disadvantages of academic writing article

For example, participation in online communities may be sporadic depending on the nature of the group and the individuals involved in discussions. Several of the companies offer researchers even more sophisticated options for conducting survey research. Commercial. First generation online survey researchers often used email-based surveys, which involved creating online survey forms using word processing software, and later used products such as Macromedia's Dreamweaver. Moreover, respondents to mailed surveys can misrepresent their age, gender, level of education, and a host of other variables as easily as a person can in an online survey. This makes accurately sizing an online population difficult. It is important for researchers to include contact information, information about the study, and something about their credentials when creating an invitation to participate in a survey. A “form” is an interactive type of web page that allows Internet users to send information across computer networks. These range from basic features to more in-depth involvement by company consultants. –Not having full control over your research: This is another major disadvantage which can prove rather frustrating as well. Charge is per number of responses; first 250 response are free, then around $20 every 50 responses. When possible, using both online and traditional paper surveys helps to assess whether individuals responding to the online version are responding in systematically different ways from those who completed the paper version. As an increasing amount of communicative activity takes place through this new medium, there has likewise been a significant increase in primary research on virtual communities, online relationships, and a variety of other aspects of computer-mediated communication (Flaherty, Pearce, & Rubin, 1998; Matheson, 1991; Nonnecke, Preece, Andrews, & Voutour, 2004; Preece, 1999; Preece & Ghozati, 2001; Walther, 1996; Walther & Boyd, 2002; Wood & Smith, 2001; Wright, 2000a, 2002a, 2002b, 2004). Once an email list is obtained, it is possible to email an online survey invitation and link to every member on the list. The invitation for the survey may be deleted, or the researcher may receive email from participants complaining about it. The reasons for this are many, depending on the design and focus of the curriculum, the mandates of the administration, and/or the level of expertise on the part of classroom teachers. Using a wireless device (as opposed to a laptop computer), researchers can bring a survey to otherwise inaccessible populations in the non-virtual world, such as patients in a busy healthcare setting, individuals in rural settings, or socioeconomic groups that do not have access to computers or the Internet. Other business, such as Perseus and SurveyCrafter, advertise educational discounts on a wider variety of services. For instance, SurveyMonkey provides authoring tools, server space, and simple automated survey analysis for about $20 a month ($240 per year); however, there are limitations, such as the limitation of 1000 responses per month. Although most of the reviewed companies offer free technical support, researchers are generally charged a fee for extensive consultations and/or training. Many of the problems discussed here are not unique to online survey research. In contrast, with traditional survey research methods it may be more difficult to reach a large number of demographically-similar older people who are interested in computers. The researchers attempted to assess whether the online responses were skewed in any way by comparing the responses from both subsamples. Current web survey products and services have greatly facilitated the process of creating and conducting online surveys. (, Witmer, D. F., Colman, R. W., & Katzman, S. L. (, Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. (, Flaherty, L. M., Pearce, K. J., & Rubin, R. R. (, Fox, S., Rainie, L., Larsen, E., Horrigan, J., Lenhart, A., Spooner, T., & Carter, C. (, Garton, L., Haythornthwaite, C., & Wellman, B. Researchers can foster “good will” between themselves and community participants by offering to provide information about the results of their study to the community. Online surveys may also save time by allowing researchers to collect data while they work on other tasks (Llieva, Baron, & Healey, 2002). (, Hobman, E. V., Bordia, P., Irmer, B., & Chang, A. Furthermore, using these products and services does not necessarily circumvent the disadvantages of online surveys, including issues related to sampling frames, response rates, participant deception, and access to populations. The Internet allows researchers to include participants from multiple geographic locations in the same focus group. The best defense against deception that researchers may have is replication. Once an invitation to participate in a survey is posted to the website of a community of interest, emailed to people through a listserv service, or distributed through an online survey research service, researchers may collect data while working on other projects (Andrews et al., 2003). To facilitate these goals, which are both methodological and applied, the author draws on published research dealing with online survey methods, as well as his experience conducting more than 10 online surveys. The businesses listed in Tables 1 and 2 offer a wide array of options for creating online surveys, including many different templates to help first-time web survey researchers. Writing for a more general audience is also where many academics hope to make "real" money later in their career, and so practicing the art of writing for a non-academic … Academic writing can encompass the whole of all writing, and empower a person to use the entire vocabulary of any language. Moreover, many of the reviewed