Research Methods - Documents
- Created by: xpoppywilliams
- Created on: 26-03-18 10:23
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- Documents
- Refers to any written text
- Includes: personal diaries, gov reports, medical reports, novels, newspapers, letters, emails, blogs etc.
- Includes 'texts' such as: paintings, drawings, photographs etc.
- Includes sounds and images: film, television, radio etc.
- Public Documents
- Produced by organisations (such as government departments, schools, welfare agencies, businesses and charities)
- Output may be available for researchers to use
- Includes official reports of public enquries
- Personal Documents
- Includes items such as letters, diaries, photo albums and autobiographies
- First-person accounts of social events and personal experiences
- Often include the writer's feelings and attitudes
- Historical Documents
- A personal or public documents created in the past
- Usually the only source of information
- Authencitiy
- Is the document what it claims to be?
- Are there any missing pages?
- Is it error free?
- Who actually wrote the document?
- Credibility
- Is the document believable?
- Was the author sincere?
- Is the document accurate?
- Representativeness
- Is the evidence in the document typical?
- If this cannot be answered - is it safe to generalise?
- Not all documents survive - are the surviving ones typical of those destroyed?
- Not all documents are available to use - e.g. the 30 year rule prevents access to some official documents
- Certain groups may be unrepresented
- Is the evidence in the document typical?
- Meaning
- Researchers may need special skills to understand the document
- May have to be translated from foreign languages
- Words may change their meaning over time
- Researchers have to interpret what the document actually means to the writer and the intended audience
- Advantages
- Personal documents - get close to reality - insight through richly, detailed qualitative data
- May be the only source of available information
- Cheap and quick source of data - information is already gathered
- Refers to any written text
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