It is vital you pick approach research methodologies and methods for your thesis – your research after all is what your whole dissertation will rest on. When the researcher is willing to collect quantitative data it means that the variables are being measured and existing hypotheses are being verified and questioned. Often data is used to generate new hypotheses which are based upon data that is collected on different variables. If one would try to compare qualitative data with Quantitative data, it could be compared on the following parameters.
Goal or Aim: The aim of qualitative research is more exploratory in nature. It provides a more detailed description of the research topic. On the other hand, quantitative research is more focussed on counting and classifying the features that comprise statistical models and figures which target to explain the observation.
Usage: In the beginning phase of the research qualitative research serves a better purpose and when one talks about the latter part of the research, quantitative research has more weightage. A clearer picture about what to expect from research is drawn from quantitative research vis a vis qualitative research.
Data Gathering: In the case of qualitative research, the main data gathering instrument is the researcher. The different strategies that the researcher employs depend largely upon the approach of the research. Some of the examples of the techniques in qualitative research are in depth interviews, structured unstructured interviews, narratives etc. When one talks of quantitative research tools, the instruments used are questionnaires and surveys to collect numerical data which is measurable.
Presentation of the Data: In the case where the data is of qualitative nature, in any of the forms such as words, images or objects, it appears in the form of graphical figures. On the other hand, if the research is quantitative in nature, the tabular representation of data is there which is in the form of numbers or statistics
