This document discusses surveys, critical evaluation, and fieldwork as part of technical writing research. It provides guidance on when to conduct surveys, including when quantitative and qualitative data are needed, the information sought is specific, and prior knowledge of responses exists. Successful surveys require responses that match reality. Fieldwork focuses on interaction between researchers and participants and captures live performances. Literature reviews systematically gather published information on a topic following guidelines like focusing on relevant sources and managing obtained information. Critical evaluation of articles examines aspects like the author's expertise, research questions/hypotheses, methodology, and conclusions. It differentiates facts from opinions.

1. Taibah
Lecture 8 University
Surveys, Critical Evaluation &
Fieldwork
(Technical Writing CS212)
Abdisalam Issa-Salwe
Taibah University
College of Computer Science & Engineering
Computer Science Department
Taibah
Topic List
University
When to do survey?
Literature Survey
Critical Evaluation
Fieldwork
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2. Taibah
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When to do survey?
The survey is an appropriate means of
gathering information under three
conditions:
when the goals of the research call for
quantitative and qualitative data,
when the information sought are specific and
familiar to the respondents and
When the researcher has prior knowledge of
the responses likely to emerge
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When to do survey? (cont…)
The success of survey research rests on how
closely the answers that people give to survey
questions matches reality, that is, how people
really think and act
There are three things that must be done to
increase the response to a survey:
minimise the cost for responding,
maximise the rewards for doing so, and
establish trust that those rewards will be delivered
(Polland, 1998: 90).
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When to do survey? (cont…)
Building trust between the interviewer and
the respondent is also a very important
incentive to get responses if the
researcher wishes to get good reliable
data
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Fieldwork
The important of fieldwork is stressed as it encompasses
different scenarios or situations that may range from
recorded conversation, a formal interview, the telling of a
story, the singing of a song, or doing a dance for the
fieldworker alone or for an audience of several thousand
cheering strangers (Sims, 2005).
Most fieldwork today involves recorded interviews with
informants, using available technology.
Fieldwork focuses on interaction between fieldworker
and the people they meet in the field.
It also captures a text that is performed during the
fieldworker's presence
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Literature Survey
The literature survey process
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Literature Survey (cont…)
Literature searching is a “systematic gathering of
published information relating to a subject” (University of
Derby 1995)
Guidelines for literature searching:
1.Focus on relevant articles.
2.Identify search boundaries.
3.Search for latest recognized work.
4.Mind allocated time.
5.Take notes of the full reference of any material you obtain.
6. Manage the obtained information (read p 73-75).
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Literature Survey (cont…)
Searching Mechanics
Format of Information Tracing the Information
Inter-Library Loans
www.mailbase.ac.uk
Proceedings
scholar.google.com
www.wikip[edia.org
Conference
www.infoseek.com
www.elsevier.nl:80
Opac.ac.uk/copac
www.google.com
Company
www.yahoo.com
Software
Journals
Manuals
www.bids.ac.uk
Reports
Theses
Books
Opac97.bl.uk
Internet
OPAC
BIDS
Reading task: p 67-73
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Critical Evaluation University
The word “criticism” does not necessarily imply looking for faults.
Axes and questions for critical evaluation of literature articles:
1. Article type
What kind of article is it? (review, theory, practical, case study, …)
2. Author
Is the author well recognized in his/her field?
3. Problem need solution
What is the major problem or issue being investigated?
4. Fitness in context
How does the article fit within its context?
5. Research questions & hypotheses
Is there a clear research question/hypothesis that can be, and is,
tested?
6. Methodology
What type of research design/methodology is employed? 10
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Critical Evaluation (cont…)
7. Sample & data
Are the chosen samples, their sizes, and data appropriate?
8. Statistics
Have statistical techniques been used appropriately?
Can you apply them in your work?
9. Results
Can generalizations be made from these results?
Are the implications of the results discussed?8
Can you make use of these results in your own work?
10. Contribution
How original is the article?
If original, what contribution is being made by the article?
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Critical Evaluation (cont…)
11. Viewpoints
Can you differentiate facts from opinions?
How strong are these opinions?
Does the article contradict other viewpoints? If yes how?
12. Conclusions
Do conclusions follow logically from the work that has been presented?
13. References
How appropriately the references are written?
How relevant to the article are they?
How up-to-date are they?
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References
- Mohammad Alsuraihi, Technical Writing
(CS212), Course notes
- Abdisalam Issa-Salwe, Research Proposal,
unpublished Research Proposal, 2005.
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