"Introduction to Primary Research: Observations, Surveys, and Interviews,” Dana Driscol

IWA: 3/14/13

Summary: In her article, "Introduction to Primary Research: Observations, Surveys, and Interviews,” Dana Driscoll attempts to tell her audience, first year college students, how to gather information for a research project. She argues that it is necessary to use primary sources to successfully write your piece and discusses the proper ways to go about getting this primary information. She believes that properly going about a research paper helps writers make a name for themselves and seem more credible.

Synthesis: This article reminded me of Stedman’s piece because they both discuss properly using sources. Even though Stedman’s was more about citing and Driscoll tells us how to conduct research they both tell us ways to seem more credible in our research papers. I also thought of Kantz’s piece because they both tell us how to write research papers.

1: Interviews and surveys are often used in news writing. It’s impossible to write a legitimate article without some form of interview and oftentimes feature stories will use surveys to prove some point they are trying to make. I have also seen surveys used in scientific/psychology reports and studies to help show the researcher’s results.

2: Another ethical consideration researchers need to take into account would be the subjects’ themselves. I know if you’re interviewing someone for a news article you should appear to be interested for several reasons. It makes you more focused on the article and proves to the interviewer you have respect for them. If they feel disrespected you are not being ethical.

3: Really anything could be investigated using primary research methods. I guess one major thing could be what the university is doing with renovated dorms, redoing South Green, and renovating Jeff Dining Hall. You could interview anybody in charge of the project to see what all they’re doing. In addition you could use a survey to get student insight as to what they would like seen done to the dining hall.

Afterthoughts: I thought this article applied to me a lot because it made me think a lot about my future career, the ethical guidelines I need to follow, and methods to go about getting research for possible articles. It should prove to be very beneficial.