There is no hope of doing perfect research (griffith’s, 1998, p97). Do you agree?

 

Yes, I agree with the above statement that “There is no hope of doing perfect research". With reference to the Advanced Learners’ dictionary of current English defines the meaning of research as ‘careful investigation or enquiry especially through search for new facts in any branch of knowledge.’ Despite the fact that many people may view the definition of research differently, it is a journey of acquiring additional knowledge to substantiate what we already know.

Mankind has always curious therefore; we need to satisfy the hunger to pursue the unknown. One may view it as a continuous quest to venture from the known to the unknown. Gathering all we have already learnt, and going through a process of searching again, sums up the idea of research according to a layman’s definition. It is a never ending process that goes hand in hand along Mankind’s existence. Thus, it is abundantly clear that research can never be perfect and cannot be perfect, as the idea of ‘perfection’ will mean an end to Man’s venture for any fresh knowledge. It is obvious that one can never survive without self improvement, and this scenario is almost impossible to today’s society. If Man do not replenish new knowledge on a timely basis, there will not be any progression in this world.

Inventions, technology advancements, medical science discovery and intellectual growth of man will all come an end, where the damage is irreversible and ultimately may lead to the destruction of mankind. The fantastic news is, it is nearly impossible to achieve a state of perfection in conducting research simple because it will mark the end of a next possible research. Being imperfect, in this case, does have its advantages. This helps to pave the way for new attempts and continuation of the ‘cycle’ of knowledge. Thus, the lack of attaining perfection in every research open doors for the next, and so the cycle goes round in a meaningful expression.

 

Now we all know for a fact that no one is perfect. No man can proclaim he or she is perfect. At the most, we can only argue that we are always attempting to be perfect. So does the journey of researching. The imperfect man does his research diligently, completes his research. Feeling satisfied that he had learned and accomplishes the research for his optimal level, he exits, leaving a substantial room of undiscovered knowledge to the next person. So the second man comes in soon after, and continues the journey where the latter had stopped. As humans, we all need a certain degree of help from each other to enhance ourselves. In this case, an imperfect man helps another imperfect person to narrow the loopholes and faults as much as possible with the hope of attaining perfection, or at least, closer to it. A classic example of this scenario in reality will mean having personal bias, differences in character traits, different levels of existing knowledge and interpreting abilities in a person that can affect the outcome of one’s research. There are many types of researches in which every single type is being conducted differently from the other, which means that limitations and pitfalls are expected to occur during the process of researching. Systematic errors, on the other hand, causes variations in results in terms of true and observed values. Random errors tend to occur in sampling methods or in conducting surveys due to differences in expressing languages.

 

Trial and error methods typically run the highest risks of imperfection in researches. I had such an experience in conducting one of my first researches during school. I was leading a team of 6 people to conduct a random survey in tasting different flavours of ice cream. After a significant amount had been spent on researches, we decided to narrow the targeted audience. We had to focus on people between the age group of 15-45 limited to 6 different flavours of ice cream. I would say it was quite a tedious tasks as there were several issues; involved deciding which flavours to buy, the age range of the consumers involved etc. However, the real challenges that I realized was the differences in one’s personality, working style and intellectual capabilities that form the greatest barriers amongst us. There was clearly a lack of co-operation and lack of precision no matter no hard we tried to accommodate and compensate each other’s shortcomings. Although the study was completed successfully in the end, it is quite obvious that certain essential elements are lacking in the research. Therefore, we would not consider it as a perfect research done.

 

The second research is to confirm there is a relationship between epilepsy and menstruation. There were 100 female participants between the age of 13-45. It was discovered by one research group that during cycles when women does not ovulate, they had 28% increase in risk of an epilepsy relapse. However, later this discovery was challenged by another research group that ovulation days does not have any direct impact on epilepsy. There were room for doubts and elements of inaccuracy. My personal opinion gave a supporting verdict to the second group that epilepsy attacks were not directly linked to menstruation simply because if its proven to be true, it will mean women are more likely to have epilepsy as compared to men. This will undoubtedly leads to another possible research to the unknown.

 

Fact remains if research can be perfected, there will not be such cases of inaccuracy and questioning of the truth between us. Therefore, I support the view of there is no hope in conducting a perfect research. Research can only be improved to near perfection, but it can never be 100% perfect, because man created the need for research, but we are still imperfect. This is a practical reality that mankind has to face.

 

works cited:

 

http://www.epilepsy.com/articles/ar_1147959540

 

References:

 

Herzog AG, Harden CL, Liporace JD, Pennell PB, Schomer DL, Sperling MR, Taylor G, Nikolov B, Newman ML, Fowler KM. Some relationships among ovulation rates, menstrual cycle intervals and seizure frequency: Preliminary data analysis in a prospective multicenter investigation. Neurology 2006;66(Suppl 2):A342.