Research_Strategy

Research Strategy There are two essential skills for students as well as adults. These two skills are problem-solving and decision making. Everyone uses these skills in a regular basis in their day to day lives and mastering these skills can help in every aspect of one’s life. In many schools in this country individuals are not taught these skills in a significant way throughout the public education system. In many cases these skills are learned through trial and error. Children start to learn these skills later in school when it seems to become necessary. Problem-solving and critical-thinking skills should be used in all decisions, both large and small and they are important skills to have throughout life. These skills need to be taught at a young age to somewhat get a jumpstart of what will be faced in young adulthood as well as throughout life. Mobile phone companies bombard consumers with advertisements about their products, services and networks. They are all claiming their products, services, and network is better than everyone else’s. How do you know which one to go with' It is important when making a decision about what phone to get and what network to go with to not just rely on the advertisements. Marketers and advertisers work extremely hard to make their products appealing to the consumer and in many cases will say anything to get the consumer to buy their product. Another thing consumers need to consider before purchasing a phone and services is, does the phone and services meet all of their needs sufficiently' If a consumer does not ask questions and use their critical thinking and decision making skills before making a purchase it can result in a long term contract they cannot get out of and a phone that does not work for them and they are not satisfied with. There are several steps that one needs to follow before making a decision like purchasing a new cell phone and service. One should analyze and simplify the information he or she already has; break the material into easily understandable sections, compare and contrast the various options, determine if claims made by companies are reinforced with unbiased data or based completely on opinion (Carter, Bishop, and Kravits, 2007). Conducting Research Online The younger generation is now accustomed to using the internet to find information quickly by using the various search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. These tools are helpful and most definitely convenient however, a person who wishes to make informed decisions must realize that many commercial web pages are generally designed for advertising, marketing and sales purposes, often by companies or affiliates that have an interest in the decisions that the buyer will ultimately make. The desire to sell a product typically leads to bias in the information; however, bias does should not immediately discredit a source because it can be used to contrast the claims to that of another source (Goett & Foote, 2000). Determining Validity of Sources Today consumers, primarily use the internet to research information for possible and future purchases. This is a tool that can be very useful but at the same time the consumer needs to check the validity of the website they are reading. Online databases are a great thing to look into when trying to gather information. Online databases are useful in helping to make an informed decision about phone or service, but only if the researcher uses databases that contain information that is relevant to their search. Many online databases provide the sources of the information contained within them, but some do not. Researchers should avoid any online database that does not provide sources to the referenced material (Goett & Foote, 2000). Consumers should always look for the sources on an online database and be concerned if the site seems to bias and does not offer different points of view on multiple products. Additionally, it is important to consider the date when the article was written or a database was compiled or when the information was updated to ensure the information is still relevant. Making the Decision After a consumer has found and evaluated numerous sources, identified bias, questioned each source, and checked the validity of the sources, the consumer can now begin to compare his or her notes taken from each source. After carefully analyzing the information obtained from the research the consumer will be able to make an informed decision about the purchase of a phone or plan that meets all of their needs. The consumer would benefit from organizing their information into whichever form of organizational technique that will organize the information in a way that allow him or her to make the best decision. According to Carter and Kravits (2007), the researcher should have at least six steps in the evaluation, which are, “define the problem, examine the problem, generate possible solutions, evaluate each solution, choose a solution, and evaluate the solution.” Defining the problem may likely be the most important step on the process, if one cannot identify the problem, it is unlikely that he or she will be able to gather the necessary information to conduct the research needed to analyze the problem critically and make an informed decision. For an individual to determine which phone to purchase or to which plan subscribe he or she must acknowledge the potential for a problem if he or she chooses incorrectly, or makes and uninformed decision. The same problem-solving and decision-making skills can be applied to any aspect of an individual’s life. To begin the process of analyzing information one must understand critical thinking and understand the implications critical thinking has on each decision made. An individual making a decision after following the steps of an effective research strategy has a much higher probability of being satisfied with the decision; conversely, and individual who refrains from using critical-thinking skills and properly researching a cell phone or network, may find themselves unhappy with the product or service, and bound by a contract they cannot escape. References Carter, C., Bishop, J., & Kravits, S. (2007). Keys to college studying: Becoming an active thinker (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Goett, J & Foote, K. (2000). Cultivating student research and study skills in Web-based learning environments. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 24(1), 92-99.  Retrieved October 10, 2010, from Research Library. (Document ID: 59614022).