Demarcate Your Research Questions And Hypotheses

There are several elements in a research report, which are enough to confuse and confound a scholar. The aims, hypothesis, objectives and questions are a few things that are essential for any research report and must be stated in the most precise form. But, to achieve this precision, it is first crucial to get clarity on the role of each one of these features.

Research questions will inform a reader the issues which you are addressing, and which you wish to answer through the study. This is what you want to learn. The hypotheses complement the questions, by stating the probable answers that form the basis of your research. These are the theories that you form on the basis of prior study or experience and you aim to prove the same by the time you reach the conclusion, through data analysis.

In many qualitative, the hypothesis may be just propositions, but they serve the function of theories. These are grounded in the prior studies and data that are sought by means of preliminary research and formation of the proposal. The theories are connected with the research data and are tested in interaction with them. On the other hand, a quantitative study will state hypothesis as theories which do not have a base in the data, but are to be tested against it.

Many times, the hypothesis is formed after the data has been collected, in the case of qualitative research. While in the quantitative studies, the data requirement is always based on the hypothesis. Even after the theory has been formulated and stated, it must be revised to ensure that there are no validity issues, they conform to the information at hand and they are practical enough to be proved.

Whatever be the kind of hypotheses that one forms, it must be borne in mind that they are not exactly the objectives of research. The goals of your study will extend beyond just proving the theory. It will also include answering the related research questions, as well as proving the relevance and usability of the research results. So, when you sit down to prepare a research report, outline your questions, aims and theories roughly, so as to proceed with clarity later. 

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Pay attention to your research questions

A research starts always with a question which the researcher seeks to answer through observation, data analysis or experimentation; or a mix of all these methods. However,when you form research questions, you have to be careful to present the question in manner that makes it easy for any reader to understand the purpose of the work.

There are various aims that the questions achieve, depending on where they appear. In a proposal, they are responsible for giving information to the readers about the objectives of the research and identify the goal. On the other hand, when they are included in the research design in the dissertation, they help the writer to focus on the topic of the research, as well as decide upon the methodology to be followed for research. The question itself gives an indication towards the method which can be best used for finding the answers. 

Because of such importance of the questions, they must always be specific. There must be no ambiguity in the formation and presentation of questions. It becomes difficult to identify the methods to be adopted for collection of data, locations that are fit for collection of data, participants of the study and methods for analysis of data. 

The reason is simple. When you do not know the place where you want to reach, how will you decide what route to take and what transportation will be best suited? Generation of a relevant theory is dependent on the proper framing of the research question. Specifically framed questions will point a researcher towards a module that can be used for developing and understanding the study. 

However, there is a potential danger if the question is too specific or has a narrow scope. In such a case, the scholar will overlook some points which are not factored in by the questions, but do impact the study. Some prior theory or variables may be left out of the scope of research. Thus, the tightly bound questions form a knowledge tunnel, and shuts out the light of external factors or prior theories. Also, the students may not be careful enough to connect the questions with the goals of the study in the proposal. Such negligence will make it tough to get an approval.

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