Qualitative study appraisal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Qualitative study appraisal - Essay Example It is the continuity which has several harmful manifestations. Literature Review In order to influence, justify and explain certain actions in research, it is always important for the researcher to conduct a literature review. This is also the case if readers are to believe the findings and other assertions formulated by the researcher. To Mason (1996), a research report without literature review lacks an integral part which is supposed to accord the researcher the opportunity to cite reliable who have researched on the same topic. To Mason further, literature review asserts confidence that the writer is not the first to contemplate on the issue, others before have. Newham (1997) argues that, any research paper without literature review is full of the author’s thoughts and opinions and is very hard to convince others otherwise. The researcher in this paper has put a considerable number of reliable citations giving the research paper the required foundation. Study Approach Both qualitative and quantitative research designs were used. Interviews and questionnaires were used to collect the information. The combination of the two approaches accords the researcher several advantages. Qualitative approaches generate verbal information and not numeric which is analyzed using the holistic analysis approach proposed for qualitative research designs. Inductive reasoning which is involved in qualitative research studies gives the researcher more freedom to probe for more information and explanations. Further, the researcher chose to continue with the qualitative approach since qualitative data collection tools are flexible and can accommodate urgent changes/refinement in cases of new research ideas. This means that the research setting is not affected in the process of the research design implementation. Data collected using the qualitative data gathering methods is very rich and has justified explanations which evoke feasible research contexts.  A qualitative me thod leads to more realistic feel which cannot be given by numerical data analysis in addition to giving the researcher the opportunity to interact and have a feeling of the participants in their own terminologies. The findings which emanate from such techniques benefit from the fact that the data is primary and unstructured and thus the researcher can twist them to fit the context thus giving a better meaning. Quantitative approaches on the other give rise measurable data and are directed by a formulated hypothesis which is determined by the collected data set empirically. In quantitative research design, the research statements and problem are defined in specific terms and not generals statements and clearly specifies the independent variable and the dependent one. Quantitative approaches gives rise to measurable and objective hence providing an effective way of determining casual findings. Data collected using such methods is said to be reliable and valid as there are restriction s placed before actual data collection. Such information puts controls and ensures objectivity in analysis. A valid and reliable approach is used by the researcher to articulate issues. Combining the advantages of the two approaches eliminate any possibility of a biased report. Considering a small group representing other races ensures data quality which makes it possible to generalize the findings to fit