Introduction
In research work, every research design investigates something particular. One of the research designs is descriptive. Descriptive research design is a systematic way to study and explain a particular event or phenomenon for research work. You must be familiar with the research design you are going to use for research. The information includes purpose, importance and limitations.
Furthermore, the structure to follow for using a particular design in research also has great importance. In the case of descriptive research, the purpose is to get insights into a research problem. When discussing the limitations of descriptive design, it cannot address the reason behind any event happening. On the other hand, the best thing about descriptive design is that its use is not limited to a single research method, but you can find it effective for more than one research method. This all is possible because of the quality of examining several variables in a single research. Now, let’s have a look at descriptive research in detail.
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What Are The Characteristics Of Descriptive Research?
Following are some characteristics of the descriptive design of research:
- The nature of this research is quantitative, which demands statistical analysis for the evaluation of collected data.
- In the descriptive design of research, you are not bound to control defined variables. In contrast to other research designs, here you just have to determine and observe the variables. There is no need to manipulate the variables of research.
- One of the most important characteristics is that the descriptive design of research works well to make a foundation for other studies.
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What are the Steps to Follow in Descriptive Research?
The objective of research defines if there is any need for a descriptive research design. Whenever you have to determine the characteristics of a study, or there is a need to find a trend of data, you can use descriptive design. Once you get a head up for descriptive design, the very step should be to know about the way to conduct it. Following are the steps that you must follow for descriptive design:
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Mark the Research Problem
For descriptive research, the very first step is to come up with a research problem. The research statement needs to be simple and easy to understand for most of the readers. In this statement, you are supposed to briefly describe which data can better explain the research problem. Also, you have to specify a particular way to collect data. For example, you have to conduct a survey to collect data for research. In it, it is not enough to mention that the data collection way is a survey, but you need to specify a particular type of survey. That is how you can make a compelling research statement.
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Design The Objective For Research
After the research statement, your main focus should be on an objective. There can be a single research objective, or you can go for more than one. In both cases, you have to design a strong objective that can make your research stand out. Every problem has several facets, but you have to target a particular facet in research work. Based on the selected facet, it becomes easy to target the objective. A clear objective of research frames your structure to follow in the next steps.
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Identify Tools and Techniques
The third step in descriptive research is to identify which tools and techniques can fit best to it. In the case of tools, you can go for a survey, interview, observation, focused group, and many more ways. Based on the objective of study, you can better evaluate which tool and technique can work well. Also, you can see your research expertise while selecting any tool for conducting descriptive research. For example, observation and interview are two tools which demand the high expertise of researcher. Otherwise, there are great chances of getting inaccurate data for research.
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All About Data Sampling
In this step, you have to define an area for research. For example, you can target some country, city or a small area within a city. It is your research statement and objective which helps you in targeting a particular area. In the recent pandemic, researchers did research at the country level by targeting the whole country for data collection.
On the other hand, you have to define a certain group of population. Suppose, you have to do research on ‘The Impacts of Climate Change on Civil Citizens.’ Here, it is clear that the audience is limited to civil citizens. That is how you can do data sampling effectively.
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Analyse Collected Data
The fifth step in descriptive research highlights the analysis procedure. First of all, you have to see if there is numerical or subjective data. In case you have both categories of data, then you have to separate them. Make a different sheet for numeric and non-numeric data. For numeric data, you can use quantitative analysis. On the other hand, subjective data requires qualitative analysis, or you can code it into numeric one and then apply the same quantitative analysis technique. Based on the requirement, analyse your data and highlight the results obtained from it.
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Report Research Results
The most challenging step of descriptive research is reporting the obtained results after having analysis. At the time of reporting, you are not supposed to summarise the whole research work. Although there should not be any new concept in the conclusion of study, you still have to avoid paraphrasing. Your aim should be to critically evaluate the results of the study and add arguments. The whole discussion should be inclined toward the objective of study. You have to prove the achievement of objective in the conclusion part.
Final Thoughts
The above-mentioned points can help you understand the whole procedure of conducting descriptive research. The sequence of steps is supposed to be the same; otherwise, things can become complicated. With the help of a descriptive design of research, you can get insights into any occurrence. If you feel confused about any step, you can feel free to contact me.
