How well do you know research? Well, the answer is no far-fetched. Test your ability with the following introductory questions.

SOME ACADEMIC RESEARCH QUESTIONS

  1. When a researcher uses superscript in citing consulted works, he employs which method of documentation? (a) APA (b) MLA (c) Chicago Manual Style (d) a and b
  2. Which of these is correct about a book with an editor and various authors? (a) the editor is mentioned before the author (b) the author is mentioned before the editor (c) either the editor or the author comes first (d) title comes before the author and the editor
  3. ____ best describes ‘as cited above’. (a) same author (b) same page (c) same work (d) all of the above
  4. Which of these does not appear at the end of the work? (a) works cited (b) end notes (c) foot notes (d) none of the above
  5. ____ is not an item in an end note? (a) author’s first name (b) author’s surname (c) author’s initials (d) none of the above
  6. ‘The Glory Days’ is a chapter in ‘The Morning Dews’. Which of these is correct? (a) the glory days should be underlined (b) the morning dews should be underlined (c) the articles in both should be omitted (d) none of the above.
  7. If your reference appears at the base of your work, such a reference is called ___ (a) base note (b) page note (c) end note (d) foot note
  8. The acronym APA means ___ (a) American Physiological Association (b) American Physical Association (c) African Psychological Association (d) none of the above
  9. The correct w3ay of alphabeticizing an anonymous work is by the ___ (a) date of publication (b) title of the work (c) publication details (d) place of publication
  10. Which of these is not an object of research? (a) man (b) society (c) concept (d) none of the above
  11. The two major objects of research are ___ (a) empirical, natural (b) empirical, man (c) rational, empirical (d) analytic, rational
  12. When ‘trans’ is used in an entry, it means (a) translated by persons (b) translated (c) translation (d) all of the above
  13. To begin an entry in an internet work, without an author, you ___ (a) quote the title (b) script the title (c) underline the title (d) state the website
  14. Which of these is a major aim of research? (a) investigation (b) examination (c) problem solving (d) all of the above
  15. On the work cited page, when you see a range of pages from which a quotation is taken from the in-text, you know that the quotation is likely to come from a/an (a) article (b) book (c) newspaper (d) journal
  16. ___ is the most efficient way of finding an online publication (a) through the title (b) through the URL (c) through the author (d) by the date of the publication
  17. To indicate when a work of art is created, you, ___ (a) add the date before title (b) add the date immediately after the title (c) underline the date (d) date the work
  18. Using ‘pp’ in documentation means (a) pagination (b) past page (c) point pages (d) pages
  19. Which of these is not included in the table of content? (a) volume (b) dedication (c) acknowledgements (d) title page
  20. To arrive at objectivity in research, we must approach it ___ (a) dispassionately (b) emotionally (c) passionately (d) intellectually
  21. Displaying one’s personal bias in a research makes it to be ___ (a) personalized (b) subjective (c) private (d) objective
  22. One of these methods of collecting information does not give accuracy of observation (a) relative (b) valid (c) reliable (d) standardized
  23. A tentative solution in a research work is called ___ (a) suggestion (b) hypothesis (c) thesis (d) guess
  24. ‘Ed’ means ___ (a) editor (b) edition (c) editorials (d) all of the above
  25. What does URL means? (a) uniform relocation loader (b) uniform resource loader (c) uniform resource locator (d) uniform range locator
  26. If a researcher uses a work by a single author as a first superscript and uses another work by the same author but co-authored with another authored as a second superscript, which of these properly represents the document? (a) ibid (b) citing the single author and followed by the double authorship (c) citing the double authorship before the single one (d) op.cit
  27. Once you fail to acknowledge the source of information in your work, you are guilty of ___ (a) copying (b) documentation ignorance (c) plagiarism (d) inefficiency
  28. Research does not enhance development in one of the following fields (a) management (b) education (c) technology (d) none of the above
  29. Sometimes, a research can be excused for not offering solution to a problem (a) true (b) false (c) unknown (d) none of the above
  30. Research is aimed at generating which of these? (a) hypothesis (b) theories (c) laws (d) all of the above
