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11 – Research

Research Methods and Methodologies

Suzan Last; Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt; and Matt McKinney

Data alone, regardless of its type, does not mean anything until you interpret it. The processes that you use to collect, analyze, and organize your data are your research methods . Research methods are often categorized as quantitative , qualitative or mixed method . Some projects,  such as lab experiments, require the use of the scientific method of inquiry, observation, quantitative data collection, analysis, and conclusions to test a hypothesis. Other kinds of projects take a more deductive approach and gather both quantitative and qualitative evidence to support a position or recommendation. The research methods you choose will be determined by the goals and scope of your project, and by your intended audience’s expectations.

Data Collection

In terms of data collection, there are a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods available. A list of several common primary data collection methods is provided below. Note that each method follows a specific protocol both to ensure the validity of the data and to protect any human or animal subjects involved. For more on research that uses human participants, see the “ Human Research Ethics ” section later in this chapter.

Interviews. Interviews are one-on-one or small group question and answer sessions. Interviews will provide detailed information from a small number of people and are useful when you want to get an expert opinion on your topic.

Surveys/Questionnaires. Surveys are a form of questioning that is less flexible than interviews, as the questions are set ahead of time and cannot be changed. Surveys can be in print format or delivered electronically. This method can reach much larger groups of people than interviews, but it results in less detailed responses.

On-site research. These observations involve taking organized notes about occurrences at a determined research site. Research sites may be physical locations, such as a local gym or building site, or they may be virtual, such as an online forum or event. Observations allow you to gain objective information without the potentially biased viewpoint of an interview or survey.

Experiments. Whether in the lab or in the field, experiments are designed to test hypotheses and verify previous results. Experiments are prepared by using standard protocols and careful testing in order to protect the researchers and their subjects, as well as to isolate specific variables.

Simulations. Typically designed and run using computer programs, simulations are a type of experiment that tests hypotheses and solutions in a virtual setting that approximates the real world. Simulations are usually an option for when in-person experiments are not feasible.

Primary source documents. More common in text-based fields, original written, visual, and/or audio sources can be used to locate specific data for further analysis and interpretation. In this method, the data collected could be words, images, sounds, or movements.

Effective Primary Research Design

In a technical and professional writing class you will likely use a few common primary research methods involving human subjects: surveys, interviews, and on-site research (field, lab, or simulation). While you are not expected to be an expert in any of these methods, you should approach them ethically and thoughtfully so as to protect any participants and to generate reliable, generalizable data.

Survey Questions

When designing surveys, remember the rhetorical situation. What are the goals of your survey? Who are you hoping will complete the survey? What will they know? What will they not know? How long can you expect them to engage with your survey? What is the best method of surveying them (online, say through Google Forms, or in person)? How many responses do you hope to obtain? Use this information to inform the design of your survey and any preliminary materials you include. All surveys should feature clear statements of purpose, as well as specific directions for answering the questions and how to contact the researcher if participants have any questions.

After determining your audience and purpose, you will need to design your questions. Remember, in all online surveys you will not be there to provide immediate clarification, so your questions need to be carefully worded to avoid confusion and researcher bias. As a rule, your survey questions should

Be as specific as possible. Avoid ambiguity by providing specific dates, events, or descriptors as necessary.

Ask only one question at a time. Specifically, avoid survey questions that require the participant to answer multiple items at once. This will confuse the reader as to what you are looking for and will likely skew your data.

Be neutral. Present your survey questions without leading, inflammatory, or judgmental language. Common leading survey questions that you want to avoid include phrasing like “Do you agree that our enemies are a threat to our way of life?” You will also want to avoid using language that is sexist, racist, or ableist. See Chapter 4: Persuasion for more information about loaded language.

Be organized logically. Questions should be presented in a way that makes sense to the participant. For example, if you introduce a concept in Question 1, you do not want to return to it again in Question 12. Follow-up questions and linked questions should be asked in succession rather than separated.

Allow participants to decline answering. In general, you will want to be wary of questions that require participants to divulge sensitive information, even if they are answering anonymously. This information could include details such as a trauma, eating disorders, or drug use. For research projects that require these questions, consult your university’s IRB (Internal Review Board). They may need you to fill out special documentation that accounts for how you will protect your participants.

After designing the questions, you will also need to consider how your participants can answer them. Depending, you may opt for quantitative data, which includes yes/no questions, multiple choice, Likert scales, or ranking. Note that what makes this data “quantitative” is that it can be easily converted into numerical data for analysis.  Alternatively, you may opt for qualitative data, which includes questions that require a written response from the participant. A description and some of the advantages of these answer styles follow below:

Yes/No (Quantitative). These simple questions allow for comparison but not much else. They can be useful as a preliminary question to warm up participants or open up a string of follow-up questions.

Multiple choice (Quantitative). These questions allow for pre-set answers and are particularly useful for collecting demographic data. For example, a multiple-choice question might look something like this: “How many years have you attended your university?” Depending on the question, you may wish to allow for a write-in response.

Likert scale (Quantitative). One of the most common answer types, the Likert scale is a rating, usually on a 1-5 scale. At one end of the scale, you will have an option such as “Definitely Agree” and on the other you will have “Definitely Disagree.” In the middle, if you choose to provide it, is a neutral option. Some answers in this format may use a wider range (1-10, for example), offer a “Not Applicable” option, or remove the neutral option. Be mindful of what these choices might mean. A wider scale could, in theory, mean more nuance, but only if the distinctions between each option are clear.

Ranking (Quantitative). In a ranking-based answer, you provide a list of options and prompt your participant to place them in a certain order. For example, you may be offering five potential solutions to a specific problem. After explaining the solutions, you ask your reader to identify which of the five is the best, which is second best, and so on. Participants may assign these items a number or rearrange their order on a screen.

Written responses (Qualitative). Especially when you want detailed, individualized data, you may choose for participants to provide written answers to your questions. This approach is beneficial in that you may receive particularly detailed responses or ideas that the survey did not address. You might also be able to privilege voices that are often drowned out in large surveys. However, keep in mind that many participants do not like responding to essay-style questions. These responses work best as follow-up questions midway or later in the survey.

Finally, before officially publishing your survey online or asking participants in person, make sure that you conduct preliminary testing. This preliminary testing is crucial. When seeking feedback, have your reviewers note any confusion or ambiguity in question wording, lack of clarity in question order, typographical errors, technical difficulties, and how long the survey took for them to complete. Remember, surveys with unclear questions and sloppy formatting annoy participants and damage your credibility. Conversely, the more professional a survey looks and the easier it is for your reader to complete it, the more likely you will receive useful responses.

Writing Engaging Research Interview Questions

Preparing good interview questions takes time, practice, and testing. Many novice interviewers go into interviews with the assumption that they do not need to prepare and are merely having a conversation. While this approach can generate information, these interviewers often find that several important questions were not addressed. When designing interview questions, you will want not only to consider the content of the question but also where the question appears in your list.

When preparing for an interview, first contact your potential interviewee as soon as possible. Individuals, especially those who work outside academia, may operate on timelines that may feel odd to college and university students. You will also want to prepare any equipment (such as a recorder or smart phone, but request permission first before recording!), questions, and IRB approval, if applicable.

Carter McNamara offers the following suggestions for wording interview questions. This passage is quoted in its entirety:

Wording should be open-ended. Respondents should be able to choose their own terms when answering questions.

Questions should be as neutral as possible. Avoid wording that might influence answers, e.g., evocative, judgmental wording.

Questions should be asked one at a time. Avoid asking multiple questions at once. If you have related questions, ask them separately as a follow-up question rather than part of the initial query.

Questions should be worded clearly. This includes knowing any terms particular to the program or the respondents’ culture.

Be careful asking “why” questions. This type of question infers a cause-effect relationship that may not truly exist. These questions may also cause respondents to feel defensive, e.g., that they have to justify their response, which may inhibit their responses to this and future questions. [1]

If you choose to have a face-to-face interview or interview over Zoom or Skype, show up on time and dress according to the level of the interviewee. Honoring the interviewee’s time by being punctual, having prepared questions, and not extending past an established time limit is crucial to both collecting good information and maintaining a positive relationship with the interviewee. For more information on designing effective interviews, see Appendix: Qualitative Interview Design.

Field Research

When conducting field research, or research that takes you outside of a lab or simulation, you will need to consider the following:

Gain appropriate permissions for researching the site. Your “site” is the location where you are conducting research. Sites could include potential locations for a community garden, a classroom where you’re observing student behaviors or a professor’s teaching strategies, or a local business. Certain sites will require specific permission from an owner or other individual. Depending on your study, you may also need to acquire IRB permission.

Know what you’re looking for. While people-watching is interesting, your most effective field research will be accomplished if you know roughly what you want to observe. For instance, say you are observing a large lecture from a 100-level class, and you are interested in how students use their laptops, tablets, or phones. In your observation, you would be specifically focusing on the students, with some attention to how they’re responding to the professor. You would not be as focused on the content of the professor’s lecture or if the students are doing non-electronic things such as doodling or talking to their classmates.

Take notes. Select your note-taking option and prepare backups. While in the field, you will be relying primarily on observation. Record as much data as possible and back up that data in multiple formats.

Be unobtrusive. In field research, you function as an observer rather than a participant. Therefore, do your best to avoid influencing what is happening at the research site.

Data Interpretation

Methods also include ways of interpreting and organizing data, either once it has been collected or simultaneously with data collection. More specific methodologies, such as ways to structure the analysis of your data, include the following:

Coding. Reviews transcripts of interview data and assigns specific labels and categories to the data. A common social science method.

Cost/benefit analysis. Determines how much something will cost versus what measurable benefits it will create.

Life-cycle analysis. Determines overall sustainability of a product or process, from manufacturing, through lifetime use, to disposal. You can also perform comparative life-cycle analyses or specific life cycle stage analysis.

Comparative analysis. Compares two or more options to determine which is the “best” solution given specific problem criteria such as goals, objectives, and constraints.

Process analysis. Studies each aspect of a process to determine if all parts and steps work efficiently together to create the desired outcome.

Sustainability analysis. Uses concepts such as the “triple bottom line” or “three pillars of sustainability” to analyze whether a product or process is environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable.

In all cases, the way you collect, analyze, and use data must be ethical and consistent with professional standards of honesty and integrity. Lapses in integrity may lead to poor quality reports not only in an academic context (poor grades and academic dishonesty penalties) but also in the workplace. These lapses can lead to lawsuits, job loss, and even criminal charges. Some examples of these lapses include

• Fabricating your own data (making it up to suit your purpose)
• Ignoring data that disproves or contradicts your ideas
• Misrepresenting someone else’s data or ideas
• Using data or ideas from another source without acknowledgment or citation of the source.

Writing Tip: Failing to cite quoted, paraphrased, or summarized sources properly is one of the most common lapses in academic integrity, which is why your previous academic writing classes spent considerable time and effort to give you a sophisticated understanding of how and why to avoid plagiarizing, as well as the consequences of doing so.

This text was derived from

Last, Suzan, with contributors Candice Neveu and Monika Smith. Technical Writing Essentials: Introduction to Professional Communications in Technical Fields. Victoria, BC: University of Victoria, 2019. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/technicalwriting/ . Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

• Carter McNamara, “General Guidelines for Conducting Interviews,” Free Management Library, 2009. https://managementhelp.org/businessresearch/interviews.htm ↵

Techniques of collecting, sorting, and analyzing information.

Numerically-based data used to measure, make comparisons, examine relationships, and test hypotheses.

Word-based data that is used to describe data collected.

Type of research that combines quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Howdy or Hello? Technical and Professional Communication Copyright © 2022 by Suzan Last; Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt; and Matt McKinney is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Libraries | Research Guides

Technical reports, technical reports: a definition, search engines & databases, multi-disciplinary technical report repositories, topical technical report repositories.

"A technical report is a document that describes the process, progress, or results of technical or scientific research or the state of a technical or scientific research problem. It might also include recommendations and conclusions of the research."      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_report

Technical reports are produced by corporations, academic institutions, and government agencies at all levels of government, e.g. state, federal, and international.  Technical reports are not included in formal publication and distribution channels and therefore fall into the category of grey literature .

