Lecture 8

Taibah University

Surveys, Critical Evaluation & Fieldwork

(Technical Writing CS212)

Abdisalam Issa-Salwe Taibah University College of Computer Science & Engineering Computer Science Department

Topic List
When to do survey? Literature Survey Critical Evaluation Fieldwork

Taibah University

When to do survey?
The survey is an appropriate means of gathering information under three conditions:
when the goals of the research call for quantitative and qualitative data, when the information sought are specific and familiar to the respondents and When the researcher has prior knowledge of the responses likely to emerge

Taibah University

When to do survey? (cont)

The success of survey research rests on how closely the answers that people give to survey questions matches reality, that is, how people really think and act There are three things that must be done to increase the response to a survey:
minimise the cost for responding, maximise the rewards for doing so, and establish trust that those rewards will be delivered (Polland, 1998: 90).

Taibah University

When to do survey? (cont)

Taibah University

Building trust between the interviewer and the respondent is also a very important incentive to get responses if the researcher wishes to get good reliable data

Fieldwork

Taibah University

The important of fieldwork is stressed as it encompasses different scenarios or situations that may range from recorded conversation, a formal interview, the telling of a story, the singing of a song, or doing a dance for the fieldworker alone or for an audience of several thousand cheering strangers (Sims, 2005). Most fieldwork today involves recorded interviews with informants, using available technology. Fieldwork focuses on interaction between fieldworker and the people they meet in the field. It also captures a text that is performed during the fieldworker's presence
6

Literature Survey
The literature survey process

Taibah University

Literature Survey (cont)

Taibah University

Literature searching is a systematic gathering of published information relating to a subject (University of Derby 1995) Guidelines for literature searching: 1.Focus on relevant articles. 2.Identify search boundaries. 3.Search for latest recognized work. 4.Mind allocated time. 5.Take notes of the full reference of any material you obtain. 6. Manage the obtained information (read p 73-75).

Literature Survey (cont)

Searching Mechanics

Taibah University

Format of Information

Tracing the Information

Reading task: p 67-73

9

Critical Evaluation

Taibah University

The word criticism does not necessarily imply looking for faults. Axes and questions for critical evaluation of literature articles: 1. Article type What kind of article is it? (review, theory, practical, case study, ) 2. Author Is the author well recognized in his/her field? 3. Problem need solution What is the major problem or issue being investigated? 4. Fitness in context How does the article fit within its context? 5. Research questions & hypotheses Is there a clear research question/hypothesis that can be, and is, tested? 6. Methodology What type of research design/methodology is employed? 10

Inter-Library Loans

Internet www.yahoo.com www.google.com scholar.google.com www.infoseek.com www.elsevier.nl:80 www.mailbase.ac.uk www.wikip[edia.org

Conference Proceedings

OPAC Opac97.bl.uk Opac.ac.uk/copac

Company Reports

Software

Journals

Manuals

BIDS www.bids.ac.uk

Theses

Books

Taibah University

Critical Evaluation (cont)

7. Sample & data Are the chosen samples, their sizes, and data appropriate? 8. Statistics Have statistical techniques been used appropriately? Can you apply them in your work? 9. Results Can generalizations be made from these results? Are the implications of the results discussed?8 Can you make use of these results in your own work? 10. Contribution How original is the article? If original, what contribution is being made by the article?
11

Taibah University

Critical Evaluation (cont)

11. Viewpoints
Can you differentiate facts from opinions? How strong are these opinions? Does the article contradict other viewpoints? If yes how?

12. Conclusions
Do conclusions follow logically from the work that has been presented?

13. References
How appropriately the references are written? How relevant to the article are they? How up-to-date are they?

12

References
- Mohammad Alsuraihi, Technical Writing (CS212), Course notes - Abdisalam Issa-Salwe, Research Proposal, unpublished Research Proposal, 2005.

Taibah University

13