Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2 - Language of Research Advocacy and Campaigns
2 - Language of Research Advocacy and Campaigns
Terms
Language
More than just serving to communicate
with one another, language also enables
us to inform, entertain, influence
and persuade others.
Research
According to Kothari (2006), “Research is a
pursuit of trust with the help of study,
observation, comparison and experiment, the
search for knowledge through objective and
systematic method of finding solutions to a
problem.” With this statement, we can simply say
that it is a process that involves different factors
that need to be considered.
Here are the things that you must take into
consideration in doing research or the language
of research…
Bias
This is when only one side of a
discussion is presented. This can be
in a form of primary sources such as
interview transcripts, statistical data, and
works of art or secondary sources which
include journal articles, reviews, and
academic books.
Kinds of Bias
Intentional
Exaggeration
Omission
Biased Sample
Intentional
This occurs when a person or group
deliberately alters data to change
the results of an experiment or
study. This type of bias influences the
information gathered to go in a certain
and predetermined direction.
A politician who is very SUPPORT MINING!
vocal about his support for a
certain field such as the
mining industry and turns
out that he/she has
something to gain from it.
Therefore, he/she would try
to influence the public that
mining is indeed a very
good move to boost the
economy.
Exaggeration
This takes place when a certain individual
or group tries to overemphasize the
positive or negative effects of the
subject being studied.
The politician
pointing out the great
impact of the mining
industry and the
number of jobs that it
created for the
people. In other
words, statements are
overly expressed.
Omission
This bias happens when there are
information or views that are not
presented in the data provided.
The politician not
pointing out the
possible
environmental issues
that are brought
about by illegal
mining.
l
e nta Mining Positive
ro nm ught creates jobs impacts of
i o
Env es br ing mining
i ss u y m i n
b
Biased Sample
This occurs when the respondents for
a certain survey or process of data
gathering belong to the population
that mainly gains something from
the subject of the study.
The politician said in his
article that according to his
survey, 95% of the
respondents agreed that
mining has a positive effect
on the economy. However,
the politician chose those
people working in the
mining industry. In this
case, we can expect that the
response will surely be in
favor of the mining
industry since it is in that
industry where the
respondents earn from.
Reliability
This refers to whether or not you get the
same answer by using an instrument to
measure something more than once. In
simple terms, research reliability is the
degree to which research method
produces stable and consistent
results.
Employees of ABC
Company may be asked
to complete the same Survey A Survey B
questionnaire about
employee job satisfaction
two times with an
interval of one week, so
that test results can be
compared to assess
stability of scores.
Validity
Research validity in surveys relates to the
extent at which the survey measures right
elements that need to be measured. In
simple terms, validity refers to how well
an instrument is as it measures
what it is intended to measure.
If a weight measuring scale
is wrong by 4kg (it deducts
4 kg of the actual weight), it
can be specified as reliable,
because the scale displays
the same weight every time
we measure a specific item.
However, the scale is not
valid because it does not
display the actual weight of
the item.
Credibility
This is involved in establishing that
the results of the research are
believable. This is a classic example of
‘quality not quantity’. It depends more on
the richness of the information gathered,
rather than the amount of data gathered.
A doctor providing his
patient a diagnosis of
the results from his
physical examination.
Campaign
and
Advocacy
Campaign and Advocacy