Benefits of Inquiry-Based Learning

In conclusion, you can say that Inquiry-based Learning gives you the following
advantages:
1. Elevates interpretative thinking through graphic skills
2. Improves student learning abilities
3. Widens learners’ vocabulary
4. Facilitates problem-solving acts
5. Increases social awareness and cultural knowledge
6. Encourages cooperative learning
7. Provides mastery of procedural knowledge
8. Encourages higher-order thinking strategies
9. Hastens conceptual understanding

Learning method will guarantee successful learning in the

present world, which is tagged by many as the Era of Globalization, Age of Knowledge
Explosion, Age of Consumerism, Digital Age, Age of Instant World, etc.

DOING A RESEARCH IN COLLEGE

Meaning of Research

In college, you involve yourself in varied school activities such as academic

contests, sports fests, elocution contest, music festivals, college week celebrations, art
exhibits, research work, debate competitions, and many more. All of these activities are
aimed to let you develop a well-rounded personality. But one or two of them
gaveemphasis in honing a particular ability (e.g., making you excel in mathematics,
science, arts, music, and many more).

One school activity that every college student has to excel in is research. This is a
hallmark of a university or college education. Your research abilities reflect the quality of
your school. If you graduate from a school with superb knowledge of research work,
you can tell yourself that, “I am a product of a quality college or university.” Hence,
the greatness of a higher education institution depends on how knowledgeable its
faculty and students are about the ins and outs of research; more so, on the application
of this to their everyday life for the progress of the whole world.

What is research?
A number of books on research define this term in many
ways, but such varied definitions boil down to the primary meaning of this word,
which is:

Research is a process of executing various mental acts for discovering and

examining facts and information to prove the accuracy or truthfulness of your
claims or conclusions about the topic of your research. Research requires you to
inquire or investigate about your chosen research topic by asking questions that will
make you engage yourself in top-level thinking strategies of interpreting, analyzing,
synthesizing, criticizing, appreciating, or creating to enable you to discover truths
about the many things you tend to wonder about the topic of your research work.
(Litchman 2013)

Research is analogous to inquiry, in that, both involve investigation of something

through questioning. However, the meaning of research is more complicated than
inquiry because it does not center mainly on raising questions about the topic, but
also on carrying out a particular order of research stages. Each stage of the research
process is not an individual task because the knowledge you obtain through each
stage comes not only from yourself but other people as well. Thus, similar to inquiry,
research involves cooperative learning.
 Central to research is your way of discovering new knowledge, applying
knowledge in various ways as well as seeing relationships of ideas, events, and
situations. Research then puts you in a context where a problem exists. You have
to collect facts or information, study such data, and come up with a solution to the
problem based on the results of your analysis. It is a process requiring you to work
logically or systematically and collaboratively with others.

To sum up your concepts about the nature of research, the following will give
you the characteristics, purposes, classification, types of, and approaches to research.
(Badke 2012; Silverman 2013; De Mey 2013)

Characteristics of Research

1. Accuracy. It must give correct or accurate data, which the footnotes, notes,
and bibliographical entries should honestly and appropriately documented
or acknowledged.

2. Objectiveness. It must deal with facts, not with mere opinions arising from
assumptions, generalizations, predictions, or conclusions.

3. Timeliness. It must work on a topic that is fresh, new, and interesting to the
present society.

4. Relevance. Its topic must be instrumental in improving society or in solving

problems affecting the lives of people in a community.

5. Clarity. It must succeed in expressing its central point or discoveries by using

simple, direct, concise, and correct language.

6. Systematic. It must take place in an organized or orderly manner.

Purposes of Research

1. To learn how to work independently

2. To learn how to work scientifically or systematically
3. To have an in-depth knowledge of something
4. To elevate your mental abilities by letting you think in higher-order thinking
strategies (HOTS) of inferring, evaluating, synthesizing, appreciating,
applying, and creating
5. To improve your reading and writing skills
6. To be familiar with the basic tools of research and the various techniques of
gathering data and of presenting research findings
7. To free yourself, to a certain extent, from the domination or strong influence
of a single textbook or of the professor’s lone viewpoint or spoon feeding

Types of Research

1. Based on Application of Research Method

Is the research applied to theoretical or practical issues? If it deals with

concepts, principles, or abstract things, it is a pure research. This type of research
aims to increase your knowledge about something. However, if your
 intention is to apply your chosen research to societal problems or issues,
finding ways to make positive changes in society, you call your research,
applied research.

2. Based on Purpose of the Research

Depending on your objective or goal in conducting research, you
do any of these types of research: descriptive, correlational, explanatory,
exploratory, or action.

Descriptive Research – This type of research aims at defining or giving

a verbal portrayal or picture of a person, thing, event, group, situation,
etc. This is liable to repeated research because its topic relates itself only
to a certain period or a limited number of years. Based on the results of
your descriptive studies about a subject, you develop the inclination of
conducting further studies on such topic.

Correlational Research – A correlational research shows relationships

or connectedness of two factors, circumstances, or agents called variables
that affect the research. It is only concerned in indicating the existence
of a relationship, not the causes and ways of the development of such
relationship.

Explanatory Research – This type of research elaborates or explains

not just the reasons behind the relationship of two factors, but also the ways
by which such relationship exists.

Exploratory Research – An exploratory research’s purpose is to find

out how reasonable or possible it is to conduct a research study on a certain
topic. Here, you will discover ideas on topics that could trigger your interest
in conducting research studies.

Action Research – This type of research studies an ongoing practice of a

school, organization, community, or institution for the purpose of obtaining
results that will bring improvements in the system.

2.Based on Types of Data Needed

The kind of data you want to work on reflects whether you wish to do
a quantitative or a qualitative research.

Qualitative research
requires non-numerical data, which means that the
research uses words rather than numbers to express the results, the inquiry,
or investigation about people’s thoughts, beliefs, feelings, views, and
lifestyles regarding the object of the study. These opinionated answers from
people are not measurable; so, verbal language is the right way to express
your findings in a qualitative research.

Meanwhile, quantitative research involves measurement of data.

Thus, it presents research findings referring to the number or frequency
of something in numerical forms (i.e., using percentages, fractions,
numbers).
 The data you deal with in research are either primary or secondary
data. Primary data are obtained through direct observation or contact with
people, objects, artifacts, paintings, etc. Primary data are new and original
information resulting from your sensory experience. However, if such data
have already been written about or reported on and are available for reading
purposes, they exist as secondary data.

