Learning Units

LL122 - Research and Reporting

UNIT 6: CONDUCTING RESEARCH

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Outline for Conducting Research

INTRODUCTION
INTERNET
  1. Internet Directories and Search Engines
  2. Meta Search Engines
  3. Specialty Search Engines
  4. Quality of Information
  5. Sample Search Syntax
PERIODICAL DATABASE
  1. Accessing Databases
  2. Periodical Databases
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
  1. Types of Interview Situations
    a) One-on-one interviews
    b) One on many interviews (A pair or more)
    c) Super (Delhi) groups
    d) Focus groups
    e) Surveys
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
  1. Preparing for Analysis
    a) Yes/no questions
    b) Question and answer choices
    c) Giving choices that cover a "range"
  2. An Analysis of Specific Quesionnaire Questions
    a) Example 1
    b) Example 2
    c) Example 3
    d) Example 4
  3. Qualitative vs. Quantitative
    a) Myth 1
    b) Myth 2

INTRODUCTION

There are a variety of ways to do research. When people hear the word "research," they often think of the library. But the library is only one source of information. When dealing with problems related to business, interviews with the people in the situation or experts in the area you are investigating can give you more insight into the situation than the library.

Sometimes research often requires that the person collecting the information ensure that the information is relevant to a particular situation, or that specific information is applicable in general. Questionnaires are a popular way of collecting data to verify information.

There has also been an explosion of information on the Internet. This part of the course has been designed to expose you to the techniques of collecting research from a variety of sources. Taking advantage of these opportunities by experimenting with these different research sources in the course will allow you to develop your skills and utilize them in the workplace.

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INTERNET

The Internet contains a wealth of information. The problem is knowing where to look. If you wanted to get information about Report Writing, for instance, and you entered the words "report writing" into a search, the results would indicate that there are over 12-million Web sites that contain these words. Obviously we don't have time to look at 12-million Web sites, and of course not all of these sites would be applicable.

1. Internet Directories and Search Engines

There are two main tools you can use to search on the Internet: Internet Directories and Search Engines.

  1. Internet Directories
    • Internet Directories allow you to search for Internet sites by category. They are helpful when you are looking at getting information on broad topics. For example, if you were looking for information on Amusement Parks, directories would help. Each category breaks down into subsections.
    • A popular Internet Directory is Yahoo! Canada located at http://ca.yahoo.com. You can browse through the sections and subsections or search for a key word within the Internet Directories. Yahoo! Canada divides information into 14 different categories, with headings such as Arts and Humanities, Business and Economy, Computers and Internet, Education, Entertainment, etc. Once you select a category, you will get list of subsections with the number of references (or Web pages) in each of the items in the subsection.

    2.  

  2. Search Engines

    While directories organize information into categories, search engines allow you to search the entire contents of Web sites on the World Wide Web using "key words". The most popular keyword search engine is www.google.com (www.google.ca).

    With keyword search engines, you can enter a few words and these tools will search the contents of the World Wide Web and bring back a list of potential contacts. For example, if you are looking for information on Pierre Trudeau, enter these words will get all sites that have the words pierre and trudeau. Sites that have have a higher relevancy rating will appear earlier in the list of potential matches for the key words you ender..

Search engines are data bases that reference millions of Web sites. Most are free to use, but, like television, pay for their services with advertising. Not all Web sites are listed in search engines.

You can better define your search with each search engine by using the search syntax of that search engine. Search syntax is a list of commands that will give you more specific information. For example, if you use double quotes (" ") around a series of words ing Google, the search engine will give higher relevnacy to sites that contain all of the words inside the quotes, and not just one of them. For example, if you type in "jack in the box," InfoSeek will search for all websites that have all four of these words in this order. If you leave the quotes off, it will search for websites that have at least one of the words. Unfortunately, the syntax for search engine can be slightly different. The syntax for each search engine is generally accessible from the first page as a link labelled "Advanced Search".

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2. Meta-Search Engines

Meta-search engines are websites that search several search engines simultaneously. That means you can enter your keywords and perform a search using a variety of search engines all at the same time. Two popular All-in-One search engines are

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3. Specialty Search Engines

These search engines limit themselves to a very specific area. The following are two specialty search engines and their Internet addresses:

For example, SEARCH.COM has databases where you can search for information on the Bible, NFL players or movie reviews, as well as a variety of other topics.

