Unit 5
Research Communication
A survey scale is a set of answer options that cover a range of opinions on a subject, either numeric or verbal. It is always part of a question that is closed-ended (a question that presents respondents with pre-populated answer choices).
So, what is the question for the Likert scale survey? It's a question that uses a 5 or 7-point scale that ranges from one extreme attitude to another, sometimes referred to as a satisfaction scale. In its scale, the Likert survey question typically includes a moderate or neutral option.
Likert scales are quite popular because they are one of the most reliable ways to measure opinions, perceptions, and behaviours (named after their creator, American social scientist Rensis Likert).
Likert-type questions will give you more granular feedback on whether your product was just "good enough" or (hopefully) "excellent," compared to binary questions, which give you only two answer options. And Likert questions can help you decide whether a recent company outing left employees feeling "very satisfied," "somewhat dissatisfied," or maybe just neutral.
This technique will allow you to uncover degrees of opinion that could make a real difference in understanding the feedback you get. And it can also identify the areas where you may want to improve your product or service.
With the Likert scale, individuals’ state how much they agree or disagree with a specific statement; with the semantic differential scale, individuals who complete the questionnaire decide how much the item has a characteristic or quality.
A Likert scale measures agreement or discrepancy with a declaration. The scale ranges from "strongly agree" to the centres "disagree" with neutral. You can quantify the results easily. A 5, neutral as 3 and the lowest agreement or no agreement are customary for the highest agreement to be rated. This makes comparing outcomes easy. An example of a question regarding the Likert scale would be:
My job is drudgery. Strongly disagree / Disagree / Neutral / Agree / Strongly Agree
The Semantic scale is, on the other hand, very subjective on the part of the user. Plus, there is no "neutral" answer, making it hard to quantify. With this type of scale, you can't pinpoint direct metrics. For example, if "on hold wait times are less than five minutes," you couldn't find out. You can only ask how the respondent feels about wait times (acceptable/unacceptable). A potential benefit of the semantic differential scale is that only two options that are opposite are actually presented to the user, where the Likert scale has a range of intensities to choose from.
The two scales have some middle ground. Technically, you can design the Likert Scale with opposites, such as love/hate or happy/sad. For the semantic differential scale, this is similar to the idea of polar opposite adjectives. Although polar opposites may be "like/hate," they are not adjectives* and can therefore not be included in a semantic differential questionnaire.
Which scale you choose depends largely on what data you want to know. As far as the three semantic differential scales are concerned, a rule of thumb is: choose the unlabelled scale if you think your respondents are good at abstract thinking, and if you survey the general public, the labelled one. If you are sure that your respondents have numerical aptitude, choose the numerical scale.
* The word "like" might be an adjective, as in "the twins are very like." But it is a verb in this love/hate context.
The Thurstone scale is made up of statements about a particular issue and each statement has a numerical value indicating the respondent’s attitude about the issue, either favourable or unfavourable. People indicate which of the statements with which they agree and the average response is computed. First, you must be very clear about exactly what it is you’re trying to measure. Then, collect statements on the topic ranging from attitudes that are favourable to unfavourable. For this example, we will use same sex marriage. Example statements are-
It should be against the law.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it.
Marriage is between a man and a woman.
It should be a sin.
It’s perfectly appropriate for two consenting adults.
It should be legalized.
It can harm children.
Same sex couples should have the same legal rights as a male/female couple.
It’s just horrible.
It can’t do any harm.
Next, you have judges evaluate, on an 11-point response format (1 very negative to 11 indicating very positive), what kind of attitude each of these statements reflects. For example, it’s likely that the statement “It should be a sin.” would be judged to represent a very negative attitude while the statement “It should be legalized.” would be judged to represent a very positive attitude. The idea is that you’d like to develop a set of items that not only reflect the entire continuum between 1 and 11, but that your judges who helped you develop the set of items would have considerable consensus about what level of attitude each of the statements reflected. In this exercise, statements for which there is little consensus would be discarded.
Let’s assume that the average ratings among our judges are as below:
Average |
It’s should be against the law. 1.7
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. 6.8
Marriage is between a man and a woman. 2.4
It should be a sin. 1.3
It’s perfectly appropriate for two consenting adults. 8.4
It should be legalized 9.1
It can harm children. 2.0
Same sex couples should have the same legal rights as male/female couples. 7.6 It’s just horrible. 1.5
It can’t do any harm. 6.9
Suppose that there was reasonable consensus among our judges for the above items. When administering the scale, we’d ask individuals to indicate which of the above they agreed with (the average level that our judges had agreed upon would not be indicated on the scale when administered to individuals). Finally, the average of those checked would be calculated to determine the individual’s attitude. Problems with developing Thurstone scales include 1) it can be quite time consuming and expensive, and 2) examples for the mid-points of the scale for which there is consensus among the judges can be difficult to obtain.