Approaches to Research

After choosing your topic for research, what is your next move? In other words,
how are you going to approach or begin your research, deal with your data, and
establish a connection among all things or activities involved in your research?

There are three approaches that you can choose from.

The first is the scientific or positive approach, in which you discover and measure
information as well as observe and control variables in an impersonal manner. It
allows control of variables. Therefore, the data gathering techniques appropriate
for this approach are structured interviews, questionnaires, and observational
checklists.Data given by these techniques are expressed through numbers,
which means that thismethod is suitable for quantitative research.

The second approach is the naturalistic approach. In contrast to the scientific

approach that uses numbers to express data, the naturalistic approach uses
words.This research approach directs you to deal with qualitative data that speak
of howpeople behave toward their surroundings. These are non-numerical data
that express truths about the way people perceive or understand the world. Since
people lookat their world in a subjective or personal basis in an uncontrolled or
unstructuredmanner, a naturalistic approach happens in a natural setting.

Is it possible to plan your research activities based on these two approaches?

Combining these two approaches in designing your research leads you to the
third one,called triangulation approach. In this case, you are free to gather and
analyze data usingmultiple methods, allowing you to combine or mix up research
approaches, researchtypes, data gathering, and data analysis techniques.
Triangulation approach givesyou the opportunity to view every angle of the
research from different perspectives.
(Badke 2012; Silverman 2013)

a. Theory of Relativity
b. University Belt Street Foods
c. Landline vs. Cellphone
d. Reasons Behind Tuition Fee Increases
e. Manila Flash Flood Solutions
f. College Assessment Practices
g. Critical Thinking and Creative Thinking in Learning-Teaching
Situations
h. The Why and How of Internet Use
i. Effects of Korean Telenovelas on Filipino TV Viewers
j. Digital Age
k. Teaching Through PowerPoint Presentations
 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Definition of Qualitative Research

As a curious student, you want to know so many things about your surroundings
as well as the people, places, and things you find interesting, intriguing,
mysterious, or unique. Try looking at the people around you. Perhaps, you are
interested in knowing these people’s ideas, views, feelings, attitudes, or lifestyle.
The information these people give you reflect their mental, spiritual, emotional, or
social upbringing, which in turn, show how they view the world.
Resulting from internal aspects, people cannot measure worldviews but can
know them through numbers. Obtaining world knowledge in this manner directs
you to do a research called Qualitative Research. This is a research type that puts
premium or high value on people’s thinking or point of view conditioned by their
personal traits. As such, it usually takes place in soft sciences like social
sciences, politics, economics, humanities, education, psychology, nursing, and
all business-related subjects.

Subjectivity in qualitative research is true, not only for an individual or a group

understudy, but also for you, the researcher, because of your personal
involvement in every stage of your research. For instance, during interviews, you
tend to admire or appreciate people’s ideas based on their answers or your
observations and analysis of certain objects.By carefully looking at or listening to
the subject or object in a natural setting, you become affected by their
expressions of what they think and feel about a topic. (Coghan 2014)

In a qualitative research, the reality is conditioned by society and people’s

intentions are involved in explaining cause-effect relationships. Things are
studied in their natural setting, enough for you to conclude that qualitative
research is an act of inquiry or investigation of real-life events. Giving you more
concepts about a qualitative research are the following paragraphs that
comprehensively present theelements or characteristics, types, and advantages
of this kind of research (Silverman
2013; Litchman 2013; Walliman 2014; Suter 2012):

Characteristics of a Qualitative Research

1. Human understanding and interpretation

Data analysis results show an individual’s mental, social, and spiritual

understanding of the world. Hence, through their worldviews, you come to
know what kind of human being he or she is, including his or her values,
beliefs, likes, and dislikes.

2. Active, powerful, and forceful

A lot of changes occur continuously in every stage of a qualitative

research. As you go through the research process, you find the need to
amend or rephrase interview questions and consider varied ways of getting
answers, like shifting from mere speculating to traveling to places for data
gathering. You are not fixated to a certain plan. Rather, you are inclined to
discover your qualitative research design as your study gradually unfolds
 or reveals itself in accordance with your research objectives.

3. Multiple research approaches and methods

Qualitative research allows you to approach or plan your study in

varied ways. You are free to combine this with quantitative research and use
all gathered data and analysis techniques. Being a multi-method research,
a qualitative study applies to all research types: descriptive, exploratory,
explanatory, case study, etc.

4. Specificity to generalization

Specific ideas in a qualitative research are directed to a general

understanding of something. It follows an inductive or scientific method
of thinking, where you start thinking of particular or specific concept that
will eventually lead you to more complex ideas such as generalizations or
conclusions.

5. Contextualization

A quantitative research involves all variables, factors, or conditions

affecting the study. Your goal here is to understand human behavior. Thus,
it is crucial for you to examine the context or situation of an individual’s
life—the who, what, why, how, and other circumstances—affecting his or
her way of life.

6. Diversified data in real-life situations

A qualitative researcher prefers collecting data in a natural setting like

observing people as they live and work, analyzing photographs or videos as
they genuinely appear to people, and looking at classrooms unchanged or
adjusted to people’s intentional observations

7. Abounds with words and visuals

Words, words, and more words come in big quantity in this kind of
research. Data gathering through interviews or library reading, as well as
the presentation of data analysis results, is done verbally. In some cases, it
resorts to quoting some respondents’ answers. Likewise, presenting people’s
world views through visual presentation (i.e., pictures, videos, drawings,
and graphs) are significantly used in a qualitative research.

8. Internal analysis

Here, you examine the data yielded by the internal traits of the subject
individuals (i.e., emotional, mental, spiritual characteristics). You study
people’s perception or views about your topic, not the effects of their physical
existence on your study. In case of objects (e.g., books and artworks) that are
subjected to a qualitative research, the investigation centers on underlying
theories or principles that govern these materials and their usefulness to
people.
 Types of Qualitative Research

1. Case Study
This type of qualitative research usually takes place in the field of
social care, nursing, psychology, rehabilitation centers, education, etc. This
involves a long-time study of a person, group, organization, or situation. It
seeks to find answers to why such thing occurs to the subject. Finding the
reason/s behind such occurrence drives you to also delve into relationships
of people related to the case under study. Varieties of data collection methods
such as interviews, questionnaires, observations, and documentary analysis
are used in a case study.