business websites offer educational discounts for academics, including discounts on software, as well as consultations and other support services. The businesses listed in Tables 1 and 2 offer researchers two basic options for creating and conducting online survey research. All respondents (regardless of which condition they were assigned to) could then be linked to an online questionnaire containing dependent variable measures. While a researcher may have a person's mailing address, he or she does not know for certain whether the recipient of the mailed survey is the person who actually completes and returns it (Schmidt, 1997). Andrews, D., Nonnecke, B., & Preece, J. In addition, it reviews the current state of available web survey software packages and services, various features of these software packages and services, and their advantages and limitations. An example would be a summary of an article or a report of the results of an experiment. There are also generally limitations to the amount of free customer support a researcher can obtain. This is valuable, especially when participants have questions. As the cost of computer hardware and software continues to decrease, and the popularity of the Internet increases, more segments of society are using the Internet for communication and information (Fox et al., 2001; Nie et al., 2002). Given rapid advances in software development, this software may be outdated in a relatively short period of time. In addition to helping researchers create online surveys, most of the reviewed businesses offer features that aid the data collection and analysis processes, as well as customer support. As internet communities become more stable, some community administrators are beginning to compile statistics on their community's participants. Researchers should inquire about these special discounts since they may help to reduce the overall cost of purchasing web survey software or services. Establishing a sampling frame when researching an online community presents a number of challenges. It is concluded that online survey researchers should conduct a careful assessment of their research goals, research timeline, and financial situation before choosing a specific product or service. Other businesses, such as KeySurvey, charge substantially more ($670 per year for a basic subscription) for products and services similar to those offered by SurveyMonkey. Some communities are willing to share participant information with researchers as a validation technique by comparing the survey sample characteristics with those of the online community in general. Newer online survey creation software and web survey services costs can vary from very little to thousands of dollars depending upon the types of features and services selected; however, this is relatively inexpensive compared to the cost of traditional paper-and-pencil surveys. Purchased software, in contrast, generally does not have space or response number restrictions. Online survey researchers can also save money by moving to an electronic medium from a paper format (Bachmann & Elfrink, 1996; Couper, 2000; Llieva et al., 2002; Yun & Trumbo, 2000). Hate email or worse types of abuse can occur if some individuals on the Internet find online surveys offensive. The next section surveys current web survey software packages and online survey-related services available to researchers who may be interested in conducting online survey research. Participants view the same video, audio, and/or text in real time from remote locations. In some fields of study (and at some universities) students can opt for the three (or triple) Costs for recording equipment, travel, and the telephone can be eliminated. In either case, the ebb and flow of communication in online communities can make it difficult to establish an accurate sampling frame. Membership is based on common interests, not fees, and little information is required when registering to use these communities, if registration is required at all. In short, there is a tendency of some individuals to respond to an invitation to participate in an online survey, while others ignore it, leading to a systematic bias. However, including multimedia can increase download times and may be frustrating to participants who must download media players or other types of programs in order to participate in the survey (Andrews et al., 2003). For example, relatively little may be known about the characteristics of people in online communities, aside from some basic demographic variables, and even this information may be questionable (Dillman, 2000; Stanton, 1998). Basic features can be purchased for a relatively small amount of money. Although many of the problems discussed in this section are also inherent in traditional survey research, some are unique to the computer medium. Publishing journal articles has become a business where academics seem to work for free with others gaining the benefits. and Google, are sophisticated forms. Even when the precise characteristics of a sample are known by the researcher, people can still respond in socially desirable ways or misrepresent their identity or their true feelings about the content of the survey. Online survey questions are the same types as on a traditional paper/pencil questionnaire, only the participants submit the information over the Internet rather than return questionnaires in person or by mail. Abstract. Other community administrators might ask participants for information about interests, income level, education, etc. 10. (Eds.) For example, researchers who want to measure participant perceptions of a political candidate's positions on foreign policy could include a video clip from a recent speech. Perseus can conduct mobile surveys, using wireless handheld devices like Palm pilots. 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