable: Blood pressure and salt intake Dependent Variable: Independent Variable:.
Case Example for Descriptive Study Variables See if you can identify the variables that are under investigation in the following descriptive study: Many children who live in the Bronx, a borough of New York City, are developing asthma. Section 1: Discussion Questions What are the variables that are under investigation in this study? If you were the researcher, what other variables would you study to see if it may contribute to developing asthma? Given the variables presented in the example and the variables that you thought of, why would these variables be useful to the researcher?
Go to Module 3 Section 2. Mary George does a good job explaining that the student can control the research process with practice and thoughtful reflection. Horning, Yale University Library. Librarians and those with research instruction responsibilities will certainly use it, and college students will benefit immensely from it. This resource will be useful to anyone who needs or wants to understand the intellectual underpinnings of the research process.
Shorey, Main Library, Northwestern University. This guide does a creditable job pulling together various veins of thought and presenting the content in a way that is consistent with current pedagogy on the research process. Kirk, Lilly Library, Earlham College. This will be an indispensable addition to both high school and college-level research.
Mary George points out that research is not just to learn old knowledge but to generate new knowledge, understandings, and perspectives. Mary W. Illus: 6 line illus. Overview Author s Praise It also, in a way, statutorily recognized the power of the cassation division to overrule its earlier decisions. The newly inserted sub-Article 4 runs as under: Interpretation of a low sic by the Federal Supreme Court rendered by the cassation division with not less than five judges shall be binding on federal as well as regional council at all levels.
The cassation division may however render a different legal interpretation some othe r time. It says: The Federal Supreme Court shall publish and distribute decisions of the cassation division that contain binding interpretation of laws to all levels of courts and other relevant bodies. It reflects social attitudes and behavior. It also seeks to mould and control social attitudes and behavior of people to ensure that they flow the expected channel. However, social values and attitudes, existing as well as expected, keep on changing.
It makes the law to be dynamic and cope with the changing social ethos. Further, ongoing scientific and technological developments add to these complexities by creating new complex human relationship that needs law to regulate. He requires not only to locate and to look into relevant publish in its Ethiopian Law Journal a few select judgments of the appellate courts on irregular basis.
See, its various issues. It is a matter of common experience that these legislative instruments are scattered and are not easily traceable. More than one Acts may have bearing on the topic under study.
He, therefore, needs to be more careful in locating these laws. Most of the subsidiary legislative instruments are not published on time in Official Gazette. Most of the times they are published after they have come into force. A plethora of judicial pronouncements of different higher judicial institutions including of the apex court adds to the difficulty in ascertainment of law.
He needs to locate, analyze and digest these judicial pronouncements. Finding law on a particular topic or subject, thus, is not a simple task, as it seems to be. It involves intensive analysis of legal instruments and judicial pronouncements. Further, there is a constant stream of statutes with often amendments , statutory rules, directives and orders, and judicial decisions flowing at a tremendous speed in a modern welfare State. Sometimes, a provision may not, in terms of its phraseology or pragmatic operation, aptly fit into overall legislative intent of the Act or match with its other provisions or provisions of other Acts.
Such an analysis helps in the development of law, legal provision or doctrine, as the case may be. Such an understanding enables us to know the social stakes that law intends to protect or change and reasons therefor.
It helps to appreciate underpinning of the given law and its legislative target and strategy. Such an audit helps us to find out as to whether a given law is assimilated in the society and is or is not serving the needs of the society.
It also unravels the reasons or factors that are responsible for making a given law a mere symbolic or a failure in attaining its intended legislative goal s. It also enables us to predict future of the law. By undertaking analytical, historical and comparative research, he can also formulate his proposals for reform in precise terms. Analytical research, as stated above, is concerned with the ascertainment of law. It deals with the present. Historical research, on the other hand, deals with the past and it involves an inquiry into historical antecedents and evolution of law.
The past often explains the present, most vividly. It reveals different alternative legislative measures, other than the current ones, thought of when the law was in the making. It discloses the reasons for their rejection and for adoption of the present ones. Historical research often shows that a particular existing legal provision, rule or doctrine, fully justifiable at the time when it was introduced or adapted, is no longer so justifiable because the reasons or circumstances that justified the original inclusion of that provision, rule or doctrine are no longer valid or exist.