2. Ethnography
Falling in the field of anthropology, ethnography is the study of a
particular cultural group to get a clear understanding of its organizational
set-up, internal operation, and lifestyle. A particular group reveals the nature
or characteristics of their own culture through the world perceptions of the
cultural group’s members.

3. Phenomenology
Coming from the word “phenomenon,” which means something
known through sensory experience, phenomenology refers to the study of
how people find their experiences meaningful. Its primary goal is to make
people understand their experiences about death of loved ones, care for
handicapped persons, friendliness of people, etc. In doing so, other people
will likewise understand the meanings attached to their experiences. Those
engaged in assisting people to manage their own lives properly often do this
qualitative kind of research.

4. Content and Discourse Analysis

Content analysis is a method of quantitative research that requires
an analysis or examination of the substance or content of the mode of
communication (letters, books, journals, photos, video recordings, SMS,
online messages, emails, audio-visual materials, etc.) used by a person,
group, organization, or any institution in communicating. A study of
language structures used in the medium of communication to discover the
effects of sociological, cultural, institutional, and ideological factors on the
content makes it a discourse analysis. In studying the content or structures
of the material, you need a question or a set of questions to guide you in
your analysis.

5. Historical Analysis
Central to this qualitative research method is the examination of
primary documents to make you understand the connection of past events
to the present time. The results of your content analysis will help you specify
phenomenological changes in unchanged aspects of society through the
years.

6. Grounded Theory
Grounded theory takes place when you discover a new theory to
underlie your study at the time of data collection and analysis. Through
your observation on your subjects, you will happen to find a theory that
 applies to your current study. Interview, observation, and documentary
analysis are the data gathering techniques for this type of qualitative
research.

Advantages or Strengths of Qualitative Research

1. It adopts a naturalistic approach to its subject matter, which means that

those involve in the research understand things based on what they find
meaningful.
2. It promotes a full understanding of human behavior or personality traits in
their natural setting.
3. It is instrumental for positive societal changes.
4. It engenders respect for people’s individuality as it demands the researcher’s
careful and attentive stand toward people’s world views.
5. It is a way of understanding and interpreting social interactions.
6. It increases the researcher’s interest in the study as it includes the
researcher’s
experience or background knowledge in interpreting verbal and visual data.
7. It offers multiple ways of acquiring and examining knowledge about
something.

Disadvantages or Weaknesses of Qualitative Research

1. It involves a lot of researcher’s subjectivity in data analysis.

2. It is hard to know the validity or reliability of the data.
3. Its open-ended questions yield “data overload” that requires long-time
analysis.
4. It is time-consuming.
5. It involves several processes, which results greatly depend on the researcher’s
views or interpretations.

RESEARCH IN DIFFERENT AREAS OF KNOWLEDGE

Subject Area Research Approaches

Research studies happen in any field of knowledge. Anthropology, Business,

Communication, Education, Engineering, Law, and Nursing, among others, turn
in a big number of research studies that reflect varied interests of people. Don’t
you wonder how people in these areas conduct their research studies?
Belonging to a certain area of discipline, you have the option to choose one
From these three basic research approaches: positive or scientific, naturalistic,
and triangulation or mixed method. The scientific approach gives stress to
measurable and observable facts instead of personal views, feelings, or
attitudes. It can be used in researches under the hard sciences or STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine) and natural sciences (Biology,
Physics, Chemistry). The positive or scientific approach allows control of
variables or factors affecting the study. (Laursen 2010)
To become positivist or scientific in conducting your research study, you must
collect data in controlled ways through questionnaires or structured interviews.
For
instance, in the field of medicine, to produce a new medicine, a medical
researcher
subjects the data to a controlled laboratory experiment. These factual data
collected are
recorded in numerical or statistical forms using numbers, percentages, fractions,
and
the like. Expressed in measurable ways, these types of data are called
quantitative data.
The naturalistic approach, on the other hand, is people-oriented. Data collected,
in this case, represent personal views, attitudes, thoughts, emotions, and other
subjective traits of people in a natural setting. Collecting data is done in family
homes, playground, workplaces, or schools. In these places, people’s personal
traits
or qualities naturally surface in the way they manage themselves or interact with
one
30 • PRACTICAL RESEARCH 1
another. The naturalistic approach focuses on discovering the real concept or
meaning
behind people’s lifestyles and social relations.
Unlike the scientific approach that makes you express and record your findings
quantitatively, which means in numerical forms, the naturalistic approach lets you
present things qualitatively through verbal language. Using words rather than
numbers as the unit of analysis, this second research approach concerns itself
with
qualitative data—one type of data that exists in abundance in social sciences,
which to
others exists as soft sciences. Considered as soft sciences are Anthropology,
Business,
Education, Economics, Law, Politics, and all subjects aligned with business and
all
those focused on helping professions such as, Nursing, Counseling, Physical
Therapy,
and the like. (Babbie 2013)
Having the intention to collect data from people situated in a natural setting,
social researchers use unstructured interviews and participant observations.
These
two data gathering techniques yield opinionated data through the use of open-
ended
questions and actual participation of the researcher in the subjects’ activities.
Collecting
data through these subjective-prone research methods indispensably results in
the
gathering of qualitative data.
All in all, from a social science researcher’s viewpoint, these qualitative data
resulting from naturalistic approach of research serves as the basis for
determining
universal social values to define ethical or unethical behavior that society ought
to
know, not only for the benefit of every individual and community but also for the
satisfaction of man’s quest for knowledge. (Sarantakos 2013; Ransome 2013)
In the field of Humanities, man’s social life is also subjected to research studies.
However, researchers in this area give emphasis not to man’s social life, but to
the
study of the meanings, significance, and visualizations of human experiences in
the
fields of Fine Arts, Literature, Music, Drama, Dance, and other artistically inclined
subjects. Researches in these subjects happen in any of the following humanistic
categories:
1. Literature and Art Criticism where the researchers, using well-chosen
language and appropriate organizational pattern, depend greatly on their
interpretative and reflective thinking in evaluating the object of their study
critically.
2. Philosophical Research where the focus of inquiry is on knowledge and
principles
of being and on the manner human beings conduct themselves on earth.
3. Historical Research where the investigation centers on events and ideas that
took place in man’s life at a particular period.
Hard Sciences vs. Soft Sciences
Just like in other subjects under soft sciences such as marketing, man’s thoughts
and feelings still take center stage in any research studies. The purposes of any
researches in any of these two areas in business are to increase man’s
understanding of
the truths in line with markets and marketing activities, making him more
intelligent
in arriving at decisions about these aspects of his life. Research types that are
useful
for these areas are the basic and applied research. (Feinberg 2013)
Roughly speaking, the natural sciences (e.g. biology, chemistry, physics)
are considered "hard", whereas the social sciences (e.g. economics,
psychology, sociology) are usually described as "soft"
A quantitative or qualitative kind of research is not exclusive to hard sciences
or soft sciences. These two research methods can go together in a research
approach
called triangulation or mixed method approach. This is the third approach to
research
that allows a combination or a mixture of research designs, data collection and
data
analysis techniques.
Thus, there is no such thing as a clear dichotomy between qualitative and
quantitative research methods because some authorities on research claim that
a symbiotic relationship, in which they reinforce or strengthen each other, exists
between these two research methods. Moreover, any form of knowledge, factual
or
opinionated, and any statistical or verbal expression of this knowledge are
deduced
from human experience that by nature is subjective. (Hollway 2013; Letherby
2013)
Research Topics
1. Iron Contents of Oregano Plants
2. Aling Bebs: A Filipino Centenarian
3. Electrical Wirings of a Japanese Car
4. Microorganisms in a Canal
5. Parents’ Views About the K–12 Curriculum
6. St. Joseph’s Grade 8 Teachers’ Questioning Techniques
7. Medicinal Elements of Guava Leaves
8. Historical Development of Filipino Novels in English
9. Muslim Wedding Rites
10. The Nature of Ebola Virus
Inquiry or research drives you to a thorough or an in-depth analysis of a certain
subject matter. This kind of study involves several stages that require much time
and effort. You need to spend some time in finalizing your mind about a particular
topic to research on or in determining the appropriateness of such topic, in
obtaining
background knowledge about it, and in raising some specific questions that you
want
your research work to answer. Focusing seriously on these aspects of your study
is
laying a good foundation or beginning of your research work.

