4.2.3

W: Oh, there you are, good.

Sorry I’m a bit late. There was a long queue.

So have you worked out how to deal with this assignment then?

M1: Not yet. We’ve only been here a couple of minutes ourselves.

W: Can you just remind me what the task is exactly?

M2: Well, there are two, err, no, three parts to it.

First we’ve got to write an essay about ways of collecting data. Then…

W: What’s the title of the essay exactly?

M1: I’ve got it here: ‘Assess the two main methods of collecting data in social science research’.

W: And how much do we need to write?

M1: Fifteen hundred words. That’s for the essay.

Then, for the second part of the assignment, we have to choose one method of data collection, and carry out a small-scale study, making appropriate use of the method chosen to gather data from at least five subjects.

W: And then we have to write a report on the study?

M2: That’s right, of three to four thousand words.

W: Did you get as far as discussing which form of data collection we should go for - questionnaire or interview, isn’t it?

M1: Yeah, I think we should use a questionnaire. It’ll be so much less time-consuming than organising interviews, I reckon.

Once we’ve agreed on the wording of it, we only have to send it out and wait for the responses.

W: Yes, I think it probably would be quicker.

But what did that article he gave us last week say about the quality of data from questionnaires?

M1: I’m pretty sure it recommended questionnaires as a source of ‘highly reliable data’. As long as you design the questionnaire properly in the first place, the data will be fine.

W: No. I’m sure it talked about drawbacks as well, didn’t it? something about the response rate and the problems you get if it’s too low.

M1: Yeah, but we only need data from five subjects, anyway.

W: Oh, I suppose so. Another drawback I remember it mentioned was that questionnaire data tends not to reveal anything unexpected, because it is limited to the questions fixed in advance by the researcher.

M1: Come on, Rosa. This is only a practice. It’s not meant to be a real research, is it?

W: Well, I’m not sure about that.

Before you hear the rest of the conversation, you have some time to look at questions twenty-seven to thirty.

Now listen and answer questions twenty-seven to thirty.

W: Maybe I’d better go through the article again, just to be sure. Can you remember what it was called?

M: ‘Sample Surveys and Social Science Research’, I think. By Mehta.

W: M-E-H-T-A?

M: Yeah. And he also recommended a more recent book called Survey Research by Bell, I think.It’s in that series published by London University.

M2: And if we tried to use interviews instead, I saw a book in the departmental library that will be helpful: it’s called ‘Interviews that work’, by Wilson, published in Oxford in nineteen eighty-eight.

W: Right. Oh, I have got a tutorial now. Can we meet up again later this week?

What about Friday morning?

M: Suits me. Eleven o’clock?

W: Fine.

M: Before Friday, I think we should all look through the reading list.

That is the end of section three. You now have half a minute to check your answers.

Now turn to section four.