While comparative research aims at finding parallels from other jurisdictions. Thus, analytical [i. To ascertain laws on a given topic or subject. To critically examine consistency, coherence and stability of law and legal propositions.
To find out as to whether law is serving the needs of the society and has a social value. To make suggestions for improvements in the law on concrete formulations and proposals. To predict future trends of law. What will be the potential importance of each of the research conducted in the papers mentioned above under activity 2. Discuss in groups. It is to be discussed in class in the form of examples for importance of legal research in the Ethiopian justice system.
He may be a sociologist, an historian, a political scientist, a social anthropologist, an economist, or a legal philosopher. But as an occupational exercise, legal research needs to be undertaken by Legislators, Judges, Lawyers, and Legal Academia law teachers and students.
Legislators do not legislate at random. They also do not legislate simply because they are authorized or obligated to enact laws. Under normal circumstances, the exercise of legislative power by them is neither ex tempore nor by accident.
Legislators have to decide the areas that are susceptible to legislative treatment. They have also to decide as to whether the proposed legislative measure improves the state of things or the existing social practice.
Legislators opt for the legislative measure, when, in their wisdom, none of the identified and available alternative measures are either adequate or apt to bring the desired results. Lawmakers, therefore, are expected, as a part of their professional commitment, to make a systematic search for the possible alternatives to the proposed legislative measure and to make a serious and meticulous comparative assessment of efficacy and viability of each one of the identified alternatives for handling the problem.
Such a search will enable them to identify the basic principles, doctrines and legislative strategy adopted in the identical overseas law and thereby to perceive the feasibility of adopting, with necessary modifications, them in the proposed legislation. Similar is the case when they want to amend either the existing legislation or a statutory provision or to repeal it. To what extent legislators actually and fruitfully engage themselves in the research-exercise is a different matter.
Majority of the laws are passed on the floor of the House with no or less debate. Similarly, the hierarchical status of the court he sits on, nature of the matter or lis involved, and his workload determine the intensity of the required research. The research output of an appellate court judge and of a judge of the higher court or an apex court or a constitutional court or Cassation Court is high as the issues brought before him are of legally as well as politically significant.
Most of the times, as evident from our experience, such reasoning and logical deductions have not only boosted further development of legal rules and principles but have also culminated into some pertinent theories and legal doctrines. A student of law has umpteen number judicial opinions in his memory that not only exhibit high scholarship of the judges but also have led to theories and legal doctrines of far reaching consequences.
However, it is significant to recall that a Judge cannot on his own either ascertain law or legal principles or apply them unless someone calls upon him to do so by invoking his jurisdiction. He, sometimes, is also required to give legal opinion on the matter referred to him by his client.
In order to discharge these professional commitments, a lawyer has obviously to engage himself in searching law, propositions of law, and precedent if required. However, at times, finding law on a particular topic or issue is not an easy task. Further, most of the times, Legislature, advertently or inadvertently, draft law in an imperfect language or couch a legal provision with phraseology that can be subjected to equally convincing more than one interpretation.
His client expects him not only to give right advice but also to impress upon the judge and convince him that his legal propositions are sounder than that of his opponent and hence correct. For making his arguments more effective and convincing, he has obviously to explore and expound aims, objects, policy goals, scope and pragmatic aspects of the applicable legal provision s.
He, therefore, needs to scan statutory and judicial material and also materials comprising the history of the legal provision s. A Practicing Counsel who advises his client to go in appeal against an unfavorable decision of the lower court, in reality, believes that the reasoning given by the lower court was less or no-convincing and was not in tune with the thitherto prevalent legislative policy and judicial interpretation.
Therefore, he trusts that his reasoning is better than that of the court below. A scholar, reflecting on the nature of legal research to be carried out by a lawyer as a part of his profession, observed: It is a misconception to think that legal research is only for theoretician or academician and not for lawyer. Further, a lawyer has to do research to find as to how the law should be interpreted, since the law is, at times, expressed in ambiguous language and leaves gaps to be filled in, during the process of its application, from case to case, and is not easily knowable.