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE INQUIRY OR RESEARCH

You begin your research work with a problem; that is, having a problem or topic
to work on. Mulling over a topic for your research work drives you to perform
HOTS
or higher-order thinking strategies of inferential, critical, integrative, and creative
thinking in finalizing your mind on one topic among several choices. A topic is
researchable if the knowledge and information about it are supported by
evidence
that is observable, factual, and logical. Here are some pointers you have to keep
in
mind in selecting a research topic (Babbie 2013):
Guidelines in Choosing a Research Topic
1. Interest in the subject matter
Your interest in a topic may be caused by your rich background
knowledge about it and by its novelty; meaning, its unfamiliarity to you.
Being curious about a subject, like a conundrum or a puzzle, makes you
determined to unravel the mystery or intriguing thing behind it. Your real
interest in a subject pushes you to research, investigate, or inquire about it
with full motivation, enthusiasm, and energy.
2. Availability of information
Collecting a lot of information as evidence to support your claims about
your subject matter from varied forms of literature like books, journals, and
newspapers, among others, is a part and parcel of any research work. Hence,
in choosing a research topic, visit your library to check the availability of
reading materials on your chosen topic. Included in your investigation of
the availability of reading materials are questions on how updated and
authoritative the materials are. Let these questions linger as you tour the
library: What are the copyright dates of the materials? How old or new are
they? How expert or qualified the writers are in coming out with such kind
of reading materials about your topic?
3. Timeliness and relevance of the topic
The topic is relevant if it yields results that are instrumental in societal
improvement. It is timely if it is related to the present. For instance,
unless it is a pure or historical research, a research on the ins and outs of
people’s revolutionary acts will prosper more if it tackles the contemporary
revolutionary actions rather than those in the ancient time.
4. Limitations on the subject
This makes you link your choosing with course requirements. For
example, to make you complete the requirements, your teacher instructs you
to submit a paper that will apply the key principles you learned in business,
UNIT III – IDENTIFYING THE INQUIRY AND STATING THE PROBLEM • 39
psychology, education, and so on. In this case, you have no freedom to
choose your topic based on your interest, but has to decide on one topic to
finish your course.
5. Personal resources
Before sticking fully to your final choice, assess your research abilities in
terms of your financial standing, health condition, mental capacity, needed
facilities, and time allotment to enable you to complete your research. Imagine
yourself pouring much time and effort into its initial stage, only to find out
later that you are unable to complete it because of your failure to raise the
amount needed for questionnaire printing and interview trips. (Barbour 2014)
Research Topics to be Avoided
1. Controversial topics. These are topics that depend greatly on the writer’s
opinion, which may tend to be biased or prejudicial. Facts cannot support
topics like these.
2. Highly technical subjects. For a beginner, researching on topics that require
an advanced study, technical knowledge, and vast experience is a very
difficult task.
3. Hard-to-investigate subjects. A subject is hard to investigate if there are no
available reading materials about it and if such materials are not up-to-date.
4. Too broad subjects. Topics that are too broad will prevent you from giving a
concentrated or an in-depth analysis of the subject matter of the paper. The
remedy to this is to narrow or limit the topic to a smaller one.
5. Too narrow subjects. These subjects are so limited or specific that an
extensive or thorough searching or reading for information about these
is necessary.
6. Vague subjects. Choosing topics like these will prevent you from having
a clear focus on your paper. For instance, titles beginning with indefinite
adjectives such as several, many, some, etc., as in “Some Remarkable Traits
of a Filipino” or “ Several People’s Comments on the RH Law,” are vague
enough to decrease the readers’ interests and curiosity.
Sources of Research Topics
This time, you already have ideas on some factors that affect your process of
choosing a researchable topic. It is also necessary for you to know where a good
research topic may come from. Knowing some sources of probable research
topics
could hasten your choosing; thereby, freeing you from a prolonged time of
pondering
over a problem of knowing which problem is good for you to research on. The
following can help you generate ideas about a good research topic. (Silverman
2013)
1. Mass media communication – press (newspapers, ads, TV, radio, films, etc.)
2. Books, Internet, peer-reviewed journals, government publications
3. Professional periodicals like College English Language Teaching Forum, English
Forum, The Economist, Academia, Business Circle, Law Review, etc.
4. General periodicals such as Readers’ Digest, Women’s Magazine, Panorama
Magazine, Time Magazine, World Mission Magazine, etc.
5. Previous reading assignments in your other subjects
6. Work experience – clues to a researchable topic from full-time or part-time
jobs, OJT (on-the-job training) experience, fieldwork, etc.
Meaning of Research Problem
The ultimate goal of the research is not only to propose ways of studying
things, people, places, and events, but also to discover and introduce new
practices,
strategies, or techniques in solving a problem. The word “problem” makes you
worry
and pushes you to exert considerable effort in finding a solution for it. When you
feel
perplexed or anxious about what to do about something you are doubtful of or
about
a question you are incapable of answering, you then come to think of conducting
research, an investigation, or inquiry. You consider research as the remedy for
getting
over any problem.
When you decide to do research, you begin with a problem that will lead you to
a specific topic to focus on. For instance, you are beset by a problem of year-by-
year
flash floods in your community. This problem drives you to think of one topic you
can investigate or focus on for the solution to your community’s flood problem.
Perhaps, you can research only one aspect of the flood problem, like examining
only
the neighborhood lifestyle in relation to floods in the area, the need to construct
antiflood
structures, or the practicability of more footbridges in the area. (Gray 2013)
Background of the Problem
You must not rush into gathering ideas and information about your topic. First,
spend time getting background knowledge about the problem that triggered off
your
research topic to discover its relation to what the world, particularly the experts,
professionals, and learned people know about your topic. Also, reading for rich
background ideas about the problem is also another way to discover some
theories or
principles to support your study. (Braun 2014; Woodwell 2014)
Research Questions
The research problem enables you to generate a set of research questions.
However,
your ability to identify your research problem and to formulate the questions
depends
on the background knowledge you have about the topic. To get a good idea of
the
