Understand how to organise and evaluate data that has been researched

1.1. Describe purpose and benefits of organising data so that it can be analysed.
Data can be organised in many ways, and is normally specific to the person organising it. The benefits to this are to make the data far easier to understand and work with making it a lot more meaningful. This could be through the use of filters or by simply removing unnecessary information. This allows us to very quickly get a good idea of what we are looking at.

1.2. Explain how to evaluate the relevance, validity and reliability of data.
There are a number of ways to decide the validity and reliability of data. Personally I would compare this data against what I would expect the results to be based on my previous experience of the field. We could also compare this against previous data to ensure it lines up with what we would expect to see. We can judge the relevance of the data off of its ability to aid us. If we are able to achieve our final goal from this data, we know we have sourced relevant data.

1.3. Explain how to analyse and prepare researched data so results will be accurate and free from bias.
There are a few ways to ensure these. This includes only using data from a trusted source, if you’re pulling data from anonymous sources you have no way to guarantee the bias or accuracy. Likewise if this is data you have pieced together yourself you are best to get all work QA’ed by a member of your team. This could include spot checking data throughout and ensuring the data weaves a clear picture and doesn’t give them the impression of something you don’t mean. You must ensure you are critical of yourself throughout to ensure the best work can be produced and is not swayed by personal belief or fault.

1.4. Explain the differences between primary and secondary research methods.
Primary data is data you have directly collected. It suggests you have collected the entirety of the raw data and this could be collected in a number of ways such as surveys or personal observations.
Secondary research suggests the data has not been collected by you and could be sourced from a number of places such as online or libraries. Secondary research is often not as powerful as this data will of been collected at a different time, and often for a different reason to you on a different audience. This means you are making a lot of assumptions off of data that only partly fits you.

1.5. Explain the differences between quantitative and qualitative research methods
Qualitative research is generally used to draw a hypothesis through getting an idea of opinions and motivations behind something. Qualitative research is often used as a top level of analysis.
Quantitative research can follow qualitative as a more in-depth research that generates actual data to prove or disprove a hypothesis. It is used to confirm or quantify data that may of been presumed and to give further evidence to it.

1.6. Describe how to search for relevant data sources.
There are many ways to search for relevant data but each has its own strengths and weaknesses. We may find that it’s efficient to read an article, but the data in the article is actually bias. Likewise, personal investigations may take considerably longer but we can guarantee a lack of bias and be sure it’s the information we are looking for. So dependent on the use of the data we may choose to use different sources.