• Science.gov Searches over 60 databases and over 2,200 scientific websites hosted by U.S. federal government agencies. Not limited to tech reports.
• WorldWideScience.org A global science gateway comprised of national and international scientific databases and portals, providing real-time searching and translation of globally-dispersed multilingual scientific literature.
• Open Grey System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe, is your open access to 700.000 bibliographical references. more... less... OpenGrey covers Science, Technology, Biomedical Science, Economics, Social Science and Humanities.
• National Technical Reports Library (NTRL) This link opens in a new window The National Technical Reports Library provides indexing and access to a collection of more than two million historical and current government technical reports of U.S. government-sponsored research. Full-text available for 700,000 of the 2.2 million items described. Dates covered include 1900-present.
• Argonne National Lab: Scientific Publications While sponsored by the US Dept of Energy, research at Argonne National Laboratory is wide ranging (see Research Index )
• Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) The Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC®) has served the information needs of the Defense community for more than 65 years. It provides technical research, development, testing & evaluation information; including but not limited to: journal articles, conference proceedings, test results, theses and dissertations, studies & analyses, and technical reports & memos.
• HathiTrust This repository of books digitized by member libraries includes a large number of technical reports. Search by keywords, specific report title, or identifiers.
• Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) LBNL a multiprogram science lab in the national laboratory system supported by the U.S. Department of Energy through its Office of Science. It is managed by the University of California and is charged with conducting unclassified research across a wide range of scientific disciplines.
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) NIST is one of the nation's oldest physical science laboratories.
• RAND Corporation RAND's research and analysis address issues that impact people around the world including security, health, education, sustainability, growth, and development. Much of this research is carried out on behalf of public and private grantors and clients.
• TRAIL Technical Report Archive & Image Library Identifies, acquires, catalogs, digitizes and provides unrestricted access to U.S. government agency technical reports. TRAIL is a membership organization . more... less... Majority of content is pre-1976, but some reports after that date are included.

Aerospace / Aviation

• Contrails 20th century aerospace research, hosted at the Illinois Institute of Technology
• Jet Propulsion Laboratory Technical Reports Server repository for digital copies of technical publications authored by JPL employees. It includes preprints, meeting papers, conference presentations, some articles, and other publications cleared for external distribution from 1992 to the present.
• NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server The NASA STI Repository (also known as the NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)) provides access to NASA metadata records, full-text online documents, images, and videos. The types of information included are conference papers, journal articles, meeting papers, patents, research reports, images, movies, and technical videos – scientific and technical information (STI) created or funded by NASA. Includes NTIS reports.

Computing Research

• Computing Research Repository
• IBM Technical Paper Archive
• Microsoft Research
• INIS International Nuclear Information System One of the world's largest collections of published information on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology.
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory Research Library Primary subject areas covered include chemistry, physics, materials science, biological and environmental sciences, computer science, mathematics, engineering, nuclear technology, and homeland security.
• OSTI.gov The primary search tool for DOE science, technology, and engineering research and development results more... less... over 70 years of research results from DOE and its predecessor agencies. Research results include journal articles/accepted manuscripts and related metadata; technical reports; scientific research datasets and collections; scientific software; patents; conference and workshop papers; books and theses; and multimedia
• OSTI Open Net Provides access to over 495,000 bibliographic references and 147,000 recently declassified documents, including information declassified in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. In addition to these documents, OpenNet references older document collections from several DOE sources.

Environment

• National Service Center for Environmental Publications From the Environmental Protection Agency
• US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) Digital Library See in particular the option to search technical reports by the Waterways Experiment Station, Engineering Research and Development Center, and districts .
• National Clearinghouse for Science, Technology and the Law (NCSTL) Forensic research at the intersection of science, technology and law.

Transportation

• ROSA-P National Transportation Library Full-text digital publications, datasets, and other resources. Legacy print materials that have been digitized are collected if they have historic, technical, or national significance.
• Last Updated: Jul 13, 2022 11:46 AM
• URL: https://libguides.northwestern.edu/techreports

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Technical Reports

• What is a Technical report?
• Find Technical Reports
• Print & Microform Tech Reports in the Library
• Author Profile

What is a Technical Report?

What is a Technical Report?  

"A technical report is a document written by a researcher detailing the results of a project and submitted to the sponsor of that project." TRs are not peer-reviewed unless they are subsequently published in a peer-review journal.

Characteristics (TRs vary greatly): Technical reports ....

• may contain data, design criteria, procedures, literature reviews, research history, detailed tables, illustrations/images, explanation of approaches that were unsuccessful.
• may be published before the corresponding journal literature; may have more or different details than  its subsequent journal article.
• may contain less  background information since the sponsor already knows it
• classified and export controlled reports
• may contain obscure acronyms and codes as part of identifying information

Disciplines:

• Physical sciences, engineering, agriculture, biomedical sciences, and the social sciences. education etc.

Documents research and development conducted by:

• government agencies (NASA, Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Energy (DOE) are top sponsors of research
• commercial companies
• non-profit, non-governmental organizations
• Educational Institutions
• Issued  in print, microform, digital
• Older TRs may have been digitized and are available in fulltext on the Intranet
• Newer TRs should be born digital

Definition used with permission from Georgia Tech. Other sources: Pinelli & Barclay (1994).

• Nation's Report Card: State Reading 2002, Report for Department of Defense Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools. U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences The National Assessment of Educational Progress Reading 2002 The Nation’s
• Study for fabrication, evaluation, and testing of monolayer woven type materials for space suit insulation NASA-CR-166139, ACUREX-TR-79-156. May 1979. Reproduced from the microfiche.
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• Last Updated: Sep 1, 2023 11:06 AM
• URL: https://tamu.libguides.com/TR

Penn State University Libraries

Technical reports, recognizing technical reports, recommendations for finding technical reports, databases with technical reports, other tools for finding technical reports.

• Direct Links to Organizations with Technical Reports
• Techical report collections at Penn State
• How to Write

Engineering Instruction Librarian

Engineering Librarian

Technical reports describe the process, progress, or results of technical or scientific research and usually include in-depth experimental details, data, and results. Technical reports are usually produced to report on a specific research need and can serve as a report of accountability to the organization funding the research. They provide access to the information before it is published elsewhere. Technical Reports are usually not peer reviewed.  They need to be evaluated on how the problem, research method, and results are described.  

A technical report citation will include a report number and will probably not have journal name. 

Technical reports can be divided into two general categories:

• Non-Governmental Reports- these are published by companies and engineering societies, such as Lockheed-Martin, AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautical and Astronautics), IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), or SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers).
• Governmental Reports- the research conducted in these reports has been sponsored by the United States or an international government body as well as state and local governments.

Some technical reports are cataloged as books, which you can search for in the catalog, while others may be located in databases, or free online. The boxes below list databases and online resources you can use to locate a report. 

If you’re not sure where to start, try to learn more about the report by confirming the full title or learning more about the publication information. 

Confirm the title and locate the report number in NTRL. 

Search Google Scholar, the HathiTrust, or WorldCat. This can verify the accuracy of the citation and determine if the technical report was also published in a journal or conference proceeding or under a different report number. 

Having trouble finding a report through Penn State? If we don’t have access to the report, you can submit an interlibrary loan request and we will get it for you from another library. If you have any questions, you can always contact a librarian! 

• National Technical Reports Library (NTRL) NTRL is the preeminent resource for accessing the latest US government sponsored research, and worldwide scientific, technical, and engineering information. Search by title to determine report number.
• Engineering Village Engineering Village is the most comprehensive interdisciplinary engineering database in the world with over 5,000 engineering journals and conference materials dating from 1884. Has citations to many ASME, ASCE, SAE, and other professional organizations' technical papers. Search by author, title, or report number.
• IEEE Xplore Provides access to articles, papers, reports, and standards from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
• ASABE Technical Library Provides access to all of the recent technical documents published by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers.
• International Nuclear Information System (INIS) Database Provides access to nuclear science and technology technical reports.
• NASA Technical Reports Server Contains the searchable NACA Technical Reports collection, NASA Technical Reports collection and NIX collection of images, movies, and videos. Includes the full text and bibliographic records of selected unclassified, publicly available NASA-sponsored technical reports. Coverage: NACA reports 1915-1958, NASA reports since 1958.
• OSTI Technical Reports Full-text of Department of Energy (DOE) funded science, technology, and engineering technical reports. OSTI has replaced SciTech Connect as the primary search tool for Department of Energy (DOE) funded science, technology, and engineering research results. It provides access to all the information previously available in SciTech Connect, DOE Information Bridge, and Energy Citations Database.
• ERIC (ProQuest) Provides access to technical reports and other education-related materials. ERIC is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES).
• Transportation Research International Documentation (TRID) TRID is a newly integrated database that combines the records from TRB's Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) Database and the OECD's Joint Transport Research Centre's International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) Database. TRID provides access to over 900,000 records of transportation research worldwide.
• TRAIL Technical Reports Archive & Image Library Provide access to federal technical reports issued prior to 1975.
• Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) The largest central resource for Department of Defense and government-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and business related information.
• Correlation Index of Technical Reports (AD-PB Reports) Publication Date: 1958
• Criss-cross directory of NASA "N" numbers and DOD "AD" numbers, 1962-1986

Print indexes to technical reports :

• Government Reports Announcements & Index (1971-1996)
• Government Reports Announcements (1946-1975)
• U.S. Government Research & Development Reports (1965-1971)
• U.S. Government Research Reports (1954-1964)
• Bibliography of Technical Reports (1949-1954)
• Bibliography of Scientific and Industrial Reports (1946-1949)
• Next: Direct Links to Organizations with Technical Reports >>
• Last Updated: Oct 5, 2023 2:56 PM
• URL: https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/techreports

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5. CONDUCTING RESEARCH

5.1 Research Terminology

You will undoubtedly be required to “conduct research” for a course assignment or “include research” to support your ideas. While this may seem a bit intimidating, remember that engaging in research is basically just using a systematic process to find out more information about your topic. Nicholas Walliman, in his handbook Research Methods: The Basics , defines research methods as “the tools and techniques for doing research.” [1] These techniques include collecting, sorting, and analyzing the information and data you find. The better the tools and more comprehensive the techniques you employ, the more effective your research will be. By extension, the more effective your research is, the more credible and persuasive your argument will be.

Here are some basic terms and definitions you should be familiar with:

Research :  the systematic process of finding out more about something than you already know, ideally so that you can prove a hypothesis, produce new knowledge and understanding, and make evidence-based decisions.

Research Methods:   techniques of collecting, sorting, and analyzing information/data.

Data:   bits of information.

The typical kinds of research sources you will use can be grouped into three broad categories:

• Primary Sources:   research you might conduct yourself in lab experiments and product testing, through surveys, observations, measurements, interviews, site visits, prototype testing, beta testing, etc . These can also include published raw statistical data, historical records, legal documents, firsthand historical accounts, and original creative works.
• Secondary Sources :  written sources that discuss, analyze, and interpret primary data, such as published research and studies, reviews of these studies, meta-analyses, and formal critiques.
• Tertiary Sources :  reference sources such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and handbooks that provide a consolidation of primary and secondary information. They are useful to gain a general understanding of your topic and major concepts, lines of inquiry, or schools of thought in the field.

Data can be categorized in several ways:

Research methods are often categorized as quantitative, qualitative or “mixed method.” Some projects, like a science, require the use of the scientific method of inquiry, observation, quantitative data collection, analysis and conclusions to test a hypothesis. Other kinds of projects take a more deductive approach and gather both quantitative and qualitative evidence to support a thesis, position, or recommendation. The research methods you choose will be determined by the goals and scope of your project, and by your intended audience’s expectations. More specific methodologies, such as ways to structure the analysis of your data, include the following:

• Cost/benefit Analysis :  determines how much something will cost vs what measurable benefits it will create, and may lead to a calculation of “return on investment” (ROI).
• Life-cycle Analysis :  determines overall sustainability of a product or process, from manufacturing, through lifetime use, to disposal (you can also perform comparative life-cycle analyses, or specific life cycle stage analysis)
• Comparative Analysis :  compares two or more options to determine which is the “best” solution (given specific problem criteria such as goals, objectives, and constraints)
• Process Analysis :  studies each aspect of a process to determine if all parts and steps work efficiently together to create the desired outcome.
• Sustainability Analysis :  uses concepts such as the “triple bottom line” or “ three pillars of sustainability ” to analyze whether a product or process is environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable.