But all this has changed now. Firstly, there are too many statutes on a particular subject with frequent amendments thereto. The latter are equally, and sometimes more, important than the relevant statute itself. Fourthly, in many areas of government regulation of private enterprises and in constitutional and administrative law questions, where our law is still in the developing stages, a lawyer is required to do research in comparative law to comprehend the meaning of the words and to interpret them.
Fifthly, many questions in the present complex of socio-economic life, , raise difficult policy questions and a lawyer is required to traverse beyond legal doctrines and propositions. Probably, the nature of cases they handle are of routine nature and do not warrant such a serious legal research.
Nevertheless, role of a lawyer as a researcher, compared with an academician, in legal research is limited. He undertakes legal research only when a client approaches to him. His research is also coloured by the need to win the case at hand. He, therefore, lacks a wider perspective, objectivity and ability to draw a line on the graph depicting the development of the law and to make predictions about law in his professional career.
Nevertheless, his well- matched intellectual acumen, policy-orientation, and social awareness may, undoubtedly, result an often results in articulating and advancing superb arguments. It certainly leads to the development of law. They are required to undertake legal research as a part of their professional commitment. There is a close connection between teaching law and legal research. He has to have an over-all idea of the subject as well as detailed knowledge of the topics included in the course-outline before he designs his course.
Such knowledge, which obviously comes from research, makes him capable of formulating his ideas in a systematic and comprehensible manner in the course outline. Such an intensive peep into the legislative intent and policy of a rule will also induce him and his students to have a critical assessment of the rule as well as of its desirability in the statute book.
A law teacher is also expected to inculcate a degree of legal craftsmanship in his students and to help them realize the potential of law as a tool of social engineering, social change and an instrument of social control. Research, thus, becomes inevitable for a law teacher to effectively perform his following roles: 1. To expose his students to a critical posture towards the role of law in the society. To help them realize the role of law in social engineering. To inspire his students to be engaged in legal research.
To help internalization of the notion of the rule of law. Most of the modern Law Schools and Law Universities, that have predominantly designed their curricula on the patterns of American and British Law Schools, require their students to undertake original research as one of the pre-requisites for obtaining their degree - LL. A or two seminar papers, on a selected or pre-assigned topic, for each seminar subject [for LL.
Honors ]. A senior thesis on a selected or pre-assigned topic [for LL. A comprehensive piece of legal writing [for LL. Hons ]. A group research assignment in the form of a mini- thesis on a current legal problem [for LL.
A or two comprehensive legal essays on contemporary issues, selected or assigned, for each subject [for LL. A or a set of research papers of high quality or a dissertation in lieu of the examination in an LL.
A thesis of high quality in lieu of the LL. A law student aspiring for a degree LL. These institutions are required to inculcate in their students some habit of legal writing and research. It is, or should be, a research center of its own. It should possess a corps of advanced students-Professors-who themselves are engaged in personal research, and from whom will come a stream of books, articles and studies to enrich our legal literature.
Generally, they get themselves involved in legal research only to fulfill their professional responsibilities. Their research, therefore, ends when they accomplish their professional commitments. In other words, a Legislator deliberates on the proposed law or an amendment thereto when circumstances warrant him to stipulate a legislative measure to tackle the prevailing social problem. A Lawyer gets involved in legal research to sharpen his arguments and thereby to win a case at hand.
He, therefore, ceases to be a legal researcher when his case is disposed off by a Court. Similarly, a Judge starts an inquiry into legal rules or doctrines that are apt to solve the issues involved in the case at hand. Similar is the case of an Appellate Judge when he is called upon a litigant to reconsider the unfavorable judicial dictum of the lower court.
The moment he disposes off the case at hand, he hardly pursues his inquiry into the legal principles or rules involved therein. However, it is important to note at this juncture that embarking on legal research by legal academia requires three basic conditions.
First, it should have an access to a law library holding a good number of reference books with latest editions and legal periodicals published at home and abroad.
Undoubtedly, library is the laboratory for a legal researcher to investigate the legal problem s at hand. Secondly, the academia has to have some aptitude and requisite skill to get involved in a meaningful legal research. Thirdly, it should also have some leisure time at its disposal for getting indulged into intensive legal research. In this context, it is worth to reca ll here the following observation of the Canadian Committee on Legal Research.