Guttman scales: With a Guttman scale, you have a set of statements so that a respondent who agrees with any specific statement in the list will also agree with all previous statements. In other words, each statement subsumes the lower order statements. For example, a scale designed to measure Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, presented below, was based upon the Guttman technique and was published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology (1323-1328, 1984).
Scale score Scale item
0 In service 1965-1975
1 Stationed in Vietnam
2 Saw injury or death of US Serviceman
3 Fired weapon/fired upon in combat
4 Responsible for death of enemy military
5 Wounded in combat
6 Responsible for death of enemy civilian
7 Served third tour of duty in Vietnam
The report's layout deals with the arrangement and presentation of information in the report. The main purpose of the report is to assist the recipient, on the basis of the conclusions and recommendations, to identify the facts relating to the subject under study, draw his own conclusions and take appropriate action. The report must not only be clear, concise and logical in order to achieve its purpose, but must also be drawn up according to a recognized form and arrangement.
However, it is difficult to establish a particular set of rules for the preparation of reports. The nature, length and style of a report should vary with the circumstances of the case, except for the statutory report. In the case of formal and special reports, the following are the general content arrangement.
a. The Heading or Title: A report must always have a title that indicates the study subject, the period and the study location. The full title page of a long report provides the title, the name of the person assigning the report and the name of the person or group preparing the report, with the month and year of submission.
In a short report, the title appears before the text of the report at the top of the first page.
b. Table of Contents: The Table of Contents is a list of the chapters or subjects included in the report. Each topic is given a serial number, title and page mark.
c. Body of the Report: It is a primary component of the report and consists of the following sub-sections, sub-headings or sub-headings. The body is split into the following portions:
i. Introduction: It contains the terms of reference and the study subject. Here, in light of the terms of reference and the relevant circumstances, the writer analyzes the problem chosen by him.
Ii. Development or Findings: In this part, the author presents the facts and data gathered together with the outcome of his research in relation to his study. Data collected may include graphs, graphs and statistical tables from other reports published and presented in an organized form with a heading and a subheading for the reader to better understand.
Iii. Conclusions or Recommendations: In this portion the writer draws up some definite conclusions on the basis of the facts and data presented after considering all aspects of the problem in hand. He then puts forward some strong suggestions or recommendations of his own.
Iv. Appendix: This is the additional material provided at the end of the report. This may be a copy of the questionnaire used or the building plans, maps or other materials referred to in the reporting body.
v. References and Bibliography: In the case of long reports, for the preparation of the report, the reporter had to conduct comprehensive research. In such studies, just after the appendix, it is practical to add a list of references and bibliography to indicate the sources from which the writer drew his materials for the report.
Vi. Index: The index includes the content of the report and is usually added after the bibliography has been added. Generally speaking, it is found in long reports.
Vii. Summary: It contains the essence of the report's findings and recommendations and is usually appended to the person or superior body to whom it is submitted to facilitate its consideration.
Viii) Signature: It should be dated and signed for all reports. It should be signed by the chairman if it is prepared by a committee or sub-committee and the report is common. It has to be signed by the reporter if it is prepared by an individual.
Precise: The purpose of the report should be clearly defined. Precision of a report provides the unity to the report and makes it a valuable document for best usage.
Accuracy of Facts: The information in the report must be based on precise facts. Since decisions are made because of the information reported, any incorrect information or statistics will lead to an incorrect decision. In achieving the organizational goal, it will cause delay.
Relevancy: It should be relevant to the facts presented in the report. Irrelevant facts make decision-making confusing and likely to mislead a report.
Reader-Oriented: Different stakeholders read a report. A successful report is always reader-oriented. The knowledge and level of comprehension of the reader should be considered while writing the report. It is easy to read, remember and act upon if the report is reader-friend.
Simple Language: For easy and clear understanding, a report should be written in a simple language, avoiding jargon and technical words. Self-explaining should be the message of a good report.
Conciseness: A report should not be very long and should be brief. Lengthy reports influence the interest of the reader. Rather, it implies that a good report is one that conveys maximum data with minimum words and completes it in all respects.
Grammatically Accurate: A good report should be free from errors in grammar. Any defective construction of a sentence can distinguish its meaning from the mind of the reader and can sometimes become confusing or ambiguous.
Unbiased: It should be impartial and objective to make recommendations made at the end of a report. It must not be biased towards the reporter's personal feelings. As a logical conclusion for investigation and analysis, they should come.
Clarity: Clarity relies on the proper organization of facts. A good report is absolutely straightforward. Reporters should clarify their purpose, define their sources, state their findings and finally make the necessary recommendations. The clarity of facts improves the report's quality.
Attractive: An attractive presentation needs a good report. The structure, content, language, style of typing and presentation should be well designed to make a good impression on the reader's mind.
Footnotes are notes placed at the bottom of a page. They cite references or comment on a designated part of the text above it. For example, say you want to add an interesting comment or quotation to a sentence you have written, but the comment or quotation is not directly related to the argument of your paragraph. In this case, you could add the symbol for a footnote. Then, at the bottom of the page you could reprint the symbol and insert your comment.