problem, you must have a rich background knowledge about the topic through
the
RRL (Review of Related Literature), which requires intensive reading about your
topic.
Apart from having a clearer picture of the topic, it will also help you in adopting an
appropriate research method and have a thorough understanding of the
knowledge
area of your research.
A research problem serving as an impetus behind your desire to carry out a
research
study comes from many sources. Difficulties in life are arising from social
relationships,
governmental affairs, institutional practices, cultural patterns, environmental
issues,
marketing strategies, etc. are problematic situations that will lead you to identify
one
topic to research on. Centering your mind on the problem, you can formulate one
general or mother problem of your research work. (Punch 2014)
To give your study a clear direction, you have to break this big, overreaching,
general question into several smaller or specific research questions. The specific
questions, also called sub-problems, identify or direct you to the exact aspect of
the
problem that your study has to focus on. Beset by many factors, the general
question
or research problem is prone to reducing itself to several specific questions,
seeking
conclusive answers to the problem.
The following shows you the link among the following: research problem,
research topic, research question, and the construction of one general question
and
specific questions in a research paper.
Research Problem: The need to have a safer, comfortable, and healthful walk or
transfer of students from place to place in the UST campus
Research Topic: The Construction of a Covered Pathway in the UST Campus
General Question: What kind of covered path should UST construct in its campus?
Specific Questions:
1. What materials are needed for the construction of the covered pathway in
the UST campus?
2. What roofing material is appropriate for the covered path?
3. In what way can the covered pathway link all buildings in the campus?
4. What is the width and height of the covered path?
5. How can the covered path realize green architecture?
Research questions aim at investigating specific aspects of the research
problem.
Though deduced from the general or mother question, one specific question may
lead
to another sub-problem or sub-question, requiring a different data-gathering
technique
and directing the research to a triangulation or mixed method approach.
Referring to
varied aspects of the general problem, a set of research questions plays a crucial
part
in the entire research work. They lay the foundation for the research study.
Therefore,
they determine the research design or plan of the research. Through sub-
questions,
you can precisely determine the type of data and the method of collecting,
analyzing,
and presenting data.
Any method or technique of collecting, collating, and analyzing data specified by
the research design depends greatly on the research questions. The correct
formulation
of research questions warrants not only excellent collection, analysis, and
presentation
of data, but a credible conclusion as well. (Layder 2013)
Hence, the following are things you have to remember in research question
formulation. (Barbie 2013; Litchman 2013; Silverman 2013)
Guidelines in Formulating Research Questions
1. Establish a clear relation between the research questions and the problem or
topic.
2. Base your research questions on your RRL or Review of Related Literature
because existing published works help you get good background
knowledge of the research problem and help you gauge the people’s current
understanding or unfamiliarity about the topic, as well as the extent of their
knowledge and interest in it. Convincing solutions to research problems
or answers to research questions stem from their alignment with what
the world already knows or what previous research studies have already
discovered about the research problem or topic.
3. Formulate research questions that can arouse your curiosity and surprise
you with your discoveries or findings. This is true for research questions
asked about a problem that was never investigated upon.
4. State your research questions in such a way that they include all dependent
and independent variables referred to by the theories, principles, or concepts
underlying your research work.
5. Let the set of research questions or sub-problems be preceded by one
question expressing the main problem of the research.
6. Avoid asking research questions that are answerable with “yes” or “no” and
use the “how” questions only in a quantitative research.
7. Be guided by the acronym SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic,
time-bound) in formulating the research questions. Applying SMART, you
must deal with exact answers and observable things, determine the extent
or limit of the data collected, be aware of the timeframe and completion
period of the study, and endeavor to have your research study arrive at a
particular conclusion that is indicative of what are objective, factual, or real
in this world.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE (RRL)
Meaning of Review of Related Literature
Literature is an oral or written record of man’s significant experiences that are
artistically conveyed in a prosaic manner. Embodied in any literary work like
essay,
novel, journal, story, biography, etc. are man’s best thoughts and feelings about
the
world. These recorded or preserved world perceptions of man are expressed
directly
and indirectly. Direct expressions of man’s knowledge of the world are in books,
periodicals, and online reading materials. Indirect expressions are his inferences
or
reflections of his surroundings that are not written or spoken at all. (Ridley 2012)
A review of related literature is an analysis of man’s written or spoken knowledge
of the world. You examine representations of man’s thinking about the world to
determine the connection of your research with what people already know about
it.
In your analysis or reading of recorded knowledge, you just do not catalog ideas
in
your research paper, but also interpret them or merge your thinking with the
author’s
ideas. Hence, in doing the RRL, you deal with both formal or direct and informal
or indirect expressions of man’s knowledge. Fusing your world understanding
with
the authors’ world perceptions enables you to get a good analysis of existing
written
works that are related to your research study. (Wallman 2014)
Purposes of Review of Related Literature (RRL)
1. To obtain background knowledge of your research
2. To relate your study to the current condition or situation of the world
58 • PRACTICAL RESEARCH 1
3. To show the capacity of your research work to introduce new knowledge
4. To expand, prove, or disprove the findings of previous research studies
5. To increase your understanding of the underlying theories, principles, or
concepts of your research
6. To explain technical terms involved in your research study
7. To highlight the significance of your work with the kind of evidence it
gathered to support the conclusion of your research
8. To avoid repeating previous research studies
9. To recommend the necessity of further research on a certain topic
Styles or Approaches of RRL or Review of Related Literature
1. Traditional Review of Literature
To do a review of literature in a traditional way is to summarize
present forms of knowledge on a specific subject. Your aim here is to give
an expanded or new understanding of an existing work. Being necessarily
