Step by Step Guide to Do Secondary Research for Dissertation in 2022?

RESEARCH FOR DISSERTATION

Research is an important tool to open as many gates of knowledge as one needs to complete a dissertation. Dissertations mostly differ based on the niche, nature of problem statement, and tools or techniques selected to grab data. Search strategy has a great effect on the findings of the research. As a researcher exploring the already published data would never get the same results as one collected by getting directly involved in the data collection process via interviews, experiments, surveys, and direct observations.

Research conducted by recording and assembling data by directly exploring the source of information is termed as primary research. Contrary to this, another worth noted approach to gather data for conducting research is to explore the internet using databases, digital libraries and on-campus libraries for appraising previous literature- a method known as secondary research. This article will provide a complete guide to secondary research for dissertation so students can clear their concepts to take a head start.

What Are Secondary Research Methods?

Desk research is another way to call for the secondary research for dissertation. It is the method to compile existing data from various channels. Factually, a secondary researcher has the liberty to collect data from research conducted by either primary or secondary sources. Both internal and external data sources are recommended to use in the secondary research for dissertation. Which one is better primary or secondary research? It has been a matter of debate for years; however, there is no comparison between the two. They both have their merits and demerits. Which will be most suitable for a dissertation depends on the aims and objectives of a proposed research plan. Naturally, students may feel confused about deciding whether a secondary research method is suitable for their research or not. Such ambiguities can easily be resolved by consulting experts working in universities and Dissertation Writing Services.

A Step-By-Step Guide To Doing Secondary Research For Dissertation:

The steps to conducting secondary research for dissertation may slightly differ in personal setups based on the subject-specific requirements. Still, the following are some important steps to gain mastery in secondary research methods:

1. Identify A Persuasive Research Topic:

The success of secondary research merely depends on the title of a dissertation. Very little or no availability of information on a specified topic cannot allow a researcher to conduct secondary research. These researches usually help researchers to compile all relevant data in one place, identify research gaps and critique existing research for the betterment of society. Thus, the selection of an appropriate problem statement for research is of utmost importance for the trouble-free completion of a dissertation.

2. Set Goals That Can Easily Be Accomplished By Using Any Secondary Research Method:

Goal setting is a systematic way to steadily progress towards the final destination (dissertation writing in this case). The synchronisation between the research method and final goals is the main task to complete at this step of secondary research for dissertation. Even in the preliminary stages, the researcher must have a clear vision for the data collecting phase for a dissertation. Commonly used secondary research methods list include literature review, meta-analysis, case studies, grounded theory, and comparative analysis. All these methods are designed to achieve one or more specific goals. If a research’s main goals lie under the umbrella of pre-defined responsibilities of a specified secondary method, then it will be the most appropriate method for a given research.

3. Conduct Thorough Research To Gather Data From A Variety Of Channels:

Secondary research gives a big opportunity to the researcher to scrap data from a large data pool, including Journals, magazines, scholarly activities, textbooks, news, and governmental or non-governmental reports. It allows researchers to narrow down the search stream to collect all relevant information for extracting more generalised results. Subject-specific databases and Google Scholar are the most popular channels researchers can use to conduct secondary research for dissertation.

4. Never Forget To Critically Appraise The Selected Data For Conducting Research:

Critical appraisal is the most important and technical part of conducting the secondary research. A common practice of copying a piece of information from a secondary source to be used in a dissertation is not a correct way to complete such research. Rather, the recommended way to complete research is to only use a secondary source of information for providing evidence to a claim supporting and opposing an argument. The secondary research methods are sensitive to a critical evaluation; without completing it, research can never satisfy a research community.

5. Analyse Data Using Suitable Data Analysis Techniques To Extract Useful Results:

Secondary research not only differs in ways of grabbing data to source a dissertation but the technique and analysis tools used to sort the secondary data are also completely different from those suitable for analysing primary data. After collecting data suitable for solving a suggested mystery, the next step must be to select an appropriate analysis tools such as NVivo for observing patterns to draw meaningful consequences.

6. Present Conclusion Based On Data Interpretation And Analysis Process:

Regardless of the type of research, presenting an outclass conclusion based on the interpreted data is a basic necessity and essential component of all types of dissertations. Concurrently, the conclusion section of secondary research for the dissertation must also summarise all the important findings of a research one by one to answer the research questions. The conclusion is the last section of a dissertation; thus, while drafting it, the author needs to be a little more conscious about the selection of words and ways to combine different concepts together. It must be concise, short and straightforward to leave a deep impression on readers’ mind.

Concluding remarks:  

Dissertation writing includes many technicalities and the selection of an appropriate search strategy is one of them. In order to provide helping hands to researchers, the article has described six simple and attainable steps to using secondary research for dissertation. Researchers can use these steps as a ladder to reach the destination or simply to easily complete a dissertation using secondary sources of data collection.

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