In all cases, the way you collect, analyze, and use data must be ethical and consistent with professional standards of honesty and integrity. Lapses in integrity can not only lead to poor quality reports in an academic context (poor grades and academic dishonesty penalties), but in the workplace, these lapses can also lead to lawsuits, loss of job, and even criminal charges. Some examples of these lapses include

• Fabricating your own data (making it up to suit your purpose)
• Ignoring data that disproves or contradicts your ideas
• Misrepresenting someone else’s data or ideas
• Using data or ideas from another source without acknowledgment or citation of the source.

Failing to cite quoted, paraphrased, or summarized sources properly is one of the most common lapses in academic integrity, which is why your previous academic writing class spent considerable time and effort to give you a sophisticated understanding of how and why to avoid plagiarizing, as well as the consequences of doing so. If you would like to review this information, see Appendix C: Integrating Source Evidence into Your Writing , and consult the University of Victoria’s policy on Academic Integrity .

• N. Walliman, Research Methods: The Basics . New York: Routledge, 2011 ↵

Technical Writing Essentials Copyright © 2019 by Suzan Last is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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2.3: Technical Writing Research and Writing Process

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• Adam Rex Pope
• University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Technical Writing Research and Writing Process

Below, I’ll be discussing what I see as seven phases of the writing process for technical writing. I use the term phases because these are not really steps, but instead ways of viewing the project that you go through. In general, you go through these phases in order. However, you may jump back to the mindset of one phase or another without ever really leaving your current phase. (You might question purpose, for example, while identifying document goals). Or, you might decide once you reach a certain phase that you need to take what you’ve learned and revert to a previous phase or even the first phase. That might sound horrifying, but some of the best writing comes from those types of responsible decisions. Trust me, if you think it might be best to start over and you don’t, someone else is going to eventually see your text and likely come to the exact same conclusion.

Writing Project Phases

Phase 1: Coming to a Purpose

The first phase of a writing task is often coming to a purpose. Sometimes this phase, like all of the phases, can take a long time. Other times, you can get through the entire timeline in the space of a minute or two (such as when you’re writing a work email).

What usually controls the direct of the first phase is the origin of your writing task—is this something you want to do or is this something you’ve been asked to do. If you’re being asked to do something, you have much less control over the purpose that you’re carrying out. If you’re doing something on your own, you’re going to be able to craft purpose with a bit more control.

Identifying Your Purpose

• What am I doing?

• Who am I doing it for?

• How will they use it?

• What will it be about?

• When will it be used?

• Why am I being asked to do this?

The answer to the above questions will give you a sense of your purpose. You don’t always need to know all the answers to the above, and really you just want a sketch of the answers at this point. But, you need to know the general gist of each of these questions to have a clear idea of purpose. Once you’ve figured these questions out, you should have a clear idea of what you will be doing and who you will be doing it for.

For an example, you might be asked to write a white paper on a new service your company is creating. Below, you’ll find the rundown for this project via the questions on purpose:

What: I am drafting a white paper, an informational and persuasive text designed to education folks enough to know why they should want a service.

Who: I am doing this work for my immediate supervisor, but really this is a service to the entire company and getting new clients helps us keep the doors open.

How: The reader should use this paper to understand our service and why it is valuable and worth having.

What: It will be about our new service that provides on-site minor medical care for construction firms.

When: It will be used in the early part of the sales process. It may be used as a cold-call tool.

Why: I am a technical writer and familiar with the program and our sales process, so I am being asked to write this document.

Notice in the example above, most of what I’m writing is coming from the writer’s own understanding of things. Understanding your purpose, ideally, shouldn’t involve a ton of research. You just need to know the parameters of your project and what is going to be required and what will be recognized as success. These are primarily internal metrics, not external ones. Once you know these things, you can move on to the real work of research in Phase 2.

Phase 2a: Identifying Research Goals

In Phase 2, we move away from the internal understanding of the project we started with in Phase 1 and expand to understand the project from outside perspectives. We’ll also carry out research in this phase, so we’ll really be going past simply identifying. In doing all of this, we’ll be trying to figure out what we need to know to be effective writers in the situation we’re currently in. This phase is a long one, but it is one of the most important steps in good technical writing!

To identify research goals, we need to know what we don’t know. I won’t go into the full Donald Rumsfeld quote on known-knowns and known-unknowns, but we do need to get a sense of what we need to find out. This is a fairly natural course of events if you think about it—what would be the purpose of research if we already knew what we were going to find out?

To help out in identifying what we need to find out, I like to work through a series of questions. (You may be noticing a pattern at this point). Below, you’ll find the first set of questions I often ask:

Identifying Research Goals

• Who is going to be the primary user of this text?

• Who might they consult when reading this text?

• Who might be interested in this text for secondary reasons?

• What laws and regulations will govern this text?

• Who in my organization is going to control the release of this text?

• What will they expect?

In each of the above questions, we’re trying to get at the question of who. We need to figure out the identity of the users of our documents, and we need to know who is going to be assisting them in that use. At first, that might seem like an odd question, but if you examine your own use of important documents as well as workplace practices, it makes more sense.

When you use an important document, you often ask folks that know more about specific parts of that text for assistance. For example, if you’re looking over an application for a college, you might ask someone who has applied successfully to that college or another college for assistance in a particularly tricky part. If you’re in a business situation and you are reviewing a bid for a new service, you might ask one of your employees or coworkers with expertise in a particular part of the package you don’t understand or know much about. In each case, these consultants are not the primary user, but they’re using the text nonetheless.

Once you’ve identified consultants and users, you’re going to want to at least consider who might run into this text for secondary reasons. This might be someone who is a competitor—they want to see your text so they can make sure they’re staying competitive with your offerings. It might be a news organization that wants to report on your business practices. It might even be an advocacy group that has decided you are their enemy! (For example, you might be building a new shopping development near a historic neighborhood full of folks who simply don’t want your traffic in their streets).

The next who you want to identify is the governmental who—which federal, state, and international laws might govern this text? What government agencies might you need to interact with? What will the expect? This question doesn’t always come into play, but when it comes into play, it can be of the utmost importance. There is nothing quiet like running afoul of a governmental agency’s paperwork demands.

Finally, you’re going to want to know who in your organization is going to control this text’s release. This might be the person that tasked you with the purpose you’re operating under. This might be the legal department. What matters is that you know who they are and what they want. If you’ve done your homework in assessing Purpose, this may well be the easiest bit of research.

Phase 2b: Researching Context

Once you’ve identified all of the relevant who answers, you’ll need one more pass to do some actual research. Yep, it’s time for another list of questions. For each of your who’s, you’ll need to answer the following questions:

Research Context

• What does this user need from the text?

• What will be this user’s attitude towards my text?

• What will this user appreciate in my text?

• How will this user’s political situation impact their interaction with my text?

In each question, we’re going to be trying to find out what exactly we need to know when we’re doing our writing of the text. With the question on need, we’re trying to figure out what use is going to look like for an individual user. With the question on attitude, we’re trying to ascertain how we need to present the information to get a good response. With the question of appreciation, we need to know what will win over a particular user. With the idea of politics, we need to know the internal stakes for each user when working with our text. (Note: when we discuss politics in this text, we’re almost always talking about politics in the general sense—what groups exist and how will they respond to our choices? We usually aren’t talking about political parties and elections and the like.)

These questions likely make more sense when they’re given some context. Below you’ll find an example of answering each one of these questions for a primary user in our example of the service white paper:

Need: The user will need to know what we offer, how the service is carried out, what the cost of the service will be, the benefits of the service for their business, and the competitive advantage the service will offer them.

Attitude: As this will be drafted as a cold-call document, it will likely be met with some skepticism. In order to get past this, we’ll need to make the document quite informative for the users and make sure it doesn’t come across as a hard sell from page one.

Appreciation: The users will appreciate timely and up-to-date research on industry best practices. Anything we can do to make the reader feel like they’ve got a better appreciation of what is current and cutting edge in the business will be advantageous. If we can do this without coming across as someone after a sale at all costs, we’ll likely get a good response, even if we don’t get a sale for this service at this time. Building a solid relationship matters.

Politics: We will be sending these documents to the owners of the companies we want to address. There will be generally fewer political hang ups over this because they will be the final decision maker. However, there may be some political issues that arise if the employer already has a service provider for healthcare. Additionally, there could be internal pressure from employees or external pressure from governmental agencies to provide better healthcare for employees on the job site, so this may be something we can take advantage of.

For each of your users, you’ll want to answer questions just like the example above. As you can see, hopefully, these questions are designed to push you to find out information and to put that information on the page. You can also put these questions on a whiteboard for discussion purposes. Often having generative questions can make group writing more effective because it gives you a way to get the expertise out of each member’s head and into the shared discussion space.

Gathering Research on Users and Context

Before we move further into the phases, we should pause to note that the questions above on the context we’re researching are fundamentally different than the internal-facing questions from Phase 1. In Phase 1, we could easily answer questions because they were from our own situation and our own circumstances. In Phase 2, especially in 2b, we’re looking at other people’s circumstances—that’s a totally different animal. You can’t just wing it when you’re answering questions about other people because you aren’t other people. You’re you.

To gather information on other people, you need to actually do some research. Some of this research can be research from academic sources and trade publications. Some of it can be from the experiences you’ve had as well as the experience of others you might be writing with. But, all of that is no substitute for actually interacting with the folks you’re going to be writing with!

In the back of this text, you’ll find several smaller chapters on research methods. You’ll likely need to consult at least one or two of these methods to gather information on the context of your audience/ users. To start off, interviews might be a useful place to begin if you have access to the folks you will be writing for. Read through the various approaches’ introductions and you’ll get a feel for which might fit your situation best.

After you’ve carried out your research, you’ll be in a much better place to make decisions about your audience and writing for them. You’ll be able to ask yourself questions and then have data to answer them instead of relying on suppositions, anecdotes, and hunches.

Section Break - Purpose, Goals, and Context

• When you write a paper in a course, how do you assess the purpose of the assignment? What helps you in this process? What impedes you?
• What documents can you think of that, in your mind, represent a firm understanding of purpose but a poor understanding of context? Why?
• Create two short texts, each with the same purpose, but designed with different contexts. They might be a tweet or an email body message or a text. How do they differ and why?

Phase 3a: Identifying Document Goals

Once you’ve identified your research goals and done some research, you’ll be ready to move on to the next phase of the writing process, the phase where we turn from users and audience to the structural makeup of our text.

When we talk about document goals, you may be tempted to conflate that with coming to a purpose in Phase 1. While they do sound similar, the focus in Phase 3 is on the actual document—the key features of the text and the expectations that readers will have for it. The difference here is that we’re looking at the ways that the actual document, its features and its structure and appearance, helps meet our purpose and satisfy the expectations of our audience. Again, they sound similar but have an altogether different focus.

Document goals come in a couple of forms, each with their own focus and point of view. Some goals are focused on the document’s genre—what kind of document is this supposed to be, and what does that kind of document look like? Others are focused on the way the document’s structure will be oriented to meet the purpose of the text and the audience’s needs and expectations. Taken together, all of these goals help us plan out the drafting of our text to make sure we’re as effective as possible in our writing efforts.

Identifying Document Goals

• What genre will the document be?

• What topics will the document need to cover/convey?

• What types of information will need to be highlighted?

• What accommodations will be needed?

Each of the questions for this phase focus on identifying key aspects of our text’s structure and content that will need to be researched to gain a clear understanding of what will be required. Some of this research can be internal, and some may be external.

Document Genre

For the question of document genre, you will need to look to your internal and external expectations. This may be a fairly simply step—your purpose may explicitly discuss what genre will be required. If not, you’ll need to do some primary research. Look for similar documents in the professional world that carry out the same goal as yours. What genre are the documents? Are they all the same? Are they different? Identify one genre that you feel would best fit your current goals, or make a mashup that meets your own internal goals.

One example might be the police procedural television show. In these shows, the audience follows along with police officers as they go about their daily work. Not all of these are framed the same way of course, and older shows like Dragnet maintain a focus just on the cases, whereas newer shows may focus more on the people doing the policing and their lives, sometimes even with some comedy added in with shows like Castle or Brooklyn 99. In each case, there are certain hallmarks that are echoed by each show that places the show within the procedural genre. That doesn’t mean that there are hard and fast rules that must be followed—genres change all the time—but, there are expectations that must be met or at least addressed.