descriptive, interpretative, evaluative, and methodically unclear and
uncertain, a traditional review is prone to your subjectivity. This kind of
review does not require you to describe your method of reviewing literature
but expects you to state your intentions in conducting the review and to
name the sources of information.
You experience much freedom or flexibility in doing a traditional RRL,
so as an undergraduate student taking BA, BSE, BSEED, or any four-year
bachelor degree and lacking much knowledge and expertise in research
work, this is the appropriate method for you. Attaining mastery in doing a
traditional RRL is an excellent preparation for the more demanding, second
style of RRL called systematic review that is required at the graduate level.
Hence, being unprepared for a systematic review, you have no other way
but to do the traditional review to complete the requirements of your course.
(Jesson 2011)
Traditional review is of different types that are as follows:
1. Conceptual review – analysis of concepts or ideas to give meaning to
some national or world issues
2. Critical review – focuses on theories or hypotheses and examines
meanings and results of their application to situations
3. State-of-the-Art review – makes the researcher deal with the latest
research studies on the subject
4. Expert review – encourages a well-known expert to do the RRL because
of the influence of a certain ideology, paradigm, or belief on him/her
5. Scoping review – prepares a situation for a future research work in the
form of project making about community development, government
policies, and health services, among others
UNIT IV – LEARNING FROM OTHERS AND REVIEWING THE LITERATURE • 59
2. Systematic Review of Literature
As indicated by its name, systematic, which means methodical, is a style
of RRL that involves sequential acts of a review of related literature. Unlike
the traditional review that has no particular method, systematic review
requires you to go through the following RRL steps (Ridley 2012):
1. Have a clear understanding of the research questions. Serving as the
compass to direct your research activities, the research questions tell
you what to collect and where to obtain those data you want to collect.
2. Plan your manner of obtaining the data. Imagining how you will get
to where the data are, you will come to think also of what keywords
to use for easy searching and how to accord courtesy and respect to
people or institutions from where the data will come such as planning
how to communicate your request to these sources of data.
3. Do the literature search. Using keywords, you look for the needed
information from all sources of knowledge: Internet, books, journals
periodicals, government publications, general references, and the like.
4. Using a certain standard, determine which data, studies, or sources of
knowledge are valuable or not to warrant the reasonableness of your
decision to take some data and junk the rest.
5. Determine the methodological soundness of the research studies. Use
a checklist or a certain set of criteria in assessing the ways researchers
conduct their studies to arrive at a certain conclusion.
6. Summarize what you have gathered from various sources of data. To
concisely present a synthesis of your report, use a graph such as a table
and other presentation formats that are not prone to verbosity.
A systematic review of literature is a rigorous way of obtaining data from written
works. It is a bias-free style that every researcher wanting to be a research
expert
should experience. Limiting itself to peer-reviewed journals, academically written
works, and quantitative assessment of data through statistical methods, this style
of
literature review ensures objectivity in every stage of the research. (Fraenbell
2012)
The following table shows the way several books on RRL compare and contrast
the two styles of RRL.
Structure of the RRL
The structure of the whole literature review indicates the organizational
pattern or order of the components of the summary of the RRL results. For the
traditional review, the structure of the summary resembles that of an essay
where
series of united sentences presents the RRL results. However, this structure of
traditional review varies based on your subject and area of specialization. For the
systematic review, the structure is based on the research questions; so much so,
that, if your RRL does not adhere to a certain method to make you begin your
RRL with research questions, your RRL is headed toward a traditional literature
review structure.
Regardless of what RRL structure you opt to use, you must see to it that the
organizational pattern of the results of your review contains these three
elements: an
introduction to explain the organizational method of your literature review;
headings
and subheadings to indicate the right placement of your supporting statements
and a
summary to concisely restate your main point. (Ridley 2013)
THE PROCESS OF REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Curious about a person or a thing, you want to know more about the ins and
outs of this object of your interest. In your quest of becoming knowledgeable
about
the “apple of your eyes,” you are inclined to find all ways and means to get a full
view, knowledge, or understanding of the center of your attention. And if there is
one activity of yours that really pushes you to continue searching knowledge up
to a
certain period of time about the focus of your attention, it is research. From the
start
up to the end of your research, you are prone to searching answers to the many
things
you are curious about.
UNIT IV – LEARNING FROM OTHERS AND REVIEWING THE LITERATURE • 67
Your search for knowledge happens in every stage of your research work, but
it is in the research stage of review of related literature where you spend
considerable
time searching knowledge about the topic. Exposed to various sources of
knowledge
and conditioned by a timeframe of the research work, it is necessary that you
adopt a
certain method in reviewing or reading varied works of literature that are related
to
your research problem or topic. Going methodical in your review of related
literature
means you have to go through the following related stages of the process of
review of
related literature that are true for any style of review (traditional or systematic)
that
you want to adopt. (Lappuci 2013; Robyler 2013; Freinbell 2012)
Stage 1: Search for the Literature
This is the stage of review of related literature where you devote much of your
time in looking for sources of knowledge, data, or information to answer your
research
questions or to support your assumptions about your research topic. Generally,
there
are three basic types of literature sources: general references that will direct you to
the
location of other sources; primary sources that directly report or present a person’s
own
experiences; and secondary sources that report or describe other people’s
experiences
or worldviews. Secondary sources of knowledge give the most number of
materials
such as the Internet, books, peer-reviewed articles in journals, published literary
reviews of a field, grey literature or unpublished and non-peer reviewed materials
like
theses, dissertations, conference proceedings, leaflets and posters, research
studies in
progress, and other library materials.
Websites introducing materials whose quality depends solely on every
individual, social media networks (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, podcasts, YouTube,
video, etc.) and other online encyclopedia such as Wikipedia, are the other