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4. Quality of Information

One of the greatest things about the Internet is that everyone has access to it. However, when searching for information, you must keep this fact in mind. There are no controls on what is put on the Internet. Much off the information on the Internet is inaccurate, exaggerated or irrelevant, and should be treated as such. You should make an effort to confirm any information you receive from the Internet, unless you are certain about the credibility of the provider (Statistics Canada, for example).

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5. Sample Search Syntax

The following information contains the hints and search syntax for one search engine, Infoseek, as an example only. All search engines have different procedures.

1. Click in the search box, and type a few words.

Both Proper Names and full questions are understood by Infoseek.

For example, typing growing orchids indoors will find sites about caring for orchids.

Syntax Search Tips:

Capitalize names of people and places.

If you capitalize adjacent names, Infoseek treats the words as a single name or title. For example, type:

Rock Hudson

If you don't capitalize a name or title, it will be treated like any other group of words. You will find sites about rock climbing, rock music and the Hudson River along with sites about the movie actor.

Use commas (,) to separate names and titles.

To search for several names or titles, use commas to separate them. To find sites that mention both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, type

Steve Jobs, Bill Gates

If a comma is not used between names, it will be treated as one long single name. A search for Steve Jobs Bill Gates will not find information about either man.

Use double quotation marks (") around words or hyphens (-) between words that must appear next to each other. Type

"stupid pet tricks" or stupid-pet-tricks

to find sites with those words adjacent to each other. Otherwise, Infoseek will find sites that include the word stupid, the word pet, and the word tricks. (When using hyphens, be sure that you leave no spaces between the words.) Remember, double quotes make the search case-sensitive; hyphens (-) do not.

Use a plus sign (+) in front of a word that must appear.

To require a word, and increase the precision of your search, type

city guides +San Francisco

Do not leave a space between the plus sign and the word that must appear.

Use a pipe (|) to search a certain set of results only.

This command is used to narrow search results by searching for one word or phrase, and then within that set of results searching for another word or phrase.

dogs | Dalmatians

Search for a specific link or URL.

To search for a page containing a specific link or URL, use link: or url:. For example, type

link:www.infoseek.com
or
url:http://www.infoseek.com

to see how many external links point to Infoseek.

Note that unlike other search engines, Infoseek provides an exact count of matches, not approximations.

Search for a specific site and its related pages.

The site: field search examines the "site" part of the URL only. The query

site:sun.com

will find such sites as java.sun.com, www.sun.com and playground.sun.com, but won't match any site that ends in sun.co.uk. This search can use the field search to bring up all pages at a particular Web site.

2. Select what set of information you want to search.

Use the buttons next to the text entry box to search other sets of information besides Web pages:

News - Get news stories from the past month. The News collection contains headlines, world news, and news on business, politics, entertainment and sports. The collection is updated daily.

Usenet - Usenet newsgroups give you the scoop on what people are saying on the Internet. Newsgroups are forums for discussion in which people "talk" by posting articles to the newsgroup. Whatever your interest, there's a Usenet newsgroup discussion about it.

Companies - Access detailed information on over 45,000 leading public and private companies in the U.S. - including stock prices, SEC data and more.

If you're not sure which choice to make, leave the choice box set to the Web (which is the default) for a collection that captures most of the Web.

3. Click the "seek" button, or press the Return or the Enter key.

Infoseek will perform a search and display the results. The sites that most closely match the query are listed first.

Down the left hand side of the results page, you might find "Best Bets", "Related Topics", and "Related News". The Best Bets give you information about companies that are relevant to your query, links to relevant homepages, and quick links to information that you're looking for.

Related Topics are areas in the Infoseek directory that are relevant to what your searched for. These topics can be browsed by clicking on any of them.

Related News appears in response to your query. Whatever you're looking for, if it's in the news, Infoseek will find the story for you.

4. Narrow down your search results

At the bottom of the search results page there is a search box with two choices.

  1. New Search - If the results were not what you were looking for, then do an entirely new search using different words.
  2. Search These Results - If there are just too many results, then refine the search. Add more descriptive terms in the search box and Infoseek will search again within the group of results you received for your previous query. This narrowing process helps to reduce the number of results quite a bit.

5. The most relevant matches appear first.

Infoseek sorts search results based on how well each document satisfies the query.

The following factors influence which items are considered more relevant:

  • the query terms (words or phrases) are found in the title or near the start of the document
  • the document contains more of the query terms
  • the document contains query terms that have a high weight (words that are relatively uncommon in the database will have a high weight)

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