Introduction to Qualitative Research
Qualitative research is one of the ways doing research that involves only looking at the quality and not having any results that are quantifiable. This means that the conclusions that are made from a qualitative research are usually based on the secondary research, that is, other researches and conversations have to say. Qualitative research deals with either going through older researches that have already taken place and then using them as a support for taking interviews and focus groups of people or the target market that the research is looking for. This is the main objective of any qualitative research.
“Qualitative is one of the two major approaches to research methodology in social sciences. Qualitative research involves an in-depth understanding of human behaviour and the reasons that govern human behaviour. Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research relies on reasons behind various aspects of behaviour. ” (Wikipedia, 2007 ) Introduction to the Research The research that has been picked up for criticism is that which was done by a student on the garment industry in the subcontinent. There are a number of problems that are faced in this industry and there is not a lot that if happening from the WTO side.
This is what the research carries further. Criticizing a Research Firstly, looking at the introduction of the paper, it does not explain the garment industry completely. The paper begins with a lot of numbers being thrown such as the garment number in the United States of America. Whenever, a research is conducted it is necessary that the researcher ensure that the secondary research be comparable to that of the research that is being conducted. If the research is being conducted about the subcontinent then there is a need that the garment industry of another developing country be analyzed rather than that of a developed country.
The researcher must be careful when choosing such secondary data because it could be damaging to the results of the research. Another problem with the research’s introduction is that the explanation is too brief. The introduction is supposed to do a complete overview of the industry at to what the major products are and what are the current problems in this industry. Yet another point is that at this stage, the researcher should have provided some numbers of the subcontinent in a valid format so that the reader would have a better idea of the situation in the garment sector.
The researcher is not going with a flow. There is a need to take up a complete flow of the information and ensure that there are no dead ends to the text. The last sentence of the research does not go with the entire introduction and it seems too abrupt and a lot of rephrasing is required. The next section of the research is the introduction of the WTO. According to a reader’s understanding, the introduction of the WTO should have come before that of the garment industry because the WTO would then be related in the introduction of the industry, which has not been done.
The introduction of the WTO is not a complete flow of statements but is rather just a list of the events that had occurred for WTO. The researcher should have taken out time to phrase the numbers and the events into statements so that the reader would be able to make sense of the format of the paper. There are a number of abbreviations that have been provided in the research but there is no glossary at the end of the research that explains what each abbreviation means. There are also no definitions of the operational terms that have been used throughout the research.
The paper then goes about discussing the problems in the garment industry. There is no flow of the information and there is a lot of abruptness in the paper. Any reader will not understand what the research is about which also leads to another point. Any research always has an executive summary attached in the beginning of the paper so that the reader can have a quick preview of the contents of the paper, also by looking at the table of contents, and understand the matter of the paper, whether it is worth reading or not.
This is exactly what this researcher must also have done when he / she must have looked for articles. It is impossible going through the main matter of all the researches that a researcher would include in the secondary data. At first the researcher will look for understanding the article’s overview and then consider it as a source of data. To help guide the reader throughout the research, the researcher should have provided a clear summary of all the terms that are being used in the paper along with a few major points of the research as to what is being evaluated.
There is no clear indication of what the research aims to look for. “Simply put, it investigates the why and how of decision making, as compared to what, where, and when of quantitative research. Hence, the need is for smaller but focused samples rather than large random samples. From which, qualitative research categorizes data into patterns as the primary basis for organizing and reporting results. ” (Wikipedia, 2007 ) The researcher has then gone into providing recommendations and solutions to the two problems that were identified in the research.
The solutions have been described very technically with a lot of understanding and analysis and it seems that the researcher knows what is being talked about. However, there is still some discrepancy on the sentence phrasing. The researcher has concentrated upon the branding side of the garment industry and there are a number of terms that are used here as well. However, there is a need to note that the researcher did not help the reader understand the whole situation first before providing the recommendations. The reader must know what the situation is like and what has currently been done for such industries that are not flourishing.
There are a number of problems with the way the research is carrying forward because a reader would be unable to follow the whole idea and analyze it. The researcher has provided a lot of insight into the research such as the different options that are available to the industry to take control of such as branding themselves so that there would be a lesser possibility of competition from the foreign brands that have taken over such as Nike. The suggestions have proved to be quite helpful but then there is the problem of the researcher jumping from one section of the paper to another.
There is a lot to provide to the reader and it seems like the researcher was unable to put it in a logical manner. Arranging information in a logical manner is a very important part of research because there is a lot of text that is going about and there is a need to keep the reader on track and help him / her understand every bit of the research. There is a requirement to follow these guidelines so that the research can be deemed helpful and successful and help in future researches on the same topic if there is any.
The next thing that the researcher has jumped to is the external analysis of the industry. This should have been done before the whole introduction to the problems because there are a number of readers who would not have an idea of the factors that may affect the garment industry. The same problem occurs when the researcher is talking about the value chain analysis and this is why there could be a lot of problems with the technique that the researcher has used for placing the information. There is a need for the researcher to have a second look at the stream of information being provided.
At the end of the paper, there is a description of a store that is currently selling clothes in the subcontinent and has been very successful because it deals with a brand and this is why the company is also facing a lot of brand equity. The conclusion of the paper was not available and hence, there is nothing that could have been drawn from the whole paper that was read. There was also no referencing that was done at the end of the paper. Such a violation would cause plagiarism which is not considered as lawful. References Wikipedia. (2007). Qualitative Method. Retrieved on May 10, 2007 from: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Qualitative_method