It observed: A good school is built round the course of full-time, well-trained teachers dedicated to work and sufficiently relieved from drudgery to be free to think and write, and to give individual attention to their students. This means that the teaching load must reasonably be low and the salary sufficiently high, to attract the best minds. Write a historical essay showing the development in a field of law or a particular doctrine. Analyze a legal doctrine, rule, principle or concept to see whether it matches with the thitherto judicial statements and to suggest new set of statements or words if the existing ones, in his opinion, do not match.
While doing so, he can highlight ambiguities in the doctrine or gaps prevalent therein and state, with rationale and reasons, what are the correct propositions of law that need to apply. For suggesting correct propositions, he may rely upon the underlying policy of the doctrine, rule, principle or concept.
The quotation appears on pp Write a kind of survey on the recent developments in law summarizing the most important cases, analyzing how they have followed, or deviated from, the past cases, and make a guess as to what the courts would do in future. This is usually a matter of deploring a trend, legislative or judicial. For any of the first three, one needs only a good law library. For the fourth, one does not event need that. But the last requires not only a good law library but also a good deal of non- legal facts.
Therefore, these five options available to a legal scholar can be divided into two broad categories of legal research, namely, doctrinal legal research and non-doctrinal regal research. It endeavors to see the relationship between law and other behavioral sciences and social facts. It involves empirical inquiry into the operation of law.
Most of the times, it also plays a role of catalyst for bringing socio- economic change. It is a means to an end. A systematic investigation of the first dimension of law as a normative science , generally, falls in the domain of legal academia.
A scholar of law, generally, undertakes a rigorous systematic analysis, exposition and critical evaluation of legal rule, legal principle, legal concept or doctrine i. Based on this analysis, he may highlight conceptual basis of the legal rule, principle or doctrine and may forward some proposals for reforms. He need not go beyond the discipline of law. In other words, Law Schools, hitherto, has been giving emphasis on analytical legal research. Legal scholars, therefore, have not been able to evolve any specific methodology of their own for carrying out legal research.
They do not have well-articulated research methods to employ and research methodology to follow in legal research. Sociologists, on the other hand, have developed and inherited a comparatively well developed research methods and methodology for systematic investigation of social fact or behavior. They have been engaged in discovering, verifying or testing the old social facts or discovering new ones; analyzing sequence of these facts, finding their relationships and causal explanations, and developing new scientific concepts and theories about human behavior.
For accomplishing these tasks, social scientists have developed research tools of various kinds such as observational techniques, interviews and questionnaire, and case studies. They have a well-developed research methodology covering all major processes of research, namely, identification of a problem; formulation of a workable hypothesis or hypotheses ; preparing research design; collection of data through interview, questionnaire, schedule or observation ; processing, analyzing and interpretation of data, and writing research report.
He has to understand the extent to which his research problem shares the characteristics of social sciences, and the extent to which it is distinctive. If the research problem is a part of, and on par with, social sciences, the legal researcher has obviously to use and apply the methodology known to social sciences. And if it has its own distinct characteristics, he has to use different methodology. Legal periodicals and journals are indispensable sources of information for a legal researcher.
They contain wealth of the first hand and in-depth information on a particular point. Reports, published by Governmental or non- governmental agencies, also contain rich information on the subject of inquiry. Similar is the case of conference papers. They are indeed indispensable for any legal researcher. These publications save his time and energy in locating the required statutes. The present author has found a few volumes of compilations of laws of Ethiopia published by the Faculty of Law o f the Haile Sellassie 1 University now Addis Ababa University.
The laws included in these volumes are most intelligently organized. However, the series is discontinued after bringing out five volu mes. Blackstone Publishers bring out subject-wise consolidation of Brit ish statutes. These secondary sources include textbooks, treatises, commentaries on statutes, abstracts, bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes, reviews, and thesauri.
Textbooks, legal treatises, and commentaries on statutes constitute significant secondary sources of legal research. Textbooks and legal treatises offer a researcher proper idea of the subject and enable him to find several other useful sources of information on the topic of his research. They also help him in comprehending basic principles of, and judicial statements on, the topic under inquiry. Abstracts provide a simplified key to find relevant studies from the vast literature on the subject.