Document genres work the same way. When you think about annual reports, tax returns, grant proposals, or even memos, each of these texts play by a certain set of genre rules and expectations. Often you can see similarities between the function of genre examples taken from any number of places, even if the specifics of how the genre works will be tailored to a specific audience and organization.

Fundamentally, document genres (and others really) represent an approach to working with a given text. A genre is the way that a textual problem has been solved. If the solution was effective, it was likely repeated. As time went by, the solution was tweaked to meet challenges the original approach didn’t address. The genre continues onward as a way to meet a challenge until it faces one that it simply can’t address. At that point the genre is either retired or fundamentally overhauled to meet the new situation.

To research genre, you should first look to your purpose. Is there an already present genre in your organization you’ve been asked to create a text within? If you already have a standard format for something like an annual report, use that. You should never go searching for a new genre or a new approach simply because you’re making a new text. Unless the genre is no longer solving the problem, keep it as-is. Otherwise, you spend valuable time you could be writing your document trying to come up with a new approach when none is needed.

If you don’t have an in-house genre, you need to create one. Look at example documents that are doing the same thing your document is doing. What structural choices are present? What kind of language is used (informal vs formal)? Take notes about all of this and sketch out your own model based on the examples. It will be a bit shaky on the first go, but that’s what happens anytime you create a new approach to a technical writing task. This is why versioning and revisions exist.

Topics and Audience

Once you’ve got an idea of genre, you need to think about the topics you need to cover. Look at the purpose of your text and look at your audience and their context. What will you need to cover in order to complete your purpose and satisfy your audience?

For example, if you’re being asked to write a series of instructions on how to upload video content to the web for grade schoolers, you will approach this much differently than if you were writing the same content for a retirement community looking to get their members more engaged with social media. In the first example, fundamental questions about video, the web, and social media wouldn’t need to be addressed. Kids get those things. However, the elderly members of the retirement community may not have a firm grasp of how the web works, how video hosting on the web works, and they may even distrust computers! With that said, both groups would likely benefit from a robust set of tips on privacy, so that isn’t to say each group is totally different.

Make a list of your topics and try to make a note next to each item explaining what you mean and why you think that topic needs to be included. You may think this level of documentation is silly (and it would be for something like a three-sentence email to arrange for your friend to meet you for lunch), but being able to look back and explain to your superiors why you’ve made the choices you did in a document based on research and evidence can be a powerful tool when your choices are called into question or someone wants to know why your work is so successful.

Thinking About Types of Information

We we ask about types of information, we’re really thinking about formatting. What types of information in your text will need to have custom formatting? Will there be keywords? Will there be warnings? Will there be cautions? Will there be movies and books listed? Will you be using non-standard characters a lot, such as names in Arabic or Japanese? Each of these questions is a formatting question.

You’ll want to make a list of each of the types of information that will have a special format. If you want to be exhaustive, you could even include numbers and symbols associated with chemical formulas or mathematical equations. The goal here is to have a handle on what will be represented in the text.

Once you have a list of these types of information, sketch out what your formatting for each will be briefly. Will caution be yellow? Will warnings be red? Will formulas be inline or separate from text? Sketch out those answers now. If you’re not sure, do some research. Look at how others have presented the same data in their texts. If you have an internal style guide, use it. If you have a normal way of doing this in your own organization, use that. Otherwise, do the research and make your notes!

Thinking about Accommodations

When we think about accommodations, we’re trying to identify alterations to the text that will be necessary to make sure our users will be able to use it without unnecessary burdens being placed on them. When we think about accommodations, you’ll be thinking about things like the following list:

• Do we have users with special color needs for color-coding?

• Do we have users that will access the text via a screen-reader that will require image captions?

• Do we have users that will need the text translated into another language?

• Do we have users that will need the text written to a specific reading level?

These questions and others will help you identify any accommodations you might need to make.

Your goal here is to make sure you know any sort of need that will be have to be addressed by your or your organization as you write. In some cases, you will have an office in the organization that handles this type of content. In the US, this type of content usually falls under Section 508 rules and regulations when dealing with government agencies. Other countries and organizations may differ in their approaches.

By approaching accommodations early in the writing process, you’ll be in a better position to ensure your text will serve its audience well, regardless of the way they’ll be reading it.

Phase 3b: Implementing Document Goals

Once we’ve identified document goals, we need to do some research and planning to get those goals ready to draft. We need to explicitly identify what genre means for us in this context, we need to connect our list of topics with a series of sections in the text, and we need to create a miniature style guide for any special information and accommodations that will be needed.

Genre Requirements for Drafting

First, we need to explicitly write down how the genre of our text will work. This usually involves two steps: identifying the specific sections that will be needed, and identifying the voice used in the text. For the specific sections, we’ll need to identify what sections are expected in our genre. Next, we’ll need to make sure we have a consistent voice throughout—this may be casual, formal, or something in between.

For example, if we’re going to be working on an annual report, there may be some expected sections that will be present. Now, we’re not getting to the point of topics and sub-topics here, but we need to know about major segments of the text. For an annual report, there may need to be a special executive summary that will be present. Knowing that needs to be in the text helps us plan our our writing task. There might also be an expectation of appendices with hard data included. Knowing that helps us make sure the document meets the expectations given by the genre.

When it comes to voice, we just need to make sure we know what voice we’re using. This can be the start of our mini style guide. Simply describe the voice and how it should work. Will it be formal with no contractions? Will it be informal with a lot of “you” and other direct address use? Will it be silly? Jot down your goals and then use this later as a rubric for your own writing. This type of work is especially useful when you’re working in a team environment where several writers need to use the same voice to write sections that will be combined into one larger document.

Setting up Topics and Sections

Next, you’ll want to connect your topics that need to be covered with specific sections for the document. You’ll want to sketch out the major sections and then map your content to each area. You’ll rely on your research on the audience as well as your purpose here to craft a table of contents for your text.

This will be a rough outline of the text and may look something like the list below:

I. Introduction

i. Salutation to readers (familiar customer for 10 years)

ii. Background on project (reworking of a project by other contractor

iii. Description of rest of text

II.Project Approach

i. Previous work (Current CEO ordered this work)

ii. Current method (Focus on environmental factors)

III. Project Staff

i. Leadership structure (Emphasize experience)

ii. Team member bios (Structure around leads)

IV. Project Timeline

i. Overall timeline (Focus on Earth Day deadline)

ii. Possible delays and challenges (Highlight variables)

V. Goals and Outcomes

i. Overall project goals (Connect with ongoing relationship and with ongoing relationship and environment)

ii. Rubric for measuring success (Use contract for detailed specifics)

VI. Closing (Personal thanks and contact information)

In the above example, I’ve sketched out a potential structure for a project report that might be given to a client at the outset of the project, presenting the reader with a simplified and accessible version of the existing technical plans that emphasizes the why of what will be going on. In each case in parenthesis are some notes that will be useful regarding the audience and the writing. For example, when talking about previous work, there is a note that the current CEO ordered the infrastructure being replaced. Knowing this, we would want to be rather gentle with our critiques of what is currently being done—there is no reason to throw our client under the bus, especially when that can make the boss look bad to an entire organization.

In your own work, you may want to follow a structure like the above, or you might try something altogether different. What matters is that you come up with a structure for the text that covers all the content you’ve identified as necessary while creating sections that make sense within the genre you’re drafting, sections that will help this text meet your stated purpose. We’re trying to put all the stuff we now know into a plan that we can use for the actual writing work ahead of us.

Style and Accommodations

Last, you’ll want to come up with a mini style guide addition that covers any content that needs special formatting or accommodation. A style guide for our purposes is really just a list of things that should be done in the document to maintain consistency. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does need to be clear and accessible those doing writing and editing. We’ll get into this in much more detail later when we talk about project management in a later chapter.

Think about the style guide as the place you go to answer any questions regarding how something should look. When someone is writing a warning, the style guide should give them instructions on how that should be formatted. When someone is including an image, the style guide should list any special instructions for accommodations. The text will work as a reference for your writing, and a living one at that.

Style guides can and do grow over time. Anytime you have to spend more than a moment deciding what something should look like, make a new entry in your style guide. By doing this consistently, you’ll make sure you have a record of the choices you’re making and an explanation of those choices. In a group situation, this allows you to hash out your approach once and then maintain it consistently across multiple authors and perhaps even multiple documents. In the world of coding, you often see a similar documentation alongside code, but also within code in the form of explanatory comments. In all of the situations above, you’re trying to remain consistent and help future you remember what past you wanted done.

The style guide can be fairly simple, as you see in the below example:

Style Guide for Green Infrastructure Project

Voice: The overall voice of this document should be formal, though contractions will be allowed. Formal titles, names, and address should be used throughout

Major Sections: Each major section should be in Impact font, 14pt, bold. The color for each major section should be green (color code should be decided by end of project)

Sub-Sections: Sub-sections should have titles in 12pt Times New Roman and should use italics. The color should be standard black.

Images: All images should include descriptive captions that will be screen-reader accessible.

Revision Log for Style Guide:

Version 1.0 Original style guide added

Version 1.1 Image caption guidelines stipulated to accommodate screen readers as client has several members of team that will be using these devices.

Again, the style guide doesn’t have to be too terribly complicated, but it should be a place you can go to make sure you’re addressing document issues consistently throughout your writing. Making a decision once and then referring back to it makes life simpler.

Section Break - Document Goals and Structure

• What is your favorite genre of television? What do you like about that genre, and how do you identify it? What boundaries can be broken? What boundaries do you consider to be firm?
• Pick a genre of text like a report or a memo. Find as many examples as you can within ten minutes of searching online. Quickly catalog the examples. What do the extremes look like?
• Find a style guide online. What types of information does the style guide contain? Why do you think it is there?

Phase 4: Drafting

Though you might have wondered if we’d ever get here, we’re now at the phase of writing where they actual document comes into shape—drafting. The drafting phase is the most important phase in that this phase actually creates your text, but it can only be successful if it is built upon a firm foundation of research from the previous phases. (And yes, this is even true of short emails with an abbreviated version of the process).

When drafting, you’ll be taking your style guide and section outline and fleshing out the content you’ll be creating. In each section, you’ll want to draft a text based on your guidelines and your audience research. When you wonder how to approach a particular subject, think back to your research on audience and purpose and genre. Any choices you make should be, whenever possible, grounded in research and tied to your users.

When drafting, I find it is often helpful to skip the introduction of your text and to move directly into the body. An introduction is designed to introduce a text, but that is fairly difficult if no text exists. By skipping your introduction and moving into your body you are able to get going on content you can actually create without needing to know the entire document’s content. Once you’ve finished the text, go back and introduce it. It may seem counter-intuitive, but it helps quite a bit.

As you go, think a bit about how you’re saving your text and how it is accessible. You’ll likely want to have at least one backup of your text, and you may even want to save versions as you go. This will allow you to revert to an older copy or an earlier point in the process if you realize you’ve gone in the wrong direction or realize an earlier draft of a section was better than the current one. Saving your text can also be useful when accidents happen. If you lose the device with your text, accidentally delete your current draft, or have a file that gets corrupted, backups make things much less stressful.

Collaborative Drafting

You’ll also want to think about making your text accessible to any collaborators. I won’t go through the trouble of advocating for any particular type of solution to share with your collaborators—these services change and morph all the time. But, I will say that it is ideal to use some platform that hosts files with synchronized updates when you’re doing a lot of work on the same document at once.

If you and your team need to be in the same text at the same time, use a platform that will host the file natively—a platform that lets you edit in browser in real time. If you just need to have the files available, you can use different options that will sync up as you need them to.

Above all, don’t use email! Nothing in life is worse than trying to reconcile multiple files and multiple versions of a text into a final document from a chain of emails. Emailing files leads to poor communication in highly collaborative texts. If you’re editing, it’s not a big deal. If you’re actively drafting, it can ruin your text, or at least your life for the duration of the project.

Finally, as you draft collaboratively, think about voice and tone. Make sure you’ve all got the same supporting documentation to draw on. Make sure that you all have an idea of what the text is supposed to sound like and how it is supposed to relate to the audience and subject. Life is not fun when you get a text with two to four authors and each author has written with a different tone and vocabulary. At the end of that process you’re either rewriting the word choices or putting together a series of texts that simply don’t belong together. Neither is fun. Create a style guide. Use the style guide. Love the style guide.

Phase 5: Editing and Revision

Alright, so you’ve finished your text. Congratulations. Next, you need to make some decisions based on your goals, timeline, and resources. You may wonder why editing comes first as you gaze at this list, as editing is normally treated as a secondary/final concern—you don’t edit something you are going to revise heavily. It all comes down to the decision you’ll make based on the three topics I mentioned at the start of this paragraph: goals, timeline, and resources.

In some cases, you will want to immediately jump into editing a text when it is finished. Why? Your goal may be to get the text out the door quickly and to respond to a pressing request. This would be a useful workflow if you’re writing an email reply to an important client or member of your organization. You need to get information back quickly in this case, so editing immediately makes sense. You aren’t going to spend too much time on this text because, frankly, it isn’t a major document.

Think about the level of importance of your text—is your goal a simple response or a durable document that will withstand continued scrutiny and use. Some documents just aren’t worth as much time as others. That may feel a bit sacrilegious in a writing course, but it is true. If I’m texting someone a quick reply, it is nowhere near as important as a formal assessment document for a graduate program I might be writing the same day. As such, I should set my goals accordingly.

Another item to consider is the timeline you need to meet. Sometimes, you simply don’t have a lot of time. In those cases, you may need to jump directly into editing. In those types of situations, I recommend focusing much of your time on the first two pages. Most readers are going to set their mental image of your in the first few pages; if you have a ton of errors in that space, they are not going to like you very much. However, if your first two pages (or first page even) are immaculate, then you’re going to get a less critical reader that will forgive more later in the text. In short, you don’t want to trip the “gotcha” response in your reader. If you start out with tons of errors, then it almost becomes a game to find more. If you start out flawlessly, the text becomes a narrative rather than something to be read critically while looking for errors.

In situations where you have ample amounts of time, do not edit first. To do so would be a colossal waste of resources and time. Editing is hard work and it takes a lot of focus and time. You don’t want to spend an hour editing three pages that get deleted from the final text or entirely rewritten after testing. If you have more time than a few moments, save editing for last!

A final consideration is resources. You may note that in the middle of the next section is a testing phase. Testing is an ideal step in any technical document that will be used. There is almost always a gap between what happens in the writer’s head and what happens when the text is used. Sometimes that is a gap that has been created because the author is so familiar with a process they skipped a step. Sometimes it is simply a mismatch in terminology between an interface and a document. In any case, testing is very useful. But, it is not always something you have resources for.

Testing really can run a spectrum, something we’ll talk about later and in the final segment of this text with research method, but sometimes there just aren’t any resources to carry out testing. That may be because of budgets or timelines, but it can also be due to institutional views of the writing process. Some organizations simply don’t have testing on their radar as something that is done in technical writing.

In cases where testing is not feasible, go through the text as closely as you can. Think about how accurate the text will be for its intended use. Read the text aloud if at all possible—this catches more errors than you’d realize because of the way we read texts of our own creation. Once this is done, move along to revision or editing, depending on your timeline and goals.

Phase 5a: Editing

Editing, as we discussed previously, is going to be your last phase in virtually any writing context. Even when you briefly look over a text before you send it, you are in essence editing. But, it comes first in this list because many times when you are writing you will simply stop here. There won’t be time or need for testing or revision. And, as we discussed—that is okay.

When we talk about editing, we usually think about two types of editing—copyediting and comprehensive editing. In some situations, you’ll just do copyediting. In other cases, you’ll be doing comprehensive editing that goes much further. Think about your goals, timeline, and resources when you make this choice.

Copyediting

Copyediting is simply looking for issues in the text related to grammar, structure, and content. Does the text do what is says it will? Do the sections come in the correct order? Are terms used consistently? Is structure consistent? Is the grammar okay? Is the spelling consistent and regionally-situated?

In copyediting, you are looking at the text as a finalized document that needs some checking on the textual level. In a fast-paced environment, this is a quick glance. In a slow-paced environment, this may extend to checking terms in a style guide for consistency with institutional norms and spellings. (For example, if you have British and American clients, you need to standardize color or colour). As in everything, think about your goals, timeline, and resources.

When carrying out copyediting, you want to ask the following questions of the document before assessing the document via these questions’ answers:

Copyediting Question

• What does the document say it does?

• What sections does the document say it contains?

• What is the voice of the document?

• How is the first section formatted?

Once you have these answers, you can then assess the text. I recommend you move through the questions in the order listed above using the answers you’ve generated as a standard for testing.

For example, if the document says it will teach you how to true a bicycle wheel, does it actually do that? Can you understand the process by reading through the text? If not, you need to revise accordingly. In cases where you are the author, this is simple. In cases where you are simply an editor, pass it back to the author with instructions on what to add.

As another example, the text might reference an appendix that includes a conversion chart for converting dosing from milliliters to teaspoons. Does the text actually have that appendix? If it doesn’t, that calls for revision as well. (Or maybe just locating the lost file).

With something like voice or formatting or term use, you want to go by the start of the text versus the rest. (This is based on the assumption the author at least got the first bit the way they intended—that isn’t always true, but it can be a good strategy). If the document starts incredibly formal and then swaps randomly in one section to being informal, that requires revision. If the text has blue headings for the first half, it doesn’t need to suddenly swap to green with no reason,. The same goes for calling a process by one name and then swapping to another. In technical writing, there is no real need for creative re-naming. Consistency and intelligibility are more important than keeping things fresh and new.

Comprehensive Editing

Comprehensive editing is much more involved than copyediting—make sure you have time and resources and it meets your goals. In addition, make sure you do the comprehensive work before you copyedit! Just like with editing as a whole, copyediting is listed first because many times that will be where you stop due to limits in time, resources, or a mismatch of goals with the process.

Instead of looking at the details, comprehensive editing looks at the big picture. Does the document stand together? Does the order of the text make sense? Is the correct audience being targeted here? Should the current sections stay in the text, or should something be added or removed? All of these questions are fair game!

With comprehensive editing, you want to query the document based on the purpose and audience.

This can be as wide ranging or as narrow as you have time/desire for. The following questions can be useful in this process:

Comprehensive Editing Questions

• Who is the primary audience?

• How will their context impact their reading of the text?

• Who might be a consulting audience?

• What aspects of the text might need to be tailored to them?

• What is the purpose of this text?

• How does this text fit with other texts in the organization/genre?

Once you have these answers, you can start to comprehensively edit the text. Using these answers, you have a rubric for grading the text’s content, formatting, and style.

To narrow comprehensive editing to something that fits within this sub-section of the book—I teach an entire course on editing—you can follow the following steps as you go through a comprehensive editing:

• Check to make sure the text has everything the audience is going to need. If the audience is made up of novices, make sure the text has ample explanation of technical terms. If the audience may need additional resources that will be hard to fine, provide them for the audience
• Make sure the text is appropriately ordered to carry out the task at hand. Sometimes when we write texts, we don’t always write in the best order for use. Think about the way the text develops. Does it build from one section to another? Does one section later in the text need to be earlier for a section to make sense? If so, consider moving it!
• Analyze the voice of the text—does it make sense for the subject and audience? Think about who your audience is and what they will think about your subject. Is the choice of voice appropriate? If you have a skeptical audience, you likely don’t want to have a super-excited voice that doesn’t critically engage with your subject matter. On the other hand, if your audience already agrees with you fully, it wouldn’t make sense to be skeptical of everything.
• If the text has multiple types of users, make sure they can stay in their lanes. Sometimes, a text will have a variety of users that will have different skill levels. In those cases, you need to be wary of how the text is formatted for their use. For example, if you have expert users that know terms and processes, you won’t want to label each and every step and process—your expert users will get exasperated quickly. Instead, think about how you can signal that content is for new users. With instructions, you might have a bold, simple instruction for each step of a process that caters to advanced users or those referencing the text. Under that bold text, you can include normal formatting in paragraph form or just a few sentences that explains what the step means in detail for those who are learning for the first time. Pretty meta, huh?

Once you are done with copyediting, you’ll want to revise. If you have time, editing again can be useful, though at some point you’ll want to switch from comprehensive to copyediting. You can continually comprehensively edit a text forever. Find a stopping place that honors your goals, timeline, and resources.

Section Break - Editing and Drafting

• When does a document warrant comprehensive editing versus simple copyediting? Come up with some criteria to help judge when a document commands enough importance to require comprehensive editing.
• Rank the platforms you prefer for group writing, naming your top three. What influences your preference? What features matter when you’re writing with others?

Phase 5b: Testing

Testing is the middle step of our process, though if you have a great deal of time, it may well be the first one—it depends on your purpose and audience for testing. Testing can have different permutations depending on your resources and timeline. You might simply do internal testing with folks in your organization testing out your work. Alternatively, you could actively recruit testers in the generic sense to go over your text. Or, you could get the actual users that will use your text to test it—and those could be internal or external, depending on what you’re writing.

If you are simply passing something along for internal testing, it is more likely that you might send it directly to testers after drafting, or perhaps after a quick edit. With internal testers, you don’t have to be as concerned with the polish and finish as you might with external testers—they won’t be judging your organization based on this text. However, in some cases where the politics of internal testing are fraught (such as cases where the testers see all of this work as silly), you may want to make sure the text is exceptionally polished.

With external testers, you’re going to be either finding folks that fit a generic profile of users or you’ll be finding the actual users to test with. In each case, you’ll want to make sure the text is polished and doesn’t reflect badly on your organization. With a generic profile, you’ll just want to find folks that will fit a certain set of parameters to test your text. These may be individuals with similar age ranges or skill levels as your users. Or, it could just be the general public. With actual users, something we’ll cover later in this chapter in more detail, you’ll be working with the folks who would be using your text to make sure it works as intended.

Testers can be paid or unpaid, but in each case you need to treat their time and experience as valuable. If you pass along a text riddled with errors that looks like a joke, you’re going to be wasting your time and theirs. If you go through the trouble of testing a text with outside users, at least make sure you have a polished text!

Goals of Testing

When you’re doing testing, you’re asking folks to use texts as they are intended; in the process of using them, you’re hoping to find problems with the text. You might find that there are terms that are unclear to the average user. You might find an important step is mislabeled or omitted entirely. In each case, you’re trying to figure out what happens when your text actually gets used the way it would after it leaves your desk. It may seem like overkill, especially since you’re reading this text in a college classroom environment, but testing can save you and your organization time, money, and reputation losses associated with sending an awful text out into the world that simply is not fit for use, or in a worst-case scenario, dangerous.

Later in this chapter, and in the end of the text, we’ll get into the specifics of testing. For now, here is a general workflow you can use for testing:

Testing Workflow

• Identify what you want to learn from testing

• 6Find users that will be testing your text

• Have the users make use of the text in ways that will help you learn what you want

• Record or observe this use, or have the users self-report

Take your findings into the revision process or editing process, depending on the changes needed

With the above workflow, you can get a rough idea of how you can update a text to better fit the intended workflow it will be part of. Later, we’ll dive into this with considerably more detail with specific research methods.

Phase 5c: Revision

So, it has come to this. For many writers, revision is a bad word. Revision is failure to launch, failure to generate a good text the first time. Nothing could be further than the truth. Revision is central to the production of great writing—almost no one gets it right the first time. In fact, many of the most trusted types of texts, such as peer-reviewed academic work or works published by major presses, are produced in environments that are designed to lead to revision and reflection by the author!

Now, as a note—revision and editing are different in this text, and in general practice. Revision often happens when an author reflects on a text. Editing usually happens when an outsider or a non-author reflects on the text. Sometimes revision will incorporate the suggestions of an editor and will be guided by reviewer feedback. Other times, it is self-contained.

When it comes to revision, you can think about it on two levels: global and local revision. Global revision comes first and involves looking at the big picture of your text; in many ways, it is the author’s side of comprehensive editing. With global revision, you move paragraphs, you check to see if topic sentences are supported by the rest of a paragraph, you delete content or add content as needed. With local revision, you focus on small-scale stuff. Does this sentence sound right? Is this the correct word? How can I fix this comma splice?

For carrying out revision, you want to first make sure you have ample time to actually revise, and you need to make sure you’re doing it right. In regards to time, if you are pressed for time, you likely will need to focus more on local revision—large-scale changes to a text can create large-scale problems. If you don’t think you have time for a total overhaul, don’t half-overhaul. Focus on fixing what is there rather than altering it dramatically. If you do have time, focus on global before local. As with comprehensive and copyediting, you don’t want to fix something small that will be deleted later because the larger component it is part of has been removed from your text.

Much of the work of revision maps on top of the work of editing—usually revision and editing are separate parts of a process. Editing identifies the issues, and revision fixes them. (Every editor varies in how much work they do and how much the author does. At the least in modern workflows you’ll have to approve changes in your text). In the case of a single author, you often do both at the same time. Your global revision and comprehensive editing are one and the same. In larger organizations, this is broken up into individual roles with different folks doing different parts of the work.

Carrying out revision effectively takes practice—you learn how to best respond to your own writing by responding to your own writing. There isn’t one workflow that works best, but below I’ll provide some checklists for global and local revision to give you a starting point. Not all of these suggestions will fit every situation, but consider them a good starting point that you can adapt to your own writing. (For example, you might notice after a while that you tend to create a lot of extra “is” formulations where instead of saying “this takes practice,” you say “this is something that takes practice.” In cases like that, you’ll want to focus on finding these “is” formulations because you know that is your kryptonite).

Global Revision Checklist

• Is there a document map?

• Do the major sections follow the plan of the document map?

• Are there sections that shouldn’t be in the document?

• Does each paragraph have a topic sentence?

• Does the rest of the paragraph match up with these topic sentences?

In the above checklist, you focus almost entirely on how the document and paragraphs are structured. The idea is that the document map is your starting point—it tells you what should be in the text and the order that those things should be in. You’ll then audit the rest of the text based on that map before descending to the paragraph level and treating each paragraph’s topic sentence as a document map for that paragraph, auditing each paragraph’s sentences to make sure they fit with that text’s purpose. You can add in some of the extra checklist items from comprehensive editing if you’d like to make this more thorough.

Local Revision Checklist

• If you have time, read the document aloud.

• If you are pressed for time, read the first page aloud

• Search for errors you know that you often make

• Double-check terms that are important for the text

• Work on re-writing sections (important ones especially) that you feel have poor flow or read badly

In the second checklist, you’re focusing almost entirely on small-scale issues. Reading the document aloud is central to effective local editing (and copyediting many times), because it forces you to actually read each work. Often times when we read, we skim without realizing it. When we read our own work, we tend to both skim and edit the text as we read; we read what we meant rather than what it says. Reading aloud gets around both of these issues and helps with the problem most of us face— we can’t stand reading our own work. You can also have your word processor read to you, but I find reading aloud keeps you more focused and able to catch errors

Phase 6: Proofing

Proofing is a phase of the writing process that many guides and writers overlook, but it can be the most important one when it comes to costly mistakes and embarrassing errors. You’ll sometimes see it called proofreading. Proofing involves the creation of proofs—samples of your final document with all of the production choices and text choices put into the form they will have in publication.

Proofing is valuable because it can catch errors that won’t show up in the drafting process alone. For example, you might think that a certain color combination looks great with a certain type of paper when you’re drafting, but when you actually get the printed proof, it looks awful and the colors clash. Or, you might have accidentally used an RGB color code when you should have used CMYK and your text or document has colors that are nothing like what you expected and planned for. Or, you might realize that a choice of font size or style simply doesn’t allow for easy reading when placed into a real-world document. Proofing helps you catch these errors before you’ve paid for an entire run of a document.

In college writing, proofing is not something you run into that much. Most of your writing in classes is often in an office-style program that will go to your professor. Most technical writing, however, goes to outside audiences that will be using your texts. Whereas proofing doesn’t usually make sense in college settings because you rarely get something professionally printed and put together, it is a must in professional settings.

Proofing can be very project-dependent, but a few suggestions can help when you’re looking over a proof. We will cover proofing again when we discuss the production process later in the text.

Proofing Checklist

• Do all of the images look correctly colored and free of pixelation?

• Are all fonts correct or have some fonts been substituted for incorrect ones?

• Are the colors accurate?

• Is the paper correct?

• Is all content on the page, or is some content cut off due to being too close to the binding or too close to the edge of the document (the bleed region)?

• Can the document be read easily

• Are there any errors in formatting or spelling or grammar?

By following through with proofing after final revision, you can catch some last-minute errors and mismatches between what you hoped to find when you created your document and what you find in front of you. Again, proofing is about saving you money and embarrassment—you don’t want to print a run of hundreds or thousands of pages with really awkward and obvious errors throughout. Even the best editor will miss some errors—proofing gives you a chance to catch and replace those before you pay money to get them printed and sent out to your users.

If you want to take things to the next level, you can do some proofreading as well. Proofreading as part of the editing process involves taking the last version of the text that was editing and reading through it and the final proof concurrently, looking for situations where changes that should have been made didn’t make it into the final document.

Phase 7: Publication

Congratulations—you did it. Publication is the final phase of the writing process, a process you may have thought would never end in this text. With publication, you are confident in your text and your proof and you’re ready to send it out to the world. Often publication is a matter of logistics and delivery—you want to make sure the write amount of documents get out to the right people at the right time. We’ll cover publication more in Chapter 6.

For publication, you have a fairly simple checklist:

Publication Checklist

• How many copies do I need?

• Who needs a copy of the text?

• When do they need it?

Once you’ve made sure you’ve got your bases covered, the writing process for your document is over! Congrats—it got published.

Section Break - Testing, Revision, Proofing, and Publishing

• Carry out some basic testing on an institutional website of your choosing. Pick a website from your institution you are familiar with and have someone else in the class that isn’t familiar with the site carry out some tasks. Make note of how they perform and where they have issues. Prepare a brief report on the test that you could pass along to the webmaster.
• Revision can be a struggle for almost any writer. What do you struggle with during revision? What tactics do you use to avoid these struggles or to overcome them? Share with the rest of your class and look for common ground and new strategies for succeeding.

What Is Research Methodology? A Plain-Language Explanation & Definition (With Examples)

By Derek Jansen (MBA)  and Kerryn Warren (PhD) | June 2020 (Last updated April 2023)

If you’re new to formal academic research, it’s quite likely that you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by all the technical lingo that gets thrown around. And who could blame you – “research methodology”, “research methods”, “sampling strategies”… it all seems never-ending!

In this post, we’ll demystify the landscape with plain-language explanations and loads of examples (including easy-to-follow videos), so that you can approach your dissertation, thesis or research project with confidence. Let’s get started.

Research Methodology 101

• What exactly research methodology means
• What qualitative , quantitative and mixed methods are
• What sampling strategy is
• What data collection methods are
• What data analysis methods are
• How to choose your research methodology
• Example of a research methodology

What is research methodology?

Research methodology simply refers to the practical “how” of a research study. More specifically, it’s about how  a researcher  systematically designs a study  to ensure valid and reliable results that address the research aims, objectives and research questions . Specifically, how the researcher went about deciding:

• What type of data to collect (e.g., qualitative or quantitative data )
• Who  to collect it from (i.e., the sampling strategy )
• How to  collect  it (i.e., the data collection method )
• How to  analyse  it (i.e., the data analysis methods )

Within any formal piece of academic research (be it a dissertation, thesis or journal article), you’ll find a research methodology chapter or section which covers the aspects mentioned above. Importantly, a good methodology chapter explains not just   what methodological choices were made, but also explains  why they were made. In other words, the methodology chapter should justify  the design choices, by showing that the chosen methods and techniques are the best fit for the research aims, objectives and research questions. 

So, it’s the same as research design?

Not quite. As we mentioned, research methodology refers to the collection of practical decisions regarding what data you’ll collect, from who, how you’ll collect it and how you’ll analyse it. Research design, on the other hand, is more about the overall strategy you’ll adopt in your study. For example, whether you’ll use an experimental design in which you manipulate one variable while controlling others. You can learn more about research design and the various design types here .

Need a helping hand?

What are qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods?

Qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods are different types of methodological approaches, distinguished by their focus on words , numbers or both . This is a bit of an oversimplification, but its a good starting point for understanding.

Let’s take a closer look.

Qualitative research refers to research which focuses on collecting and analysing words (written or spoken) and textual or visual data, whereas quantitative research focuses on measurement and testing using numerical data . Qualitative analysis can also focus on other “softer” data points, such as body language or visual elements.

It’s quite common for a qualitative methodology to be used when the research aims and research questions are exploratory  in nature. For example, a qualitative methodology might be used to understand peoples’ perceptions about an event that took place, or a political candidate running for president. 

Contrasted to this, a quantitative methodology is typically used when the research aims and research questions are confirmatory  in nature. For example, a quantitative methodology might be used to measure the relationship between two variables (e.g. personality type and likelihood to commit a crime) or to test a set of hypotheses .

As you’ve probably guessed, the mixed-method methodology attempts to combine the best of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to integrate perspectives and create a rich picture. If you’d like to learn more about these three methodological approaches, be sure to watch our explainer video below.

What is sampling strategy?

Simply put, sampling is about deciding who (or where) you’re going to collect your data from . Why does this matter? Well, generally it’s not possible to collect data from every single person in your group of interest (this is called the “population”), so you’ll need to engage a smaller portion of that group that’s accessible and manageable (this is called the “sample”).

How you go about selecting the sample (i.e., your sampling strategy) will have a major impact on your study.  There are many different sampling methods  you can choose from, but the two overarching categories are probability   sampling and  non-probability   sampling .

Probability sampling  involves using a completely random sample from the group of people you’re interested in. This is comparable to throwing the names all potential participants into a hat, shaking it up, and picking out the “winners”. By using a completely random sample, you’ll minimise the risk of selection bias and the results of your study will be more generalisable  to the entire population. 

Non-probability sampling , on the other hand,  doesn’t use a random sample . For example, it might involve using a convenience sample, which means you’d only interview or survey people that you have access to (perhaps your friends, family or work colleagues), rather than a truly random sample. With non-probability sampling, the results are typically not generalisable .

To learn more about sampling methods, be sure to check out the video below.

What are data collection methods?

As the name suggests, data collection methods simply refers to the way in which you go about collecting the data for your study. Some of the most common data collection methods include:

• Interviews (which can be unstructured, semi-structured or structured)
• Focus groups and group interviews
• Surveys (online or physical surveys)
• Observations (watching and recording activities)
• Biophysical measurements (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, etc.)
• Documents and records (e.g., financial reports, court records, etc.)

The choice of which data collection method to use depends on your overall research aims and research questions , as well as practicalities and resource constraints. For example, if your research is exploratory in nature, qualitative methods such as interviews and focus groups would likely be a good fit. Conversely, if your research aims to measure specific variables or test hypotheses, large-scale surveys that produce large volumes of numerical data would likely be a better fit.

What are data analysis methods?

Data analysis methods refer to the methods and techniques that you’ll use to make sense of your data. These can be grouped according to whether the research is qualitative  (words-based) or quantitative (numbers-based).

Popular data analysis methods in qualitative research include:

• Qualitative content analysis
• Thematic analysis
• Discourse analysis
• Narrative analysis
• Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA)
• Visual analysis (of photographs, videos, art, etc.)

Qualitative data analysis all begins with data coding , after which an analysis method is applied. In some cases, more than one analysis method is used, depending on the research aims and research questions . In the video below, we explore some  common qualitative analysis methods, along with practical examples.  

Moving on to the quantitative side of things, popular data analysis methods in this type of research include:

• Descriptive statistics (e.g. means, medians, modes )
• Inferential statistics (e.g. correlation, regression, structural equation modelling)

Again, the choice of which data collection method to use depends on your overall research aims and objectives , as well as practicalities and resource constraints. In the video below, we explain some core concepts central to quantitative analysis.

How do I choose a research methodology?

As you’ve probably picked up by now, your research aims and objectives have a major influence on the research methodology . So, the starting point for developing your research methodology is to take a step back and look at the big picture of your research, before you make methodology decisions. The first question you need to ask yourself is whether your research is exploratory or confirmatory in nature.

If your research aims and objectives are primarily exploratory in nature, your research will likely be qualitative and therefore you might consider qualitative data collection methods (e.g. interviews) and analysis methods (e.g. qualitative content analysis). 

