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4 pages/≈1100 words
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Harvard
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Business & Marketing
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Essay
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English (U.S.)
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Topic:
The role of secondary data in a research project that will collect primary data to address a research question.
Essay Instructions:
-Assessment brief
Evaluate the role of secondary data in a research project that will collect primary data to address a research question. Consider what kind of secondary data may be relevant, at what stages of the research process it can be used and to what benefit.
-Guidance
1. The aim is that you will be able to demonstrate your understanding of the differences between secondary and primary data and how and when secondary data is utilised in the research process.
2. Consider the types of secondary data that may be relevant to a research project, the sources and nature of that data, and any consideration in using secondary data in the research process.
3. Your essay may also need to comment on what and when online and social research is considered secondary and how this can also be useful in the research process.
4. It is expected that you will be able to discuss secondary research in relation to the steps in the research design process.
5. It is important in academic work to provide quality support for your arguments and any assertions you make and so that this will require that you research and read appropriate independent and quality sources, (such as academic journal articles).
6. The course text will also provide relevant support in some respects although take care not to rely on this too heavily, as you are expected to read around the subject for post-graduate assessments. The use of online sources and low-quality tutor type websites are generally not appropriate in academic argument
The question is looking for criticality, and this will generally require balancing argument, or to compare and contrast in your discussion. You will need to identify contributory and competing factors in the arguments, which calls for discussion showing judgment against relevant problem identification and decision criteria in the research process.
Essay Sample Content Preview:
ANALYZING THE ROLE OF SECONDARY DATA IN RESEARCH
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INTRODUCTION
Primary and secondary data are essential in research and should be used together to generate valid and reliable results. The data collected personally using techniques like questionnaires, interviews, and, at times, experiments are primary and are more relevant in responding to research questions. Secondary data, on the other hand, are more general, coming from journals, national or international bodies, and online databases, and consist of background information that would help one understand the knowledge area better. For instance, a researcher who is interested in determining how remote working affects productivity will collect primary data by conducting polls and questionnaires to the employees while at the same time relying on secondary data from government statistical bureaus or other scholarly articles on trends in remote working (Prada-Rammalal et al., 2018). This essay affirms that secondary data is a crucial tool at different points of the research process, complementing primary data collection and analysis and guaranteeing the reliability and comprehensiveness of the findings.
CLASSIFICATION OF SECONDARY DATA: ITS IMPORTANCE AND SCOPE
Secondary data are facts collected earlier but for a different purpose than the current research study. Such data may involve scholarly articles, official documents, web-based sources, and databases (Martins, Cunha, and Serra, 2018, pp. 2-4). Scientific journals contain peer-reviewed articles, which give a scholar an idea of what has already been done in the literature and what concepts are to be used to define research questions (Kelly, Sadeghieh, and Adeli, 2014). Official publications, including those of the US Census Bureau (2019), may encompass sufficient information that helps differentiate population profiles and make trend forecasts. Some of the best sources of scientific materials include PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar, which provide different reported research studies, literature reviews, and case studies (Steer and Ernst, 2021). An example of this is when a researcher studying the effects of social media on the mental health of teenagers can turn to data from the health department to analyze the statistics of the incidents of mental health problems and read literature concerning the impact of social media according to existing research.
UTILIZING SECONDARY DATA IN VARIOUS STEPS OF RESEARCH
Secondary data is applied to different phases of a research project to gather primary data to complement the research study. The preliminary stage gives background or context about the research question and even the hypothesis. In this phase, secondary data enhances the method and helps design the research instruments. At this stage, secondary data is used comparatively to support conclusions and provide a deeper examination of the results. For instance, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) monitors data by analyzing the trends that characterized it prior to and after the passage of legislation that was used to create behavior benchmarks and after the attainment of which, data collection on primary studies is done (Pederson et al., 2020).
Additionally, Smith et al. (2011) state that secondary data analyses allow researchers to conduct research pertinent to high-profile questions that would otherwise prove extraordinarily costly and time-consuming to investigate. Secondary a...
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