Principles of research design

Principles of Research Design

The term "research design" is often used to refer to the pragmatic aspects of the way the research was conducted. You now need to explain these matters to the reader. Some of your writing will be descriptive, but at each stage it is important to offer clear reasons and arguments for the manner in which you conducted the research. When you are starting to write about the research design, it is a good idea to think back to the beginning of the research and to describe it in chronological order, working your way systematically through the different stages.

Research design is a comprehensive plan of the sequence of operation that a researcher intends to carry out to achieve the research objectives. It involves selecting the most appropriate methods and techniques to solve the problem under investigation. Designing a research work can be compared to that of an architect designing a building. It is a plan or action and blueprint for collective analysis and interpretation of data.

Designed research is the planned sequence of the entire process involved in conducting a research study. Designing particular research depends mainly on the research purpose also. A good research design must possess the important characteristics of objectivity, reliability, validity and generalization. If the design is good all may go well. A well-conceived research design will pay rich dividends. In spite of all these things a research design is not a rigid plan to be followed without change, but like a polestar which help the researcher to find out the right direction. As research progress a change in original design may become imperative due to new facts, ideas and conditions.

In exploratory research studies a flexible research design helps to consider different aspects of the problem during the course of the study. But in descriptive diagnostic and hypothesis-testing research, preparations of a well defined research design facilitate smooth working. A well thought out efficient design must be prepared in advance for all research operations since it is the edifice of entire research work.