Do you think this is a good methodology?

Pinekone

I'm doing a project on cinema cameras and I'm planning on using books and journals as part of secondary research. As an alternative method I'm thinking of speaking to film/video companies to overcome the problem of not finding information from these sources.

I was wondering what everyone thinks about this approach of method? Is it good enough or is there something about the alternative approach that needs to be changed or better?

Comments will be appreciated.

Thanks.

PanicStations

Interviews are a valid research method. Check out your college library for (beginners) guides to qualitative interviewing. Librarians are a great, and very much under-used, resource for students. If you tell the librarian what your project is she will point you in the right direction.

Good luck with the project.

Regards

Yvonne

Pinekone

PanicStations wrote: »

Interviews are a valid research method. Check out your college library for (beginners) guides to qualitative interviewing. Librarians are a great, and very much under-used, resource for students. If you tell the librarian what your project is she will point you in the right direction.

Good luck with the project.

Regards

Yvonne

Interviews as an alternative method if I'm having a problem with books and journals you mean?

PanicStations

I think you should talk to your project supervisor about your methodology. Explain your research plan to him/her to make sure you are on the right track.

Also, ask your supervisor to recommend particularly good projects from previous years, and look them up in the library yourself.

Usually, for a final year project you need a few sections:

(1) Literature review, this is a review of the research that has been done on your topic so far. I think you are having trouble with finding books/journal articles for this? Librarians are good people to go to here, also ask your supervisor to recommend some readings.

(2) Research question / statement of problem. This is a key part of the project, you need to figure out exactly what question you are trying to answer with your research, or what problem you are trying to solve. This is the first thing you need to decide for yourself. Once you know what your question is, it will become clearer how best to go about finding an answer.

(3) Methodology. This is the method you propose to use to answer your research question. You write down the method and the reasons you chose this particular method. Methods can be quantitative or qualitative.

Quantitive means that your answers will be in numbers, so if you used a survey questionnaire, your research would give you answers like "60% of 1000 respondents preferred Coke, 30% preferred Pepsi, 10% liked neither".

Qualitative means that you are looking for a deeper understanding of the topic, so you could interview people about their reasons for drinking coke or pepsi, rather than surveying 1000, you carry out in-depth interviews with 15 people.

(4) Results. The results you got from your chosen method, e.g. interview or survey data.

(5) Analysis. In this section you analyse your results

(6) Discussion, conclusion.

Good luck with it!:)