Here is an example: This is an illustration of a footnote.1 The number “1” at the end of the previous sentence corresponds with the note below. ➢ 1 At the bottom of the page you can insert your comments about the sentence preceding the footnote. When your reader comes across the footnote in the main text of your paper, he or she could look down at your comments right away, or else continue reading the paragraph and read your comments at the end. Because this makes it convenient for your reader, most citation styles require that you use either footnotes or endnotes in your paper. Some, however, allow you to make parenthetical references (author, date) in the body of your work. See our section on citation styles for more information.
Footnotes are not just for interesting comments, however. Sometimes they simply refer to relevant sources -- they let your reader know where certain material came from, or where they can look for other sources on the subject. To decide whether you should cite your sources in footnotes or in the body of your paper, you should ask your instructor or see our section on citation styles. Whenever possible, put the footnote at the end of a sentence, immediately following the period or whatever punctuation mark completes that sentence. Skip two spaces after the footnote before you begin the next sentence. If you must include the footnote in the middle of a sentence for the sake of clarity, or because the sentence has more than one footnote (try to avoid this!), try to put it at the end of the most relevant phrase, after a comma or other punctuation mark. Otherwise, put it right at the end of the most relevant word. If the footnote is not at the end of a sentence, skip only one space after it.
Footnotes should:
1. Include the pages on which the cited information is found so that readers easily find the source.
2. Match with a superscript number (example: 1) at the end of the sentence referencing the source.
3. Begin with 1 and continue numerically throughout the paper. Do not start the order over on each page.
A bibliography is a list of books and other source material that you have used in preparing a research paper. Sometimes these lists will include works that you consulted but did not cite specifically in your assignment. Consult the style guide required for your assignment to determine the specific title of your bibliography page as well as how to cite each source type. Bibliographies are usually placed at the end of your research paper.
If you are pursuing or planning to pursue research, bibliography is perhaps the most important element in a research exercise. Without a bibliography, the work is in essence useless. While this may sound extreme, it is true that research without fact checking is worthless. No professor or referee will accept a thesis or research paper without citation and citation is incomplete without a bibliography or reference page. So, what exactly is a bibliography?
A bibliography is a list that goes at the end of a work of research writing. The list contains all the sources utilized in the thesis. Every bibliographic reference must have the following:
- The author’s name: In every citation format, the author’s name is listed first in the bibliography. The bibliography is also ordered by author’s last name and in alphabetical order. The only exception to this is in footnotes, for Turabian format, the author’s first name is listed first. This style presents bibliographic information in footnotes or endnotes.
- The title of the resource: The title identifies the specific resource used. The title is generally the creative element of the piece; the title of the book, article, news, advertisement gives a hint of its character and lets the reader know what to expect.
- The publisher who published the source. The name and place of publication is important for verification of the type of source material. For example, if a book is published by McMillan Publishers, it is trusted to be a valid, verified resource and you can count on the facts being true. Each publishing houses have editors that fact check and no book would be published by a trustworthy publisher that contained non-verified information.
- The date of publication: The date of publication is included in the work to let the reader know when the information was published. Remember in today’s world, each data has its life. The date is important in your thesis because the reference which you present should not be out of date. The data collected and presented by you also has its life. It’s therefore advisable to conclude your research in record time.
The scholars are required to use a format depending on the number of sources used in the thesis, setting of the sources in the chapters and the source where the information was taken from. Each element is vital for proper bibliographic listing. Please remember all your bibliography helps other scholars to find resources they may not have known to have existed before. It also facilitates the referees or examiners of the thesis or research paper to trace the steps a student took in preparing his research work.
Index-
What is Indexing?
Indexing is the process of creating indexes for record collections. Having indexes allows researchers to more quickly find records for specific individuals; without them, researchers might have to look through hundreds or thousands of records to locate an individual record. It also represents a number referring to a list of terms, definitions, topics etc. arranged in alphabetical order in order to efficiently guide the readers to the desired information within the content. Indexing facilitates in the organization of literature in such a manner that makes the document of interest easily identifiable by the readers.
How is indexing done?
The indexer usually receives a set of page proofs for the journal at the same stage when the document is undergoing final proofreading. The indexer requires the page proofs, to make a list of headings and subheadings (term to appear in the index) and the location of each pertinent reference. After completion of the rough index, it is edited for structure, clarity and consistency, formatted to specifications, proofread and submitted to the client as final soft copy. The time period for indexing depends on the length of manuscript. The more the content of the manuscript, the more time it will take to be indexed. Sometimes the illustrations, diagrams, pictures or table include extra information that does not appear in the text. Therefore, it is essential to mention that in the index.
References:
- Research methodology in Social sciences, O.R.Krishnaswamy, Himalaya Publication
- Research Methods for Management: S Shajahan, Jaico Publishing