  31. One of these is common to all fields of investigation (a) problem (b) empirical data (c) oral review (d) all of the above
  32. Which of these does a learner not enjoy from a research? (a) acquisition of logical analysis (b) developing other fields (c) developing rational reasoning (d) none of the above
  33. ___ is one of the problems a research addresses (a) cultural (b) economic (c) political (d) all of the above
  34. Research allows for one of these characteristics (a) introduction (b) writing a problem (c) generation (d) prediction
  35. Observation, description and explanation are all features of ___ (a) research problem (b) research objective (c) research purpose (d) research introduction
  36. Accurate research results depends on ___ (a) subjectivity (b) personality (c) objectivity (d) none of the above
  37. Any objective research should be ___ (a) privately investigated (b) communally investigated (c) publicly investigated (d) institutionally investigated
  38. ___ s not a process of research (a) identifying a problem (b) choosing a topic (c) writing a proposal (d) all of the above
  39. If a quotation is more than four lines, what does a researcher do? (a) indent (b) paraphrase (c) quote (d) cite in-text
  40. Assuming we are documenting a book written by two authors with surnames as Ajusi and Akogu, while their respective first names are Johnson and Markson, how do we arrange their names in our reference page using the APA format? (a) Ajusi, J. & Akogu Markson (b) Ajusi Johnson & Akogu, M.(c) Ajusi, J. & Akogu, M. (d) all of the above
  41. Which of these is not likely to be in the documentation of an encyclopedia? (a) volume (b) edition (c) place of publication (d) none of the above
  42. ‘Eds’ means ___ (a) two books are edited (b) one editor (c) two or more editors (d) two or more editions
  43. Aghogho (2011:23) is an example of ___ (a) in-text citation (b) documentation (c) reference (d) bibliography
  44. The contributions a research makes in the areas of cultural, economic and religious advancement is situated in which area of the research? (a) nature (b) scope (c) aim/significance (d) background
  45. ___ is not likely to appear in the reference page (a) title of articles (b) books (c) journals (d) questionnaire
  46. In citation, once a researcher paraphrases, a quotation mark should be used to separate his ideas from those of his source (a) true (b) false (c) unknown (d) probably
  47. When citations are superscript, we ___ on the reference page (a) arrange the authors’ names alphabetically (b) follow the order of the numbering (c) follow the order of the date of publication (d) all of the above
  48. ___ is not part of the background to a study (a) overview of subject (b) history of key issues (c) explaining the subject (d) none of the above
  49. ___ defines a proposal (a) a thesis (b) a guideline (c) a comprehensive aim (d) none of the above
  50. Which of these is not a source of information for our research? (a) primary (b) secondary (c) tertiary (d) all of the above
  51. ___ does not constitute a problem to be addressed in a research (a) finance (b) time (c) lack of literatures (d) none of the above
  52. Literature review can be described by the following except (a) work of others on the issue under review (b) work of the author under focus (c) gap to be filled (d) none of the above
  53. Which of these is the correct APA in-text citation? (a) year, page (b) author, page (c) author, others (d) author, year
  54. Long quotation of more than four lines are usually ___ (a) spaced (b) to the right (c) indented (d) centralized
  55. Footnote is for APA, while endnote is for MLA (a) true (b) false (c) sometimes (d) right
  56. In MLA documentation, one among these pairs is correct in the order of arrangement (a) year, page (b) year, publisher (c) publisher, author (d) publisher, place of publication
  57. When documenting a book by a corporate body using the MLA method, which of these is right to be done? (a) look for an author (b) begin with the author (c) omit the article (d) begin with the title
  58. What takes the place of an anonymous author in a book? (a) date of publication (b) volume of the work (c) title of the work (d) none of the above
  59. Citing gaps to be filled in a work of others makes one’s work to be ___ (a) reviewed (b) justified (c) a solution (d) purposeful
  60. One of these is a major classification of quotation (a) indentation, non-indentation (b) direct, indirect (c) indented, italicized (d) all of the above
  61. Research is associated with one of these (a) investigation (b) experimentation (c) examination (d) all of the above

(Culled from the Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Delta State University, Abraka. Second Semester, 2012/2013 Session PHIL112: Introduction to Research Methods)