Chapter one gave us a general view of real world research; especially, the Box 1.1 showed some examples to help us to distingue the real world research and academic research. Also I learned a lot of useful preparations for doing the real world research in the future. What I like most is the Robson’s suggestion that “It is good practice to keep a full and complete record of all the various activities with which you are involved in connection with the project.”Everyone knows that the best memory is the pencil. Robson also gave us some possible content should be included in our diary. I will try to make record for some kinds of things even it is difficult to keep doing.
The chapter two introduced several main approaches to do the research, such as “positivist assumptions”, “relativistic”, “emancipator paradigm”, and “realist”. All the contents have already been introduced in prior reading, so I want to talk about the “scientific attitude”. Robson mentioned “systematically”, “sceptically”, and “ethically” involves carrying out research. In my opinion, the ethically is most important since the research result will not be widely accepted without ethical responsible.
Chapter three is most important in part I because it turns back to “real world” and provides a lot of real world approaches to develop the ideas. I like the “good research questions” in Box3.5, which clear and detail the tips for us to do a good research. It is very useful for me because I am a beginner in everything related to “research”, and I will enjoy reading the rest of this book.
Comments
Congshan,
I agree with you about the ethical aspect of doing research. Robson advocates this issue, among the three ones he describes as characteristics of a research, as well. I also think “systematically” and “skeptically” doing of a real world research are of great value, too. Although, in many of the researches of this kind being conducted at the time being, unfortunately, rarely we can find these characteristics.Thanks for bringing up the ethical issue. Sadly to say, in a time in which there are no witnesses to observe and confirm accuracy, some researchers are unethical. This was pointed out many times by Booth, Colomb and Williams in the "Craft of Research." Remember the story about Booth's student who had to shred questionnairs that do not meet the goals of the study?
I also agree with you about the importance of the ethics in doing research. We should not conduct an experiment without concerning about the consequences in the observed objects, especially, if they are human or living things that are always involved in the real world research. Although, the result of the research is interesting, it is also hard for the people world to accept that result of the research. This would be another reason that makes the real world research more difficult to be conducted.
Thank you for pointing out the important of keeping a diary. I agree with you of the important of that but I think is also a overhead of the overall work. I think one should practice that so he/she can balance between writing every single activities and the important ones