Research methods
You are now ready to start your research. There are two type of evidence:
- primary – information and evidence that you collect yourself such as a reply to an email that you sent
- secondary – information and evidence you collect from something someone else has produced such as a book
When you collect a piece of evidence you need to a note of where you got that information from, such as the URL of a website. You should also write a comment on how useful or reliable that source of evidence was because you will have to write about which source was the best and which was the worst.
There are a variety of research methods that you could use:
- interviews
- surveys/questionnaires
- letters/emails
- internet – newspapers, magazines, political party websites, government reports, pressure group websites
- printed newspapers, magazines, books
- visits or fieldtrips, such as to the Scottish Parliament or local council
- TV programmes, podcasts or other media
Advice: Regarding Wikipedia, most of the facts or information found on Wikipedia pages have sources listed at the bottom of the page. Use that information to go back to the original source and quote the original source rather than Wikipedia page.