Conversely, if your research aims and objective are looking to measure or test something (i.e. they’re confirmatory), then your research will quite likely be quantitative in nature, and you might consider quantitative data collection methods (e.g. surveys) and analyses (e.g. statistical analysis).

Designing your research and working out your methodology is a large topic, which we cover extensively on the blog . For now, however, the key takeaway is that you should always start with your research aims, objectives and research questions (the golden thread). Every methodological choice you make needs align with those three components. 

Example of a research methodology chapter

In the video below, we provide a detailed walkthrough of a research methodology from an actual dissertation, as well as an overview of our free methodology template .

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

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199 Comments

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Thanks for your comment.

We can’t write your methodology for you. If you’re looking for samples, you should be able to find some sample methodologies on Google. Alternatively, you can download some previous dissertations from a dissertation directory and have a look at the methodology chapters therein.

All the best with your research.

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Great to hear that, Hyacinth. Best of luck with your research!

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Thanks for the feedback, Matobela. Good luck with your research methodology.

Thank you. This is really helpful.

You’re very welcome, Elie. Good luck with your research methodology.

Well explained thanks

This is a very helpful site especially for young researchers at college. It provides sufficient information to guide students and equip them with the necessary foundation to ask any other questions aimed at deepening their understanding.

Thanks for the kind words, Edward. Good luck with your research!

Thank you. I have learned a lot.

Great to hear that, Ngwisa. Good luck with your research methodology!

Thank you for keeping your presentation simples and short and covering key information for research methodology. My key takeaway: Start with defining your research objective the other will depend on the aims of your research question.

My name is Zanele I would like to be assisted with my research , and the topic is shortage of nursing staff globally want are the causes , effects on health, patients and community and also globally

Thanks for making it simple and clear. It greatly helped in understanding research methodology. Regards.

This is well simplified and straight to the point

Thank you Dr

I was given an assignment to research 2 publications and describe their research methodology? I don’t know how to start this task can someone help me?

Sure. You’re welcome to book an initial consultation with one of our Research Coaches to discuss how we can assist – https://gradcoach.com/book/new/ .

Thanks a lot I am relieved of a heavy burden.keep up with the good work

I’m very much grateful Dr Derek. I’m planning to pursue one of the careers that really needs one to be very much eager to know. There’s a lot of research to do and everything, but since I’ve gotten this information I will use it to the best of my potential.

Thank you so much, words are not enough to explain how helpful this session has been for me!

Thanks this has thought me alot.

Very concise and helpful. Thanks a lot

Thank Derek. This is very helpful. Your step by step explanation has made it easier for me to understand different concepts. Now i can get on with my research.

I wish i had come across this sooner. So simple but yet insightful

really nice explanation thank you so much

I’m so grateful finding this site, it’s really helpful…….every term well explained and provide accurate understanding especially to student going into an in-depth research for the very first time, even though my lecturer already explained this topic to the class, I think I got the clear and efficient explanation here, much thanks to the author.

It is very helpful material

I would like to be assisted with my research topic : Literature Review and research methodologies. My topic is : what is the relationship between unemployment and economic growth?

Its really nice and good for us.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR EXPLANATION, ITS VERY CLEAR TO ME WHAT I WILL BE DOING FROM NOW .GREAT READS.

Short but sweet.Thank you

Informative article. Thanks for your detailed information.

I’m currently working on my Ph.D. thesis. Thanks a lot, Derek and Kerryn, Well-organized sequences, facilitate the readers’ following.

great article for someone who does not have any background can even understand

I am a bit confused about research design and methodology. Are they the same? If not, what are the differences and how are they related?

Thanks in advance.

concise and informative.

Thank you very much

How can we site this article is Harvard style?

Very well written piece that afforded better understanding of the concept. Thank you!

Am a new researcher trying to learn how best to write a research proposal. I find your article spot on and want to download the free template but finding difficulties. Can u kindly send it to my email, the free download entitled, “Free Download: Research Proposal Template (with Examples)”.

Thank too much

Thank you very much for your comprehensive explanation about research methodology so I like to thank you again for giving us such great things.

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Thank u sir, it is really a good guideline.

so helpful thank you very much.

Thanks for the video it was very explanatory and detailed, easy to comprehend and follow up. please, keep it up the good work

It was very helpful, a well-written document with precise information.

how do i reference this?

MLA Jansen, Derek, and Kerryn Warren. “What (Exactly) Is Research Methodology?” Grad Coach, June 2021, gradcoach.com/what-is-research-methodology/.

APA Jansen, D., & Warren, K. (2021, June). What (Exactly) Is Research Methodology? Grad Coach. https://gradcoach.com/what-is-research-methodology/

Your explanation is easily understood. Thank you

Very help article. Now I can go my methodology chapter in my thesis with ease

I feel guided ,Thank you

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The write up is informative and educative. It is an academic intellectual representation that every good researcher can find useful. Thanks

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Thanks very much, it was very concise and informational for a beginner like me to gain an insight into what i am about to undertake. I really appreciate.

very informative sir, it is amazing to understand the meaning of question hidden behind that, and simple language is used other than legislature to understand easily. stay happy.

This one is really amazing. All content in your youtube channel is a very helpful guide for doing research. Thanks, GradCoach.

research methodologies

Please send me more information concerning dissertation research.

Nice piece of knowledge shared….. #Thump_UP

This is amazing, it has said it all. Thanks to Gradcoach

This is wonderful,very elaborate and clear.I hope to reach out for your assistance in my research very soon.

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Thank you very much I need validity and reliability explanation I have exams

Thank you for a well explained piece. This will help me going forward.

Very simple and well detailed Many thanks

This is so very simple yet so very effective and comprehensive. An Excellent piece of work.

I wish I saw this earlier on! Great insights for a beginner(researcher) like me. Thanks a mil!

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Thanks for simplifying these terms for us, really appreciated.

Thanks for a great work. well understood .

This was very helpful. It was simple but profound and very easy to understand. Thank you so much!

Great and amazing research guidelines. Best site for learning research

hello sir/ma’am, i didn’t find yet that what type of research methodology i am using. because i am writing my report on CSR and collect all my data from websites and articles so which type of methodology i should write in dissertation report. please help me. i am from India.

how does this really work?

perfect content, thanks a lot

As a researcher, I commend you for the detailed and simplified information on the topic in question. I would like to remain in touch for the sharing of research ideas on other topics. Thank you

Impressive. Thank you, Grad Coach 😍

Thank you Grad Coach for this piece of information. I have at least learned about the different types of research methodologies.

Very useful content with easy way

Thank you very much for the presentation. I am an MPH student with the Adventist University of Africa. I have successfully completed my theory and starting on my research this July. My topic is “Factors associated with Dental Caries in (one District) in Botswana. I need help on how to go about this quantitative research

I am so grateful to run across something that was sooo helpful. I have been on my doctorate journey for quite some time. Your breakdown on methodology helped me to refresh my intent. Thank you.

thanks so much for this good lecture. student from university of science and technology, Wudil. Kano Nigeria.

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Thanks a lot for sharing superb information in a detailed but concise manner. It was really helpful and helped a lot in getting into my own research methodology.

Comment * thanks very much

This was sooo helpful for me thank you so much i didn’t even know what i had to write thank you!

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This is powerful thank you so much guys

I am nkasa lizwi doing my research proposal on honors with the university of Walter Sisulu Komani I m on part 3 now can you assist me.my topic is: transitional challenges faced by educators in intermediate phase in the Alfred Nzo District.

Appreciate the presentation. Very useful step-by-step guidelines to follow.

I appreciate sir

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Indeed this material is very helpful! Kudos writers/authors.

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I want present a seminar paper on Optimisation of Deep learning-based models on vulnerability detection in digital transactions.

Need assistance

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Hello!! Grad coach teams. I am extremely happy in your tutorial or consultation. i am really benefited all material and briefing. Thank you very much for your generous helps. Please keep it up. If you add in your briefing, references for further reading, it will be very nice.

All I have to say is, thank u gyz.

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• Free Download: Research Proposal Template (With Examples) - Grad Coach - […] Research design (methodology) […]
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Section 1: Choosing Your Topic

Section 2: literature review, section 3: structuring your paper, section 4: peer review and feedback, section 5: editing and proofreading, section 6: references and citations, section 7: submission and publication, research papers made easy: a comprehensive writing guide.

• Read in 07 mins
• 26-Oct-2023

Writing a technical or research paper can be both a tricky and enjoyable experience. It's an essential skill for researchers, scientists, and academics, as it allows you to communicate your findings and contribute to the world of knowledge. However, the question that arises is: How to write a technical paper?

The method of writing a technical paper can be complicated if you don't have a specific structure and plan in place. We will guide you through the fundamental elements and tips to help you write an effective research paper in this step-by-step guide. Whether you are a skilled writer or just starting, having a well-defined structure is key to maintaining clarity and coherence in your technical or research paper.

The first step in technical paper writing is to choose a topic that is interesting as well as relevant to your field of study. Consider the current trends and advancements in your field, and identify a topic that you are passionate about and have a good understanding of. It's important to choose a topic that is neither too broad nor too narrow, as this will facilitate thorough research and analysis.

The Significance of a Well-Chosen Topic

The journey to writing a successful research paper begins with selecting a topic. This initial step is crucial as it shapes the entire research process. Two primary factors should influence your choice:

1. Your Interest

When you are genuinely interested in a topic, you are more likely to dedicate the time and effort needed to explore and analyze it thoroughly. Passion for your chosen topic is a driving force in research. It keeps you enlightened and committed throughout the writing process. Research is a long-haul commitment, so make sure you're passionate about the subject you're about to delve into.

2. Relevance and Significance

Select a topic that's relevant and significant. Your paper's impact largely depends on the relevance of the topic to your field of study or area of interest. By selecting a topic that aligns with your field of study or area of interest, you can contribute to the pre-existing body structure of knowledge and make a valuable contribution to your academic community.

3. Finding Your Research Question

Once you've identified your area of interest, you need to narrow it down to a specific research question. Your research question should be clear, concise, and researchable. It acts as the guiding star throughout your research journey.

A well-crafted research question will help you focus your efforts and ensure that you gather relevant data and information. It should be specific enough to provide meaningful results but broad enough to allow for exploration and analysis.

Bonus Read: Exploring the 11 Types of Technical Writing

The literature review serves multiple purposes, including providing a comprehensive understanding of the present condition of details in your field, identifying gaps or inconsistencies in previous research, and informing the development of your research question.

The Foundation of Your Research

A thorough literature review is required before carrying out your research. This step involves exploring existing work in your field, understanding the landscape of your chosen topic, and identifying gaps in knowledge. For example, let's say you are researching the effects of social media on mental health among teenagers.

In your literature review, start by examining existing studies and theories on both social media and mental health. You may find that there is a significant amount of research on the negative impacts of excessive social media usage, such as increased anxiety and depression among teenagers.

However, during your review, you noticed a gap in the literature regarding the possible positive effects of social media on mental health. This observation leads you to develop your research question: "What are the potential positive effects of using social media for promoting mental health among teenagers?"

From this example, a thorough literature review not only helps you understand what has already been studied but also identifies gaps in the existing research. This research question opens up new possibilities for exploring how social media can be utilized as a tool for promoting mental well-being among teenagers, potentially leading to innovative interventions and strategies in this area.

A well-organized structure is the backbone of a research paper. It helps convey your ideas clearly and logically. A typical structure comprises:

Introduction

• Research Question: Clearly state your research question.
• Objectives: Mention the objectives of your research.
• Significance: Explain the significance of your research topic.
• Structure: Outline the structure of your paper.

Literature Review

• Existing Work: Summarize and analyze relevant literature.
• Identified Gaps: Highlight the gaps that your research addresses.
• Framework: Provide a conceptual framework for your research.

Methodology

• Data Collection: Describe the methods used to gather data.
• Participants: Provide information on your study's participants (if applicable).
• Ethical Considerations: Explain ethical considerations.
• Data Analysis: Describe the methods used for data analysis.
• Data Presentation: Present your research findings using tables, graphs, or other visual aids.
• Statistical Analysis: If necessary, use statistical analysis to support your findings.
• Interpretation: Understanding the results in the context of your research question.
• Implications: Discuss the implications of your findings.
• Limitations: Acknowledge the limitations of your research.
• Future Research: Suggest areas for future research based on your findings.
• Summary: Summarize your main findings.
• Contributions: Emphasize the contributions your research makes.
• Final Thoughts: Conclude with your final thoughts on the research.

