Broad Examples and Types of Field Research/How to Conduct Field Research and who are Involved

An example of primary research in opinion research:
Government want to know if people are pleased with how the government is being run, so they hand out questionnaires to the public asking if they are happy and if not, how to improve.

• Survey research 
• Analysis 
• Interviews 
• Observations and 
• Ethnographic research. 

Interviews: Are one-on-one or small group question and answer sessions. Interviews will provide a lot of information from a small number of people and are useful when you want to get an expert or knowledgeable opinion on a subject. Can also be by telephone.

Survey: Are forms of questioning that is more rigid than interviews and that involve larger groups of people. Surveys will provide a limited amount of information from a large group of people and are useful when you want to learn what a large population thinks.

Observations: Involves taking organized notes about occurrences in the world. Observations provide you insight about specific people, events or locales are useful when you want to learn about an events without the biased viewpoint of an interview.

Analysis: Involves collecting data and organizing it in some fashion based on criteria you develop. They are useful when you want to find some trend or pattern.

How to Conduct Field Research and who are Involved

With some careful planning, primary research can be done by anyone, even students new to writing at the university level.