Bibliographies list books and related materials on a particular subject. An annotated bibliography provides a brief analysis of the contents. Dictionary contains an alphabetical listing of words with their meaning, spelling, pronunciation, derivation and grammatical usage.
However, with the growth of knowledge, it has not been possible for general language dictionaries to keep up with technical terms developed in the various fields. So the need for subject specific dictionaries arose. A legal researcher, therefore, can find a couple of legal dictionaries 42 of worth consulting.
It furnishes greater details of the subjects dealt thereunder than a dictionary. It provides meaning and historical background of concepts, important theories, names and references of major works. West Publishing Co. There are a number of encyclopedias that may be, depending upon his subject of inquiry, of great use to a legal researcher.
According to them, the artificiality created by the indexing system is a mental process for quick retrieval of information. It not only helps the reader to locate the required information immediately but also facilitates the identification or selection of the desired documents and provides comprehensive overview of the subject. There are also a few acclaimed general encyclopedias that are usable in legal research. It usually covers a limited period of time.
A thesaurus is a book of words grouped by ideas. Its purpose is to help identify synonymous and find the exact word. With an ever- increasing list of technical words. Thesauri are also available for many disciplines, including law. These are compilations of the vocabulary used to identify concepts in the literature within a given area.
There are numerous scientific directories that provide list of journals, scientists, universities. They list their information quite like the telephone directory.
These help the researcher to tap appropriate journals and expert advice on the topic of research. Union list is the list of all the journals that are available either in the given library union list for the library or all the libraries in the country national union list. The union list for a particular library tells you the journals the library subscribes to, the issues of these journals that are available and the missing volumes. Union lists are invaluable in tracking down a journal.
If a journal you need is not available in your local library the national union list will help you locate a library in the country that has a copy. Legal research is not an exception to this general precept of research. However, undertaking and executing legal research, as a systematic inquiry, is a complex process. It involves a three-stage process. Each one of them warrants skill.
The processes are research planning, research implementation, and presenting of research findings. Research planning requires the necessary sub-skills for: fact collection, legal analysis, legal knowledge, problem identification, legal analysis, fact analysis, further fact collection, identification of avenues of research, and generation of key search words. Research implementation, as the second-stage processes, involves the skills pertaining to: identification of problems for resolution, identification of relevant research source materials, location of the source materials, effective use of the source materials, analysis of research findings, application of findings to the identified problem s , and identification of further problem s.
While the third-stage process, i. They overlap continuously rather than following the prescribed sequence strictly. The order sketched above is meant to provide a procedural guideline for research. A brief description of each one of the steps is necessary here to put the legal process in the right perspective and to highlight, in brief, their significance and role in legal research.
It is the first and foremost step in any research undertaking. In fact, success of research depends upon the selection of an apt research problem and its proper formulation. A research is goal-directed. If the goal itself is unknown or ill-defined, the research will lead the researcher nowhere.
Thus, it becomes necessary to have a well-defined and precise research problem for meaningful research. However, identification and formulation of a research problem is not an easy task. In most scientific works, the difficulty lies in framing problems rather than in finding their solutions. Before formulating a research problem, it is, however, necessary for the researcher, in sequence, to identify an area of his general interest, an area or subject- matter of his special interest from the area of his general interest, and an aspect from the subject- matter of his special interest that he would like inquire into.
Then he has to do a lot of reading on the aspect identified for further inquiry. For example, a scholar of law interested in undertaking research in public law that happens to be an area of his general interest.
He has then to identify an area of his special interest from public law, say Constitution. There may be an umpteen number of aspects of the Constitution that are of worth probing.
Let us assume that he is interested in the Chapter Three of the Constitution dealing with Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. This is not enough for him to formulate a research problem.
He needs to select a Fundamental Right that interests him more and from this, he has to identify an aspect of the fundamental right that, according to him, deserves further probing. He has to read a lot on, and about, the aspect before he ventures into formulating a statement of problem for his further inquiry. After reading about the aspect, he is required to put in a lot of thinking and intellectual input in phrasing the aspect in an intelligent and precise propositional form so that he can get something meaningful out of it.