sources
of information that you can consult during this stage. You may find these reading
materials valuable, especially, the Wikipedia, because of their timeliness,
diversified
knowledge or information, varied presentation formats (texts, sounds, animation)
and
24-hour availability. But they are not as dependable as the other sources of
knowledge.
Some consider the information from these as not very scholarly in weight
because it
is susceptible to anybody’s penchant for editing. Since any person is free to use
the
Internet for displaying information that is peer-reviewed or not, you need to be
careful
in evaluating online sources. (Mc Leod 2012)
You can have an access to these various sources of data in two methods:
manually,
or getting hold of the printed form of the material, and electronically or having a
computer or online reading of the sources of knowledge. Regardless of which
method
you use, all throughout your literature search, your mind must be focused on the
essence and purposes of the library because most of the data you want to obtain
are
in this important section of your school. Having familiarity with the nature of your
library will facilitate your literature search.
Here are the pointers you have to remember in searching for the best sources of
information or data: (Fraenbell 2012)
1. Choose previous research findings that are closely related to your research.
2. Give more weight to studies done by people possessing expertise or authority
in the field of knowledge to which the research studies belong.
68 • PRACTICAL RESEARCH 1
3. Consider sources of knowledge that refer more to primary data than to
secondary data.
4. Prefer getting information from peer-reviewed materials than from general
reading materials.
Stage 2: Reading the Source Material
Reading, understanding, or making the materials meaningful to you is what will
preoccupy you on the second stage of reading RRL. You can only benefit much
from
your reading activities if you confront the reading materials with the help of your
HOTS. In understanding the sources of knowledge with your HOTS, you need to
think
interpretatively through these ways of inferential thinking: predicting,
generalizing,
concluding, and assuming. On top of these should be your ability to criticize or
evaluate, apply, and create things about what you have read. Hence, reading or
making sense of the source materials does not only make you list down ideas
from the
materials, but also permits you to modify, construct, or reconstruct ideas based
on a
certain principle, theory, pattern, method, or theme underlying your research.
Stage 3: Writing the Review
You do a great deal of idea connection and organization in this last stage of RRL
to
form an overall understanding of the material by paraphrasing or summarizing
the it.
In doing either of these two, you get to change the arrangement of ideas,
structures of
the language, and the format of the text using appropriate organizational
techniques
of comparison-contrast, chronological order, spatial relationship, inductive-
deductive
order, and transitional devices. Also, you make effective changes not only on
language
structures and format but also the quality of ideas incorporated into the summary
or
paraphrase as well. This means that in writing the review, based on the focus,
theme, or
theory underlying your research, you are free to fuse your opinions with the
author’s
ideas. (Corti 2014)
A simple presentation of the findings or argumentations of the writers on
a particular topic with no incorporation of your own inferential, analytical, and
comparative- contrastive thinking about other people’s ideas indicates poor
literature
review writing. This mere description, transfer, or listing of writer’s ideas that is
devoid of or not reflective of your thinking is called dump or stringing method. Good
literature review writing shuns presenting ideas in serial abstracts, which means
every
paragraph merely consists of one article. This is a source-by-source literature
writing
that fails to link, compare, and contrast series of articles based on a theory or a
theme
around which the research questions revolve. (Remlen 2011)
Juxtaposing or dealing with studies with respect to each other is your way
of proving the extent of the validity of the findings of previous studies vis-a-vis
the recent ones. Reading the source material and writing the review analytically,
argumentatively, or critically, you give yourself the chance to express your
genuine or
opinionated knowledge about the topic; thereby, increasing the enthusiasm of
people
in reading your work. (Radylyer 2013)
Another good approach to writing an excellent review is adopting good opening
sentences of articles that should chronologically appear in the paper. Opening an
article with a bibliographical list that begins with the author’s name like the
following
examples is not good.
Aquino (2015) said...
Roxas (2016) stated…
Perez (2017) wrote...
Mendoza (2018) asserted...
Examples of better article openings manifesting critical thinking through analysis,
comparison and contrast of ideas and findings are as follows:
One early work by (Castro, 2017) proves that...
Another study on the topic by (Torres, 2017) maintains that...
The latest study by (Gomez, 2018) reveals that...
A research study by (Rivera, 2017) explains that...
Coming from various books on literature review writing are the following
transitional
devices and active verbs to link or express authors’ ideas in your paper. Using
correct
words to link ideas will make you synthesize your literature review, in a way that
evidence coming from various sources of data, will present an overall
understanding
of the context or of the present circumstances affecting the research problem.
o Transitional devices – also, additionally, again, similarly, a similar opinion,
however, conversely, on the other hand, nevertheless, a contrasting opinion,
a different approach, etc.
o Active verbs – analyze, argues, assess, assert, assume, claim, compare,
contrast, conclude, criticize, debate, defend, define, demonstrate, discuss,
distinguish, differentiate, evaluate, examine, emphasize, expand, explain,
exhibit, identify, illustrate, imply, indicate, judge, justify, narrate, outline,
persuade, propose, question, relate to, report, review, suggest, summarize.
STANDARD STYLES IN RELATED LITERATURE
CITATIONS OR REFERENCES
In reviewing related literature, you come to read varieties of reading materials
containing knowledge related to your research. It is a fact that these ideas,
including
the language structures to express these ideas, belong to other people. They are
not
yours. One cardinal principle in research is acknowledging or recognizing the
owners
of any form of knowledge you intend to include in your research paper. Doing this
practice signals not just honesty and courtesy to learned people whose ideas
lend
information to your paper, but also indicates your appreciation for their
contribution
to the field. (Hammersely 2013)
UNIT IV – LEARNING FROM OTHERS AND REVIEWING THE LITERATURE • 75
The following are the three terms used to express your appreciation for or
recognition of people’s ownership of borrowed ideas (Sharp 2012):
1. Acknowledgment – the beginning portion of the work that identifies
individuals who have contributed something for the production of the paper
2. References or Bibliography – a complete list of all reading materials, including
books, journals, periodicals, etc. from where the borrowed ideas came from
