ABSTRACT
Research means investigating a particular phenomenon͟ – here, the language used in social media contexts – in order to bring new knowledge to light. A core principle is that research should involve systematic inquiry. There is a difference between identifying that a topic or phenomenon is interesting and designing a research project about that topic or phenomenon. Academic disciplines can be thought of as communities of scholars who develop particular norms and practices for their scholarship. This can be a challenge for researching the language of social media, which can often draw on practices from different academic disciplines. Across the humanities and social sciences, a key distinction is often drawn between quantitative and qualitative approaches. In this chapter, we review how these approaches apply to studying language and language practices in social media, arguing that the methods used in research do not group neatly into mutually exclusive categories, which map onto quantitative or qualitative groupings.
