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Research Methodologyfor Research in English

by

Dr. Abha PandeyProfessor & Head, Department of EnglishGovt. Mahakoshal College, Jabalpur, MP

‘All progress is born out of inquiry. Doubt is often better than over confidence for it

leads to inquiry, and inquiry leads to invention”

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Research Methodology:An Introduction

• Meaning of Research• Objectives• Types of Research• Research Approaches• Significance of Research• Research Methods• Research Process

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Research

• Meaning : To seek again. French word chercher, Latin circare meant to go about, English word search means to survey inquiringly or to examine/ enquire closely

• Features: Academic and intellectual work– Systematic and critical investigation in the field of

knowledge to establish facts or principles. – A fresh approach to a subject or interpretation of facts.– Revision of accepted laws or theories in the light of

discovery of new facts.– Practical application of new or revised conclusions or

theories or laws.

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Objectives of Literary Research

• To acquire and advance knowledge and abilities works through intensive study of the original texts of selected literary works.

• To apply the concerned literary theory or concept to the selected literary works.

• To analyse and discuss literary works concerned and have a thorough understanding of the literary creativity, literary criticism and literary research methods.

• To develop new theories, concepts or tools, for study of unknown phenomena.

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Types of Research

• Descriptive vs. Analytical• Fundamental/Applied• Basic/Pure purpose/ Process outcome

• Quantitative vs. Qualitative• Explorative/ Formulative• Conceptual / Empirical• Applied/ Action Vs Fundamental/• Comparative/ Longitudinal• Diagnostic

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Literary Research

• Literature different from social sciences• Product of the creative writer• Literary research cannot confine itself to the study

of literary text or the writer, it has to study both.• When the object of study is the writer the tools

applied are similar to those used in social sciences, for his works the tools are specific to the purpose.

• Types: Biographical, Bibliography and textual criticism, Theoretical and Interpretative.

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Significance of Research

• Research is significant for careerism, professional development, source of livelihood for youth.

• Outlet for ideas, insights and philosophies for philosophers and thinkers.

• Development of new styles and creative work; to generate new theories for literary man.

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Research Methods• Research Methods constitute a part of

research methodology. The scope of research methodology is wider than that of research methods.

• Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It is the logic behind the methods we use in the context of our research and explain:– Why , how , in what way, what data, why a

particular technique of analysing the data has been used etc.

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Research ProcessFormulate

Research ProblemSelect Research

topic

Review Related Literature Concepts

and theories

Review previous research findings

Design Research including sample

Collect Data Execution

Analyze dataTest hypotheses

Interpret Data Write a Report

Formulate Hypotheses

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Formulating the research problem

• A thesis needs to be “original and a genuine contribution of knowledge ”; it may be “a fresh interpretation of the known facts” and /or “discovery of new facts”

• Two steps are involved: understanding the problem thoroughly and rephrasing it in a meaningful way. – Study of a few standard critical studies– Narrowing the topic to specificity

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Selecting the Research Topic• General area of interest of a subject matter • Initially state the problem in a broad general

way- resolve the ambiguities if any. • Check feasibility- Rephrase the topic analytically• Examine available literature to get acquainted with the

selected problem.– Conceptual literature- concepts and theories– Empirical literature- studies made earlier

• Outcome of overview of literature is to enable the researcher to specify his own problem.

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Review of Literature

Define and limit the problem. Consult the source material and collect information.

Source : Abstracting journal, indexing journals, published or unpublished bibliographies, anthologies, academic journals, conference proceedings.

Primary sourcesSecondary sources

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Formulating a Hypothesis

• Develop a working hypothesis. • Make tentative assumptions and in order to

draw certain conclusions.• The role of hypothesis is to keep the

researcher on the right track.• It helps to focus on important aspects of the

problem and determine the data collecting methods.

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Research Design

• Objective- purpose- what, why, where.• Audience• Kind of information-type of data• Source of information- sample design• Data analysis• Style of preparing the report.

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Research Approach

• For quantitative data the analysis will be quantitative. Data collection is done by– Inferential method : survey method– simulation method- construction of an artificial

environment• Qualitative approach is used for subjective

assessment of attitude, opinion and behaviour– Interview, focus group, projective techniques are

used as method for data collection.

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Literary Approach

• Wilbur Scott edited an anthology of modern critical texts and divided them into five broad groups. – Moral approach – Psychological approach– Formalistic approach– Archetypal approach– Sociological approach

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Literary Approach

• William J Handy and Max Westbrook divided criticism into 6 broad groups– Formalist Criticism– Genre Criticism– Archetypal Criticism– Psychoanalytic Criticism– Historical Criticism– Interdisciplinary Criticism

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Data collection for literary studiesPrimary data:

Works of the author/s, autobiography, Interviews, articles in newspapers, magazine, lettersData collected through surveys, interviews etc.

Secondary data: Articles in journals, books, critical books on the author, magazines, e-articles, websites. Literary theories.

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Processing and Analysis of Data

• Data Interpretation• Evaluating: Editing to improve the quality of

data.• Coding : Symbols to categorize the data.• Tabulation• Statisitical calculations.• Interpreting data.

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Hypothesis Testing

• Do the facts support the formulated hypothesis.

• Generalising and interpretations• Build a theory/ in case of no hypothesis the

researcher may seek to explain his finding on the basis of some theory.

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Preparation of the Report

• Title• Certificates• Preface• Acknowledgements• Table of Contents• Report: Introduction, Chapters, Conclusion• Appendices: Bibliography, Graphs Charts etc.

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Bibliography

• Bajpai, S.R. (2008), Methods of Social Survey and Research, Kitab Ghar, Kanpur.

• Das, Sanat. (2012), Research Methodology, Jaipur: Yking Books.

• Mishra, R.P. (2002), Research Methodology, New Delhi: Cocept Publishing Company

• Sahu, N K and Dilip K Swain (2013), Research Methodology, New Delhi: SSDN Publishers

• Kothari, C R (1991), New Delhi: Willy Eastern Limited• Seth, Kalpana (2010), Research Methodology in English.

New Delhi: MurariLal & Sons• Janes, J. (2001), Survey Research Design”, Library Hi-tech,

Vol.19 no. 4, p 419-421.

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