Primary Research

Primary source

• Field research source: survey, interviews, observation, and experiments 
• Primary texts 

1. Observation 

People's behavior, natural phenomenon, location's features 

First know about your goal of the observation 

Stay focused, but pay attention to the big picture( time frame, context, and surroundings) 

2. Interviews 

Interviews are about the people --- wisdom, experiences, insights, concerns, struggles, their stories, opinions, etc. --- getting the interviewee's personal angle of the topic 

One option- consider about using already published interviews (authors, politicians, entertainers) --available in periodical articles, books, websites and Youtube) 

Types of people to interview, how many interviews to do, interview medium 

3. Survey

Survey work well to measure to attitudes, opinions, and experiences of representative members of identifiable groups of people 

Draft relevant, reliable, and valid questions 

yes/no, true/false, multiple choice, ranking, likert scale 1-10 (1-5)

Open-ended question 

Pilot study -- and get random sampling first!

4. Primary texts

a poem, a novel, a letter, a diary, a speech, a painting,a piece of legislation, a film, art works, philosophical writings, sacred texts, and historical documents (both published/ not published)