Finding, analyzing and documenting information is an essential part to the writing process. Researching for a report may be as simple as getting a computer printout of sales for the last month, or it may involve fining online or published material or even surveying or interviewing people.
There are two types of research: primary research and secondary research. Primary research gathers new information such as surveys, interviews and observations. Secondary research retrieves information that someone else gathered. Library research and online searches are good examples of secondary research.
In order to write appropriate questions for surveys and interviews test your questions to make sure they are neutral and clear. The easiest way to ask many questions is to create a questionnaire. A questionnaire is a written list of questions that people fill out.
In order to decide who to survey or interview you use a random sample for surveys and you use a judgement sample for interviews. The sample you choose depends on the purpose of your research and is specific to each case.
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