ABSTRACT
Borrowing from Lee Cronbach and Patrick Suppes, research is best thought of as disciplined inquiry. Disciplined inquiry “has a quality that distinguishes it from other sources of opinion and belief. The disciplined inquiry is conducted and reported in a way that the argument can be painstakingly examined. The report does not depend for its appeal on the eloquence of the writer or on any surface plausibility. The report of a disciplined inquiry has a texture that displays the raw materials of the argument and the logical processes by which they were compressed and rearranged to make the conclusion credible”. Researchers often speak of the research method. The Random House College Dictionary defines method as a plan or system of action, inquiry, analysis, etc.; order or system in one’s actions”. It is important to understand, however, that systematic does not mean “mindlessly linear”.