It needs to put in such a way that it signifies the focus of inquiry as well as its direction. This is the process whereby the researcher locates and selects the references that are relevant for his inquiry. The researcher has also to take special care to locate earlier studies done on the problem and to have a quick reading thereof.
However, in the recent past, the literature review process has changed dramatically with access to computers and specially World Wide Web www page. First, searching the www is, by itself, insufficient for literature review. Although many leading journals and other published information from recognized sources are now available on the Web, it does not have all the available literature.
Using the Web can be the basis of literature review but it needs to be balanced with material-very new-published in journals and periodicals that are not put on the Web and the publications that might not have been caught by search engines. Secondly, it is not always evident that the information put on the Web is presented accurately.
Literature review, thus, helps the researcher to know and to have his preliminary impressions about: 1. Theoretical and conceptual issues raised, with or without suggesting solutions therefor. The operational framework and research techniques used in the previous research, and their propriety.
Literature review enables the researcher to know what kind of data has been used, what methods have been used to obtain the data, and what difficulties the earlier researchers in collecting and analyzing the data have faced. Main purposes of literature review, thus, are: 1. To reveal what has been done and written on the topic in the past. To appreciate adequacy or otherwise of the data used for drawing the conclusions.
To know the central arguments advanced and the concepts revealed and discussed earlier. To acquaint with the patterns of presentation of these arguments and the concepts and the relationship established or attempted to establish between these arguments and the concepts. A statement of problem, depending upon research goals and the nature of inquiry involved, may take form of either a mere statement or a proposition indicating possible relationship between two or more variables or concepts, the validity of which is unknown in the beginning.
Such a proposition is known as hypothesis. Hypothesis, thus, is merely a tentative assumption made in order to draw and test its logical or empirical consequences. It is a tentative, testable statement. A statement to be a hypothesis must be capable of being tested. If its validity cannot be put to empirical confirmation, a proposition, howsoever attractive or interesting may be ceases to be a hypothesis.
The manner in which a hypothesis is formulated is very important as it gives significant clues about the kind of data required, the type of methods to be used for collecting data, and the methods of analysis to be used. It guides the researcher by delimiting the area of research and keeps him on the right track throughout his investigation. It sharpens his thinking and focuses attention on the more important facets of the problem under inquiry. Therefore, a hypothesis, to be worked with, needs to be precise, specific, and conceptually clear.
It must have empirical referents. It must also be related to available research techniques. A researcher, for example, indulged in exploratory or descriptive legal research is not required to formulate hypothesis. Research design is the conceptual structure within which research is conducted. It is a logical systematic planning of research. The term research design refers to the entire process of planning and carrying out a research study.
It is the process of visualization of the entire process of conducting empirical research before its commencement. However, the blue print is tentative as the researcher may not be able to foresee all the contingencies before he starts his investigation. He is allowed to meet these contingencies when he encounters them in his research journey. Research design helps the researcher to identify in advance the kind of data he requires, the means to collect them, the methods to be used for analysis and interpretation of the data, and presentation of his findings with more acc uracy.
Research design, thus, helps him in minimizing the uncertainties, confusion and practical hazards associated with the research problem. It helps in enhancing efficiency and reliability of his findings. He has to, from a wide range of methods of data collection, ranging from interviews to observations to document analysis, opt for the most appropriate method s for collecting data.
It is very crucial decision having far-reaching consequences on the outcome of research. The research method s , which he chooses, will ultimately determine the quality and propriety of the data and in turn, of the consequential results. While selecting method s of data collection, the researcher has to take into account the objectives of his research and the nature and scope the inquiry. Data can be primary or secondary. Data collected by the researcher, by using primary sources, is primary.
The data already collected by some other agency and available in some published form is secondary. In either case, the researcher has to select an appropriate method. Data, in any form, are raw and neutral. Their direction and trend is generally highlighted and reflected with the help of analysis and interpretation. However, there is no clear-cut dividing line between analysis and interpretation.
Analysis is not complete without interpretation and interpretation cannot proceed without analysis. They are inter- dependent. Analysis of data involves a number of closely related operations, such as classification or categorization, coding, and tabulation.
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