3. Citation or In-text Citation – references within the main body of the text,
specifically in Review of Related Literature
The third one, citation, is the focus of this lesson. Citation, also
called in-text citation, has many purposes and style, which are as follows
(Badke 2012):
Purposes of Citation
1. To give importance and respect to other people for what they know about
the field
2. To give authority, validity, and credibility to other people’s claims,
conclusions, and arguments
3. To prove your broad and extensive reading of authentic and relevant
materials about your topic
4. To help readers find or contact the sources of ideas easily
5. To permit readers to check the accuracy of your work
6. To save yourself from plagiarism
Styles of Citation
1. Integral Citation
This is one way of citing or referring to the author whose ideas appear
in your work. You do this by using active verbs like claim, assert, state, etc.
to report the author’s ideas. Using these types of verbs somehow expresses
the author’s mental position, attitude, stand, or opinion in relation to the
information referred to. This is the reason integral citation is often used in
social sciences or any subjects belonging to the soft sciences.
Examples of Integral Citation:
APA MLA
One study by Manalo (2015) reveals... One study by (Manalo 70)
The latest work by (Lee, 2015) asserts... The latest work by (Lee 123)
According to Abad et al. (2015) context is... According to (Abad et al.: 54)
2. Non-integral Citation
In contrast to integral citation that reflects the author’s personal
inclinations to a certain extent, this second citation style downplays any
76 • PRACTICAL RESEARCH 1
strength of the writer’s personal characteristics. The stress is given to the
piece of information rather than to the owner of the ideas.
Examples of Non-integral Citation:
a. The Code of Ethics for Intercultural Competence give four ways by
which people from different cultural background can harmoniously
relate themselves with one another. (De la Cruz, 2015)
b. Knowledge is one component of not only Systemic Functional
Grammar but Intercultural competence as well. It is the driving force
beyond any successful collaborative activities to develop interpersonal
relationships and communicative competence. (Smith 2015)
c. The other components of Intercultural Competence which are also
present in SFG are: context (Harold, 2015), appropriateness (Villar,
Marcos, Atienza, 2016; Santos, and Daez, 2016), and emotions
(Flores, 2016).
Patterns of Citation
1. Summary. The citation in this case is a shortened version of the original text
that is expressed in your own language. Making the text short, you have to
pick out only the most important ideas or aspects of the text.
2. Paraphrase. This is the antithesis of the first one because, here, instead of
shortening the form of the text, you explain what the text means to you
using your own words. In doing so, it is possible that your explanations may
decrease or exceed the number of words of the original text.
3. Short Direct Quotation. Only a part of the author’s sentence, the whole
sentence, or several sentences, not exceeding 40 words, is what you can
quote or repeat in writing through this citation pattern. Since this makes you
copy the exact words of the writer, it is necessary that you give the number
of the page where the readers can find the copied words.
Example:
Contexts is influenced by these four factors: “language, culture,
institutions, and ideologies.” (Aranda, 2015, p.8)
4. Long Direct Quotation or Block Quotation, or Extract. Named in many ways, this
citation pattern makes you copy the author’s exact words numbering from
40 up to 100 words. Under APA, the limit is eight lines. Placed at the center
of the page with no indentation, the copied lines look like they compose a
stanza of a poem.
Example:
The latest study by (Hizon, 2015) reveals the social nature of language.
Stressing this nature of language, he says:
Language features result from the way people use language to meet their
social needs. In their interactions, they use language to describe, compare,
agree, explain, disagree, and so on. Each language function requires a certain
set of language features like nouns for naming, adjectives for comparing,
verbs for agreeing, prepositions for directing, and conjunctions for connecting
ideas. (p. 38)
You should quote judiciously because having so many quoted words
or lines in your paper signals your lack of understanding of such part of the
text. Besides, frequent copying of the author’s words indicates your lack of
originality in conducting your research work. To avoid negative connotations
about direct quotations in your paper, have in mind the following reasons
to justify your act of quoting or repeating in writing other people’s words.
(Ransome 2013)
1. The idea is quite essential.
2. The idea is refutable or arguable.
3. The sentence is ambiguous or has multiple meanings.
4. There’s a strong possibility that questions may be raised about the
citation.
5. It is an excellent idea that to make it a part of your paper will bring
prestige and credibility to your entire work.
There are two basic methods of referencing, pointing to, or identifying
the exact author referred to by your paper. These are the APA (American
Psychological Association and the MLA (Modern Language Association).
Each of these two methods has its own in-text citation style. The following
shows the difference between them as regards citation format.
APA – (Ramos, 2015) or Ramos (2016)
(Manalo, 2015) or Manalo (2016)
MLA – (Bautista 183), Flores et.al. 150-158)
(Acosta, Hizon, Lopez 235-240)
(Velarde 4: 389-403) – for periodicals
5. Tense of verbs for reporting
Active verbs are effective words to use in reporting authors’ ideas. Present
their ideas in any of these tenses: present, simple past, or present perfect tense.
The APA system, however, prefers the use of present perfect tense.
Examples:
Present tense – Marcos explains...
Past tense – Marcos explained...
Present perfect tense – Marcos has explained...
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is an act of quoting or copying the exact words of the writer and
passing the quoted words off as your own words. The leading act of plagiarism is
using the words of the original text in expressing your understanding of the
reading
material. The right way to avoid plagiarism is to express the borrowed ideas in
your
own words. (Ransome 2013)
Taking ownership of what do not belong to you is a criminal act that
is punishable by imprisonment and indemnity or payment of money to
compensate for any losses incurred by the owners of expressions that you
copied without their permission. The safest way to avoid plagiarism is to
be aware of the fact that the copied words are not yours. If you want these
words to appear in your paper, you must reveal the name of the author
in your paper, including the pieces of information (title, date, place of
publication, publisher, etc.) about the book from where you copied the
words. (Hammersely 2013)
Nowadays, due to the proliferation of “Grey Literature” or unpublished
reading materials or of non-peer reviewed online publications, many reading
materials as sources of information for research studies appear questionable
as to how qualitative, credible, and authoritative they are. Notwithstanding
the doubtful reputation of these grey literature, to free yourself from any
guilt of plagiarism, you must identify in your paper the owners of any
idea, word, symbol that you quoted or copied verbatim, summarized, or
paraphrased. (Sharp 2012; Gray 2013)