6B: Testing the 4 methods of enquiries

Task 6B was to try and test the 4 methods of inquiry to try and find the limits and merits of each tool in relation to how they work within my own inquiry,

They are:

• Interviews
• Surveys
• Focus Groups
• Documents

Interviews

Limits

• Can take up a lot of time asking everyone individually
• Could go off on a tangent and not answer the question needed 
• Difficult to take up other peoples time when I know how precious it is.
• May not agree to it for professional reasons or want you publishing their personal results

Merits

• Easily repeated: same set of questions and could get a different answer each time
• More personal so people may open up more
• I can choose which questions I ask and add any additional ones in if i feel it going off on a tangent
• Answers can be easily recorded and referred back to.
• Uncover unexpected data

Surveys

Limits

• You can't elaborate on a question in case the candidate doesn't understand so you may have incorrect answers
• Can be very quantitative so only yes or no answers
• As its time consuming you may not have accurated answers or be able to divulge as much as you want to as people are answering quickly.

Merits

• Can be sent out to alot of people at one time, less time consuming for you.
• Can remain anonymous so may attract more people willing to give their input and opinions but those who may not be able to share them if identified
• You have all the data recorded when the survey is sent back to you

Focus groups

Limits

• People may not want to open up in front of others
• Can't remain anonymous 
• Time consuming
• May go too far off on a tangent
• Would need to do more than one group as similar people may all be swayed by each other

Merits

• Can talk to alot of people at once
• Can bounce ideas off of each other
• more of a discussion and less intense than an interview
• can easily be recorded for use at a later date

Documents

Limits

• Would be quite hard to find documents which relate exactly to your inquiry, so could lead you off on a tangent.
• Policy may have changed since the document was written
• Time consuming to analayse each one which may not be any good anyway

Merits

• Easily accessible on web 2.0
• Would gain the persons in depth opinion on the matter
• Would help to have another persons inquiry ideas to help start your own and other avenues you may wish to develop further.

I think for my inquiry I will use a combination of Interviews, focus groups and documents. I feel that as my inquiry is about personal feelings and experiences this may not be able to come across in an online survey, i feel as if I need to communicate with the participant and put across what I am asking of them. To hopefully get a more in depth answer.

I think a focus group of similar minded people would be great to bounce ideas back and forth but then reverse this idea and interview them individually and see if their answers were still the same when not influenced by others.

I think documents would also be a great idea as it would give me access to this mind of those I would otherwise not be able to speak to and to gain professional opinions.