Gathering and collating data and material

Primary Source

A primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object, person, or work of art. Primary sources include historical and legal documents, eyewitness accounts, results of experiments, statistical data, pieces of creative writing, audio and video recordings, speeches, and art objects.

Secondary source

Secondary sources describe, discuss, interpret, comment upon, analyze, evaluate, summarize, and process primary sources. The materials can be articles in newspapers or popular magazines, book or movie reviews, or articles found in scholarly journals that discuss or evaluate someone else's original research.

methods of gathering data and material

1. Observation

Advantages 

• Non-responsive sample subjects are a non-issue when you’re simply making direct observation.
• Infrastructure requirement and preparation time are minimal for simple observations.
• If the observation is simple and doesn’t require interpretation it  doesn’t require a very extensive and well-tailored training regime for the survey workforce.

Disadvantages 

• More complex observations that ask observers to interpret something require more complex training and are prone to bias.
• Analysis may rely heavily on experts who must know what to observe and how to interpret the observations once the data collection is done.
• There is the possibility of missing out on the complete picture due to the lack of direct interaction with sample subjects.

2. Questionnaires

3. Interviews

4. Focus Group Sessions