What is the nature of a study? [closed]

If one is asked to elaborate the nature of a study, like, for example, political science, or political theory, sociology, or a study on any other subject, what should he/she elaborate on? What should a report or an essay on the nature of a study include? Thank you.

Think about the sorts of unanswered questions that you think are worth exploring. Then generalize a bit.

1 Answer 1

The "nature" of a study or a piece of research is the sorts of questions that it sets out to answer. If you accept that research is about the unknown, then the researcher wants to explore that and, hopefully shed light. Ideally, research results in definite answers to important questions, but it might not be able to get that definitive, especially in human subjects such as those you name.

But the nature of a political study, for example, might involve a comparison of electoral systems and how they might evolve over time. Or it might involve defense against the rise of dictatorship. Likewise comparisons between the effectiveness of parliamentary systems vs other democratic forms is possible. And even the definition of "effectiveness" might be open to study in such a field of research.

The nature of a particular study could be quite narrow, such as the reasons for some outcomes in British elections in one specific year as compared to a year a few years earlier and why different parties got different results.

And, of course, if it is "research" then the researcher is looking to draw conclusions and to find evidence for, as well as against, those conclusions. That is what separates it from, say, journalism or speculative writing.