5 Reasons Why Your Friends Will Most Likely Cause You To Fail English 1301
Many different researchers have addressed different problems that have risen when conducting primary research. Dorothy Williams and Louisa Coles from The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK talked about teachers and the problems they face when conducting and using their research. “Teachers’ strategies and confidence in their abilities to find, evaluate and use research information,” was low because “limiting the use of research information, exacerbat[ed] the perceived challenges of lack of time and lack of ready access to information sources.” (Williams & Coles 185) We, as students, already have a huge load of school work ,maybe a job, and sure as hell don’t have a whole lot of time to spare. Having to conduct research is the LAST thing on our list of things to do. We barely have time to finish with work and school as it is, we really don’t have a lot of time to go out, find people to do our surveys and interviews. Polly A. Phipps addresses the fact that sometimes participants might not be able to completely understand some of the questions resulting in responses that don’t even correlate with the main problem. He then goes on to state that you can fix these problems “by clarifying terms and instructions and changing the order of questions.” (Phipps 337) Elizabeth Bifuh-Ambe from the University of Massachusetts, who used surveys to conduct her research on teachers, goes on and explains that some of her “participants may not have clearly understood the design of the PD Workshop” (Bifuh-Ambe 152) before having them fill out her surveys that she used to gather her primary research data with. She believes that “Participants’ responses were inconsistent and sometimes conflicting pre- and post-survey” (Bifuh-Ambe 151) because of this flaw. Have you ever been surveyed or interviewed and you have NO IDEA what the questions are asking for so you just BS your way through it just to get them out of your hair? Yeah, same here. Another researcher, Joseph Lev, addressed the idea that surveyors may be putting too much effort in determining questions to put on a survey. “Less attention has been given to the possibility of bias due to the selection of individuals who are the subjects of the experiment,” which take me back to the “I have no idea what this question is asking me for” things. (Lev 410) However, no researcher has yet to address the problem that students are constantly falling victim to using their friends as their research participants when conducting primary research.
Laziness and awkwardness is taking the student body by storm. Students are consistently taking the easy way out when it comes to conducting primary research. They are using friends as participants in their research rather than random people. But, how does relying on easy, accessible and familiar participants affect the quality of UTPA FYC student’s research? We have decided to tackle this issue by conducting a survey on 43 first year college students at the University of Texas Pan-American to see why they do or do not prefer using their friends as their participants in their primary research. Here are some of the reasons the students gave us.
“Friends are easily accessible.”
Who wants to make the time to go somewhere where there are a lot of people and conduct a survey when you can just call up a friend to come over to the house and do a survey for you? Or ask your friends you have next class period to take it for you? According to the survey we conducted on first year college students, a majority of students would agree with the statement above, “friends are easily accessible.” Students decide to take the easy way out instead of the right way. It no longer matters what kind of responses and how accurate your research is. What matters is how easy you can make the assignment.
2. “I’m comfortable with friends / shy with strangers”
We all have that one friend that as soon as we see them across the room we lose our shit and yell “YOOO, WHAT’S UP DAWWGGG?? Looking extra ugly today!!” or something to that extent. Well you wouldn’t do that with a complete stranger, right? Because you aren’t comfortable with them? It’s the same thing when conducting primary research. You go straight to the people you are comfortable with, your friends, in hopes that you can collect enough “decent data” that you can use toward whatever research it is you’re doing.
3. “They give you the answers you want” or “I already know what they’re going to tell me. ”
When asking your friends to do your surveys, most of them already know the reason why you are asking them to do them. You either told them about that class you’re doing research in or what you were hoping to find in your results, etc. Just by them knowing what you are looking for can greatly influence their decision. When asking a stranger, they are completely unaware of who you are and what you are looking for; answering your surveys with honesty and (HOPEFULLY) causing you to get different results from what you were expecting.
4. “I’m afraid of rejection.”
It is pretty embarrassing to walk up to a complete stranger and try to ask them a few questions only to get flat out rejected. As it is, human nature already has the fear of rejection from peers. Hence the whole concept of peer pressure, students are forced to do things because of the fear of being rejected by peers if they don’t do it. The same applies here. Students are afraid to be rejected by strangers so they turn to friends who they know would not reject helping them on an assignment. Once again students choose to take the safe and easy way out rather than the right way.
5. “Will they understand what I’m asking for?”
Let’s be honest, some people don’t even know where to begin when it comes to primary research. What questions to ask, who to ask, how long to make their surveys and interviews, etc. Sometimes people don’t realize that you need to give some background information before the person you are trying to survey even understands what it is you are asking for or about. This just makes the students doing the research not want to ask random people to take their surveys because they don’t want to look stupid and be judged.
The purpose of research is to discover new ideas rather than finding answers that you already know. This is the reason students need to explore different perspectives and point of views rather than limiting themselves by using friends as their primary research participants. We all know that we are friends with our friends because we have similar interests and ideas, so don’t limit yourself to the answers you can go out find.
Variety people. It’s that simple! And you definitely won’t get that by asking just your friends. Yes, going into college as a freshman is a huge push in itself but you need to go out and look for those different opinions, you can’t always rely on the people you know because sometimes their help may be detrimental to your findings. It’s time to put on your big people pants and get some random participants for your primary research!
Works Cited
Bifuh-Ambe, Elizabeth. "Developing Successful Writing Teachers: Outcomes Of
Professional Development Exploring Teachers&Apos; Perceptions Of Themselves As Writers And Writing Teachers And Their Students&Apos; Attitudes And Abilities To Write Across The Curriculum." English Teaching: Practice And Critique 12.3 (2013): 137-156. ERIC. Web. 6 Mar. 2015.
Joseph Lev. “Research Methods and Designs.” Review of Educational Research. Vol.
18.No.5, Methods of Research and Appraisal in Education (Dec., 1948), pp.
410-423
Polly A. Phipps, Shail J. Butani and Young I. Chun Journal of Business & Economic Statistics
Vol. 13, No. 3 (Jul., 1995), pp. 337-346
Dorothy Williams & Louisa Coles (2007) Teachers' approaches to finding and using research
evidence: an information literacy perspective, Educational Research, 49:2, 185-206, DOI: 10.1080/00131880701369719
Tris, Groves. “Research methods and Reporting.” BMJ: British Medical Journal vol. 377, NO.
7676. Oct. 25, 2008. P946.
