Approach Newsletter - Issue 4

Welcome to Approach – the newsletter from the social research team at Ipsos MORI Scotland. It has been a year now since our first edition and recent feedback has been positive, so thank you to all who have provided comments. We hope that you continue to find Approach an informative and useful source of news, thoughts and comments.

The latest edition features articles about different stages of the research process. "What is the Question?" explains how distilling research questions down to a single sentence can define the primary purpose of the research and guide the development of the methodology. "In praise of depth interviews"argues that depth interviews can and should be used more often in place of focus groups, while "Turning reporting into communication" explores different ways of improving the communication of research findings. Finally, we have a book review of The Tiger that Isn’t by Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot. The book offers an insightful look at the way in which statistics are understood and presented through the media.

If you would like to offer feedback or suggest topics that you would like to see covered in future editions of Approach, please email Sara Davidson or call Sara on 0131 226 8673.