Simple and easy-to-understandable writing is necessary. Avoid complex, convoluted sentences that may confuse readers. Simplicity enhances comprehension. Make use of graphs, charts, and tables to present data effectively, enhancing reader engagement.

Seeking feedback from fellows, mentors, or professors is invaluable. Peer review ensures the quality of your paper and helps identify areas for improvement. During the research paper writing process, it is crucial to engage in peer review and seek feedback from peers, mentors, or professors.

This step is essential as it helps ensure the quality of your paper and allows you to identify areas that need improvement. Incorporating feedback from others not only enhances the overall quality of your writing but also helps you gain a fresh perspective on your work. By soliciting input from others, you can address any possible weaknesses or gaps in your argument, ensuring that your paper is comprehensive and well-rounded.

Editing and proofreading are the final touches that transform your research paper into a polished gem. It's essential to edit your paper for clarity, grammar, style, and formatting. During the editing process, you can also check for any inconsistencies or redundancies in your writing.

Additionally, proofreading allows you to catch any spelling or punctuation errors that may have been overlooked. By taking the time to edit and proofread your paper carefully, you demonstrate your commitment to producing a high-quality piece of work.

Some tools that can help with editing and proofreading a research paper include:

• Grammar and spell checkers, such as Grammarly or Hemingway Editor, can catch any errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
• Style guides, such as the APA or the MLA style guides, can also be useful for ensuring consistency in formatting and citations.

This section is crucial as it allows readers to find and confirm the sources you have used in your paper. When writing a paper, it is important to avoid plagiarism by properly citing your sources in the references and citations section. It is essential to ensure this and follow the guidelines provided by the specific style guide you are using, like APA or MLA.

These style guides provide detailed instructions on how to format different types of sources, including books, journal articles, websites, and more.

• Suppose you are writing a research paper on climate change, and you want to include a statistic from a scientific study. In that case, you need to cite the source in your references and citations section properly.
• In the APA style guide, you would format the citation as follows: Smith, J. D., Johnson, A. B., & Thompson, C. (2019). The impact of climate change over global temperatures. Journal of Environmental Science, 45(2), 132-150. (Note: This is just an example, and the actual citation format may vary depending on the specific guidelines of the APA style guide).
• By including this citation in your paper, readers can locate the original study and verify the information you have included. It not only adds credibility to your paper but also gives proper credit to the authors of the study.

Once your paper is polished and ready, it's time to consider submission and publication. This step is the culmination of your hard work, where you share your findings with the academic community. Each journal or conference will have its submission guidelines that you must adhere to.

For example, suppose you are submitting a paper to a scientific journal. In that case, you may be required to include an abstract or keywords and follow specific formatting guidelines. These guidelines are crucial to ensure that your paper meets the standards and requirements of the publication.

This guide discussed various steps on how to write a technical paper or research paper. It is a journey of discovery where you not only contribute to the collective knowledge of your field but also enhance your own research and writing skills.

Remember, the journey starts with choosing a compelling topic that resonates with you. The literature review lays the foundation for your research, and rigorous data collection ensures the credibility of your work. Our technical writing services can provide valuable assistance in organizing and presenting your findings clearly and straightforwardly.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mary has extensive experience of over 5 years in writing on a wide range of topics, including healthcare, technology, science, and business. She is highly knowledgeable and skilled in researching and crafting accurate, well-structured, and engaging content. Mary is a reliable and professional writer who is always willing to go the extra mile to ensure her clients are satisfied with her work. She is committed to delivering quality content on time and within budget.

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Meaning of technical in English

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• The space shuttle remained earthbound because of a technical fault .
• The instruction booklet is written in very technical language which is almost impossible to understand .
• Before she could begin the project she had to work her way through the huge amount of technical papers .
• There are still a few technical problems to be dealt with before the product can be put on sale to the public .
• He currently holds the position of technical manager .
• Afrocentrism
• applicative
• hard science
• historiography
• orientalist
• sub-discipline
• suicidology
• technically

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

technical | American Dictionary

Technical | business english, examples of technical, translations of technical.

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Definition of technical

 (Entry 1 of 2)

Definition of technical  (Entry 2 of 2)

• specialized

Examples of technical in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'technical.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

New Latin technicus "of the arts or sciences" (borrowed from Greek technikós "skillful, proficient in an art or craft, artificial," from téchnē "art, craft, proficiency in an art or craft, systematic method of performing or engaging in an art, manner, way, (in plural) wiles, cunning" + -ikos -ic entry 1 ) + -al entry 1 ; téchnē going back to Indo-European *tetḱ- or *teḱ-s- "fashion, produce" + *-(s)neh 2 , noun suffix — more at tectonic

Note: Regarding the nature of the root *tetḱ-/*teḱ-s-, see note at tectonic .

by shortening

1617, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

1917, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing technical

• get technical

technical difficulties

• technical foul
• technical knockout
• technical point
• technical sergeant
• technical / tech support

Dictionary Entries Near technical

Cite this entry.

“Technical.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/technical. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of technical, medical definition, medical definition of technical, more from merriam-webster on technical.

Nglish: Translation of technical for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of technical for Arabic Speakers

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University IT

• Institutional Data Definitions (Business Glossary)

How to Write a Technical Definition

Use a brief label to record a column name if this is the only thing being recorded:

Column Name: student_name

Record the path if the field has one. List only the attributes, not the field labels. Omitting field labels in path names makes it easier to read the path. This example is from the Student Consolidated Package:

Path: Student > Student Bio > visa code

Include one or more of these elements:

• Query, API, or calling method
• Method of calculation
• Transformations
• Ambiguity or accuracy issues
• Gaps or inconsistencies

Make ambiguity explicit. Use phrases such as “Accuracy is unknown.” or “The country table has an entry “xxx”. We do not know why.”

Technical Action Research

• First Online: 01 January 2014

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Technical action research (TAR) is the use of an experimental artifact to help a client and to learn about its effects in practice. The artifact is experimental, which means that it is still under development and has not yet been transferred to the original problem context. A TAR study is a way to validate the artifact in the field. It is the last stage in the process of scaling up from the conditions of the laboratory to the unprotected conditions of practice.

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Wieringa, R.J. (2014). Technical Action Research. In: Design Science Methodology for Information Systems and Software Engineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43839-8_19

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« RETURN TO NEWS

University of Minnesota, A&T Kick Off Research Partnership Program

04/24/2024 Research and Economic Development

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MINNEAPOLIS (April 24, 2024) – University of Minnesota (UMN) officials have announced a new research partnership program with North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, the largest of the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities.

“Solving complex grand challenge problems requires research universities like ours to actively seek out collaborators and talent to pursue field leading research,” said Shashank Priya, Ph.D., UMN vice president for research and innovation and one of the organizers of the partnership. “That work leads to the development of innovative solutions and trained workforce with hands-on experience on cutting-edge interdisciplinary technologies, for our respective states and the country more broadly.”

“The research and innovation enterprises at both our universities can benefit from combined strengths in basic science and the infrastructure that supports it,” said Eric Muth, Ph.D., vice chancellor for N.C. A&T’s Division of Research and Economic Development. “For example, N.C. A&T and UMN both have extensive strengths in nanoscience and engineering that can be combined to identify promising pathways for new material innovations that will impact applications in microelectronics, medical technologies, and sustainable engineering. And, as the nation’s leading producer of African American graduates in engineering and agriculture, N.C. A&T has a large pool of talented and skilled students that through research their work are eager to demonstrate impact on society and environment.”

Following wide-ranging discussions and a visit by UMN officials to North Carolina last July, Priya, and the UMN Office for Student Affairs and the UMN Office for Equity and Diversity began planning for a two-phase UMN- A&T research partnership program.

In the first phase, the UMN Research and Innovation Office (RIO) will annually award five proposals to initiate collaboration with A&T peer researchers. This phase aims to build trusted partnerships between individual researchers and the two institutions through researcher exchange, seminars, classroom lectures, lab visits, organization of hybrid workshops, and other activities. The second phase is planned starting in year three, when additional funding will be allocated to initiate at least three research programs per year between the two institutions that ideally build on phase one projects.

UMN and A&T faculty interested in the program should watch RIO’s funding and awards page for an RFP to be published in August and a competition to be conducted in the fall. Current inquiries can be directed to RIO’s Research Advancement team, [email protected] .

The two-phase research partnership program is the beginning of what UMN leaders hope will be a larger collaboration with A&T that may include research opportunities for undergraduate students, training opportunities for UMN President's Postdoctoral Fellows, and development of 3 + 2 programs in disciplines that are available at only A&T or UMN. For UMN, collaborations with A&T could open the door to work with well-regarded faculty and talented students that will enrich its ongoing research and educational activities and expose Minnesota students to new exciting opportunities.

For A&T, connections and collaborations with UMN could expand its research enterprise in disciplines that are complementary to its offerings and grow the opportunity for its researchers to engage in large team projects that cover basic to applied sciences. A&T scholars will also have access to more core facilities and shared infrastructure that could accelerate projects that require capital instrumentation and technical support services. Minnesota’s thriving economy, which includes headquarters for 15 Fortune 500 companies, also provides promising opportunities for students and graduates of A&T to begin to build professional careers – opportunities they may have otherwise been unaware of or unconnected with. 

Reflecting the excitement for broader collaboration, UMN Associate Vice President Keisha Varma, Ph.D., is already partnering with N.C. A&T to invite four students to spend their summer at the University of Minnesota to work in research labs and assist faculty with research projects.

“This is an excellent opportunity for students at both UMN and N.C. A&T to make connections, advance their careers, and explore new opportunities,” Varma said. “And I see great potential for innovative collaborations in years to come.”

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Cryptocurrency Bitcoin completes 'halving' process, reducing rewards earned by miners

Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, has completed its "halving", a phenomenon that happens roughly every four years, according to CoinGecko, a cryptocurrency data and analysis company.

Bitcoin was fairly stable immediately afterwards, falling 0.47 per cent to $99,340.

What is it?

Bitcoin enthusiasts had eagerly waited for the halving — a change to the cryptocurrency's underlying technology designed to reduce the rate at which new bitcoins are released into circulation.

The halving was written into bitcoin's code at its inception by pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

Chris Gannatti, global head of research at asset manager WisdomTree, which markets bitcoin exchange-traded funds, called the halving "one of the biggest events in crypto this year".

For some crypto fans, the halving will underscore bitcoin's value as an increasingly scarce commodity.

Nakamoto capped bitcoin's supply at 21 million tokens.

But sceptics see it as little more than a technical change talked up by speculators to inflate the virtual currency's price.

How does it work?

The operation works by halving the rewards cryptocurrency miners receive for creating new tokens, making it more expensive for them to put new bitcoins into circulation.

It follows a surge in bitcoin's price to an all-time high of $73,803.25 in March BTC=, having spent much of 2023 slowly recovering from 2022's dramatic plunge.

On Thursday the world's biggest cryptocurrency was trading at $99,462.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been supported by excitement around the US Securities and Exchange Commission's decision in January to approve spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds, as well as expectations that central banks will cut interest rates.

Previous halvings occurred in 2012, 2016 and 2020.

No price increase expected

Some crypto fans point to price rallies that followed them as a sign that bitcoin's next halving will boost its price, but many analysts are sceptical.

"We do not expect bitcoin price increases post halving as it has been already priced in," JP Morgan analysts wrote this week.

They expect bitcoin's price to fall after the halving because it is "overbought" and venture capital funding for the crypto industry has been "subdued" this year.

Financial regulators have long warned that bitcoin is a high-risk asset, with limited real-world uses, although more have begun to approve bitcoin-linked trading products.

Andrew O'Neill, a crypto analyst at S&P Global, said he was "somewhat sceptical of the lessons that can be taken in terms of price prediction from previous halvings".

"It's only one factor in a multitude of factors that can drive price," he said.

Bitcoin has struggled for direction since March's record high and fallen in the last two weeks as geopolitical tensions and expectations that central banks will keep rates higher for longer unnerved global markets.

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