Research - Book Report/Review Example

However, at the proposal stage of any research the researcher needs to consider the following questions. Firstly, the researcher needs to indentify the methodology to be applied in the research. In addition, the researcher needs to justify the choice and use of a particular methodology or method. An appropriate response to the second question indicates the purpose for the research or the research questions that the research seeks to answer. A researcher will require having information concerning the possible outcome of a research.

For instance, the researcher will be interested in knowing how the research will respond to the research questions. In addition, the researcher is interested in knowing about the new information our knowledge that will be contributed to the field under consideration. After the researcher has settled the two basic questions, he or she must respond to the following four questions. What methods to use, “what methodology governs our choice and use of methods?” “What theoretical perspective lies behind the methodology in question?

” The four questions are fundamental element of any research. Answers to the questions provide a guideline on how research projects ought to be carried out. In addition, a researcher needs to have precise information on different terminology applied in research projects. Methods are techniques or processes used to gather and analyze information. In most social research, the two basic questions are instrumental and they form bulk of most research and methodology texts. However, the four research questions are clumped together under one class or category.

It is difficult to distinguish between theoretical perspective and epistemology. Epistemology refers to the relationship between a research information and knowledge with the methodical element of the research. On the other hand, ethnography is equivalent to the methodology applied in a research project. Ethnography is dependent on the researcher’s choice of methods and implementation tactics. In the order of priority, a researcher needs to define the epistemology of the research, which then determines the theoretical perspective and the methodology to be applied in a research project.

The methodology of a research is then used to develop the methods that a researcher uses to collect and analyze data. There are several epistemological position and hence a number of theoretical approaches that can be applied in a given research. This indicates possibility of multiple methodologies and more than one method that a researcher can apply to collect and analyze information or data. Epistemology is defined directly from the theoretical perspective chosen by a researcher. It involves knowledge and it can be described as the essence of knowing what a researcher want to know.

Epistemology defines the nature of knowledge and the possibility of having different scopes that define knowledge. In addition, epistemology provides a philosophical basis for knowledge. Ontology is a common terminology in research literature and it is used to describe the study of ‘being’. It is therefore concerned with ‘what is’ and the nature or purpose of existence. Ontological and epistemological issue seems to be used interchangeably. Realism is an example of epistemology that asserts that reality only exists outside the mind.

In the four-column approach based on the four terminologies, social