Advantages of Primary Research: Get a First-Hand Experience!

Primary research is original research that you conducted specifically for your own objectives. You are going to be the person who directly obtains the raw data collected for your current needs in research.Often, it is undertaken after some insights have been gained by the researcher about the issue such as by analyzing previously collected primary data or by reviewing secondary research. It is the research generated by conducting trials, asking questions and collecting results, among others.

On the other hand, secondary research is based on other people’s research findings. It has to do with gathering other people’s results from the internet, reports or books. Summaries or selections are made from the research which allows evidence to be gathered in order to your own conclusions.

Various methods are used to accomplish primary research including telephone interviews and questionnaires in market research, direct observations in physical science or by doing experiments. The term primary research is used widely in competitive intelligence, market research and academic research. Generally, knowing how to do primary research is something that students learn how to do in school, and this critical thinking course helps you make that grade.

Different Types of Primary Research

The different types of primary research include analysis, observation, surveys and interviews. Analysis involves data collection and organizing this in a way that supports the criteria you developed. This comes into use when you want to find a pattern or trend. Observation involves taking organized notes about what is happening in the world.

Observing provides you with insights about specific locales, events and people which is useful when you want to learn more about events without an interview’s biased viewpoint. Surveys are a kind of questioning that is more rigid than an interview. It involves a large group of people and provides information which comes in useful when you want to learn the way a large population thinks. There are even more sub-types of primary research and you can find out more with this article.

Advantages of Primary Research

• Accuracy

The measure of how accurately studies really represent a group, community, people or a person it claims to represent is called representativeness. Researchers make attempts to determine each study’s representatives which they conduct themselves.

They also check the studies of other researchers to back their claims. When researchers use primary data, they observe data in real time and are at the scene where collection of data is going on. Therefore, researchers can be certain that the recorded data is a reflection of reality.

On other words, primary research is the closes form of information to the idea or the topic being studied. Information is a genuine, first-hand account that has not been altered by other scholars. Unaltered, genuine information is more reliable particular for subjects such as history.

• Depth

In a sociological study, it is impossible to get the appropriate and necessary depth of a study when reporting on the level of a small group or individual when you use only secondary data. Directly recording observations, feelings, thoughts and words from primary data is a kind of depth that really solidifies studies to which general readers able to relate.

• Contrast/Compare

As a comparison to secondary data, primary data comes in quite useful. When a researcher finds primary data, sociologists can see how data measures up to studies that other researchers have done on the same subject. If the information does not match, there needs to be a justification of new findings which might result in new information that discredits a previous belief.

• Bias

Most research studies set out to explore a hypothesis’ possibilities or to answer a question. When researchers do their own study, they can be aware of what bias is brought to the writing of that study and to research. Here is a market research course that puts you on a fast track to finding out exactly what customers want.

• Control

When researchers use primary data, there is maximum control about the method of collecting the data itself including for what purpose it is going to be used for, whom it is collected by and who it is collected from. Primary research follows the scientific method, which involves forming a hypothesis and based on this, collecting data from experiments to prove whether or not the hypothesis is right or wrong.

Also, when students work with primary research, this helps them understand scholarship’s methodology. For example, replicating a scientific experiment’s results allows students to grasp exactly how important the basic philosophy of science is in general as well as the scientific method.

• Appreciating Potential

When engaging in primary research, working with the data and the texts themselves without ‘expert mediation’ gives students a significant sense of mastery and competence that may even lead to new advanced research career paths. It could even escalate to something very profitable, the way this market research course explains it.

• You Get A Direct Experience

When students engage in primary research, they get to experience information in a direct, personal manner. In the subject of history, for instance, reading a period memoir written by someone of the same age will give students a first person, powerful look at events that happened in history.

• You Become an Active Participant

One essential part of the process of learning is engaging students in primary research. This transforms researchers/students from passive information recipients to active participants in the process of knowledge-building. Students are allowed to experience the material vividly when working with primary sources and doing experiments. Dry renderings of a textbook’s conclusion just cannot replace what primary research can offer.

• You Get Results

All branches of science especially hard sciences like agriculture, physics, biology and chemistry use primary research. In these fields, the vast majority of papers published consist of this type of research. Being such a tested, tried and proven method for doing effective research, you can be assured that primary research puts on you on the road to real scientific discoveries. You can even take the first step to writing your own research paper using tips provided by this comprehensive writing course.