PREVIOUS: Generating a Research Question
Secondary v. Primary Research
Once you have your Research Question, you need to ask another question alongside it: What is the best way to answer my question?
In our discussion of research questions, we highlighted the ways that research is a recursive process, where sometimes you cover the same ground multiple times—but that with each pass you delve deeper, with more specificity and more sense of what you are looking for and with more awareness of success in what you find. Now that you have articulated your research question, you return to that research, reviewing and delving deeper in more specific areas.
However, as you discover the best way to answer your question, secondary research will not be your only option. You may want or need to use primary research to answer your question. What’s the difference? Secondary research is conducted by someone else. They are the ones who went out and did interviews, or surveys, or experiments. You will find many sources that explain that research and these sources will be valuable to you. However, sometimes you will need to conduct your own surveys, interviews, or study artifacts that no one else has analyzed yet. Doing so is primary research. BallPoint has two main sections to talk you through each of these different types of research: secondary and primary.
Sample Project Continued
Let’s look together at the research question about automation from the previous section. We will work through the process of discovering the best research methods to use in answering that question. This will serve as a model you can follow when you work with your own research question.
RESEARCH QUESTION: What is the role of government in responding to the loss of jobs due to automation?
In order to understand the best way to answer that question, it can help to break the question into its main parts. For this question, we have government, jobs, and automation. To be successful, we will need to learn more about each of those.
Government:
What level of government? Federal, State, or Local?
In most research projects, there will be something you can read, so Secondary Research is usually an option. We can go to the databases to discover if experts are talking about what level of government is responsible, or can be the most effective. Often conversations on policy in the United States will involve a discussion of the rights and responsibility of States vs. the Federal government. Although secondary research can work for this project, do not settle there, just because it is familiar.
Considering Primary Research means asking who you can talk to in an interview or get a response from for a survey. Our exploration of government helps see some of the challenges and opportunities of Primary Research.
If we start with the Federal government, here are some things to consider: there is a good chance that you do not know anyone, or even know someone who knows someone who works in the Federal government. This may mean that you would be “cold calling’ or perhaps emailing—sending out messages to busy people who do not know who you are. Contacting your own Senator or Congressperson may work better, because they will have incentive to talk to their constituents. Or, your secondary research may have given you the names of people in federal government who are very invested in this issue, in which case you may be able to get their attention through shared interest. These approaches may be long shots, but if you approach the task carefully and professionally, sometimes such efforts pay off.
At the level of State government, the task may be similarly challenging, although maybe you are more likely to know somebody who knows somebody. Again, though, it may be worth attempting, if there is someone you know will be able to provide you with strong research material.
What about government at the local level? It may be that when you initially thought “role of government” local government was not what came to mind. However, consider Muncie’s history. Muncie was once a manufacturing town—jobs have certainly been lost. You may need to ask and explore how many of those jobs were lost due to automation. However, finding someone in Muncie to talk to you about job loss is certainly within reach. You may need to start with somebody who knows somebody, but that is possible. Talking to your professor, or contacting professors in the business department may be a start. Looking up the city council or county commissioner. Looking to see what job initiatives are in place in Muncie by exploring the city website and the local paper archives may lead you to people to contact. There are probably meetings that are open to the public that you could attend where you could start this conversation.
In fact, this local angle, while you might have been led there because it happened to be accessible, could well become a significant part of your project. You might even be open to shifting your research project slightly, to answering a question like “What can Muncie’s experience with job loss tell us about the role of government…?”
When you start exploring Muncie’s experience, and Muncie’s history, consider where that might lead you. Ball State has a large archive section that includes material from and about Muncie’s past. Archival Research is another form of Primary Research, where you explore and analyze historical documents and materials. Perhaps Archival Research will be one Method available as a way to answer your research question.
Jobs and Automation:
You would be able to follow a similar approach in exploring Jobs and Automation. Secondary Research is going to provide much information. You will want to do everything you can to use that method to understand the issue. Along with that, however, keep asking if other methods align with your question. Secondary research can help you understand certain aspects of the effect automation has on jobs. Always consider other Research Methods to see if those methods align. For example, are there any local factories that use automation? Would you be able to observe? Would you be able to talk to someone who works along with the “robot”? Can you find someone who lost their job because of such automation?
Flow Chart
Still wondering what type of research to use and where to start? Check out this fun flow chart!
Summary
Research involves searching. It involves investigation. It involves networking and following threads to sources. And successful research is research that offers something new and original. You will find ways to use Secondary Research and be original. However, often you will find more opportunities for originality when you go beyond Secondary Research to talk to people about their lived experiences. Then, in Writing it Up you will analyze the various types of data you have collected, comparing, contrasting, and synthesizing, to arrive at a complex conclusion or argument.
NEXT: Secondary Research