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Article: A practitioner's guide to research methods. (Special Issue: Research in Technical Communication)
- Article from:
- Technical Communication
- Article date:
- November 1, 1992
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1992 Society for Technical Communication. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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SUMMARY
Practitioners can help the professional growth of technical communication by becoming more knowledgeable about the research methods that generate knowledge in the field. Methods for research on writing are typically quantitative--experimental with randomized subject selection, treatment, and control groups--or qualitative--case or ethnographic study with representative subjects in a naturalistic setting. Both methods are important. The greatest strength of quantitative research is its ability to describe cause-and-effect relationships. The greatest strength of qualitative research is its in-depth depiction of subjects in an actual setting. Because of the ...