CAM4 - Test 2 - Part 3 (Listen and Read)

Oh, there you are, good.

Sorry, I'm a bit late - there was a long queue.

So, have you worked out how to deal with this assignment then?

Not yet, we've only been here a couple of minutes ourselves.

Can you just remind me what the task is exactly?

Well, there are two, no, three, parts to it:

first, we've got to write an essay about ways of collecting data.

What's the title of the essay exactly?

I've got it here:

'Assess the two main methods of collecting data in social science research'.

And how much do we need to write?

Fifteen hundred words.

That's for the essay.

Then, for the second part of the assignment, we have to choose one method of data collection,

and 'carry out a small-scale study',

'making appropriate use of the method chosen to gather data from at least five subjects'.

And then we have to write a report on the study?

That's right, of three to four thousand words.

Did you get as far as discussing which form of data collection we should go for -

questionnaire or interview, isn't it?

Yeah, I think we should use a questionnaire.

It'll be so much less time-consuming than organising interviews, I reckon.

Once we've agreed on the wording of it, we only have to send it out and wait for the responses.

Yes, I think it probably would be quicker.

But what did that article he gave us last week say about the quality of data from questionnaires?

I'm pretty sure it recommended questionnaires as a source of 'highly reliable data'.

As long as you design the questionnaire properly in the first place, the data will be fine.

No, I'm sure it talked about drawbacks as well, didn't it?

Something about the response rate and the problems you get if it's too low.

Yeah, but we only need data from five subjects anyway.

I suppose so.

Another drawback I remember it mentioned was that

questionnaire data tends not to reveal anything unexpected, because...

it is limited to the questions fixed in advance by the researcher.

Come on, Rosa. This is only a practice.

It's not meant to be real research, is it?

Well, not sure about that.

Maybe I'd better go through the article again, just to be sure.

Can you remember what it was called?

Sample Surveys in Social Science Research', I think.

By Mehta.

MEHTA?

Yeah.

And he also recommended a more recent book, called...

'Survey Research', by Bell, I think.

It's in that series published by London University.

And if we tried to use interviews instead,

I saw a book in the departmental library that'll be helpful: it's called 'Interviews That Work',

by Wilson, published in Oxford in 1988.

Right.

Oh, I've got a tutorial now.

Can we meet up again later this week?

What about Friday morning?

Suits me. 11 o'clock?

Fine.

Before Friday, I think we should all look through the reading list.