Presenting research design (Move 4, Step 2)

Another important step when planning research is to decide on the overall approach or “research strategy” (Paltridge & Starfield, 2007, p. 118) to addressing the research question(s) and testing the stated hypothesis (if applicable). This approach is known as research design. A study’s research design depends on the nature/ type of the study (for example, experimental or non-experimental, case study) and the kind of data (evidence) that will be sought or collected in order to meet the study’s objectives. In other words, it determines the direction that the study will take and the particular means to obtaining valid results.  

There is a wide variety of research designs in social sciences research. The choice of a research design is determined by the study's research questions (for example, descriptive or explanatory) and whether there is a hypothesis to be tested. A study which sets out to explore a phenomenon, situation, or setting at some point or over a period of time without the researcher’s control over the environment (mainly through observation and review of relevant literature) is unlikely to have a hypothesis and will follow a non-experimental research design. If a study seeks to identify the cause and effect relationship between key variables by manipulating some of them, this study will have a hypothesis and will follow an experimental research design.

Overall, existing research designs can be identified as:

• experimental, quasi-experimental, correlational, descriptive, evaluative, etc.
• comparative, ethnographic, historical, phenomenological, reflective, etc.

The chosen research design may build on either qualitative or quantitative methods of data collection and analysis, or a combination of both types. In the latter case, this kind of design is often referred to as a “mixed-methods” design. Both types of methods are believed to complement each other in mixed methods studies.

Example: