{"id":631,"date":"2021-06-15T12:27:43","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T11:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/?p=631"},"modified":"2023-10-04T16:30:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T15:30:09","slug":"getting-started-with-a-quantitative-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/2021\/06\/15\/getting-started-with-a-quantitative-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting started with a quantitative investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve got a great research question, but how do you turn it into a quantitative investigation? <\/span><\/i>Andrew Chapman from the Mathematics Resources Centre (MASH) explains how to get your thesis or project work stats-ready.<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It can be daunting to know where to start when planning a quantitative investigation, especially if school mathematics is a distant (and perhaps happily fading) memory. Here are three things you can do to help dispel any anxiety and\u00a0get started.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Clarify your research questions so they involve measurements - you\u2019re going to need numbers.<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s a good idea to list all the nouns and adjectives mentioned in the research questions (RQs) and consider each one as a \u201cvariable\u201d to be measured or categorised. After this, think about everyone or everything you could possibly measure to find these variables - this is your population. You\u2019ll generalise your results to refer to this population. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Adjectives and verbs in RQs define the relationship(s) that you want to test. Later, after collecting and getting your data ready to use, you\u2019ll use statistical tests to see if there is evidence for or against the existence of these relationship(s).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Take care that the measurement methods - such as survey questions, laboratory techniques etc. \u2013 are those established in the literature, because validating new methods is a major task not to be undertaken lightly. This brings us to\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Search the literature to learn how similar studies have measured and counted things.<\/h2>\n

Find out what methods have been used to analyse and present the results by reviewing the literature. The library<\/a> has subject experts who thrive on helping people\u00a0find similar studies. You are looking for papers which give good examples\u00a0that you\u00a0can adopt and adapt. Look out for the following things:\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n