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Collecting & Analysing Data

Collecting Data

If you decide to carry out your own research, you will need to think about the type of data you want to collect and the most appropriate methods for collecting it.

  • Quantitative and Qualitative dataexpert penguin

Quantitative data is data that can be counted and measured. It involves numbers and amounts. For example, people’s height and weight, the number of visitors to a website, the number of millimetres of rainfall per month.

Qualitative data is descriptive data. It can be observed but not measured and usually involves words and text. For example, a customer’s review of a product they have purchased, a social media post, a transcript of an interview.

  • Methods of data collection

The methods you decide to use to gather your data will obviously depend on what it is you are trying to find out.  Questionnaires and interviews are two common methods of collecting data.

Another common way of collecting data is to conduct an experiment.

If you are not sure what methods of data collection to use, you may find it useful to take a look at the following book:

 If you decide to use questionnaires, interviews or experiments to gather your data, you may find the following books useful:

Analysing Data

Once you’ve gathered your data, you need to work out how to use it and what it tells you.  Depending on which data collection methods you’ve used, you may find some of these books from the Little quick fix series helpful: