Simplifying the steps of social research for better understanding

Research is the major source of knowledge. Research is as old as man. Man needs to used the social research to understand the happenings around him and provide a reliable solution to a problem or innovate something that will help the humanity at large. For instance, it was the research that gave birth to the invention of the electronic devices we are using nowadays. The industrial revolution that led to the creations of many industries was the products of the research made by the firm owners. What about today? Is Elon Musk not using the scientific research to discover that the space is survivable? This paper will give and answer to these questions by explaining to the reader’s steps taken by the well known scientists to discover a body of knowledge, and then transform it to what we now called Astronomy, Astrology, Mathematics, Sociology, etc. The methodology used in this paper is to simply the hard terms that are not easy to be comprehend by the students of research. Whereas, clear examples that will give an image to the reader were outlined. This paper is the motivation to the researchers on the steps to follow to make discoveries more extensively. The steps are eleven in number. They are very simple if the reader endures to read them carefully. In the end, the paper maintained that if a researcher follows the steps explained in this paper he/she will undergo an easy-going research journey with accurate result at the end.


Introduction
To discuss about social research one needs to put into consideration that research is the heart of every knowledge. A finding has proved that research; be it scientific or not has always became the origin of knowledge, therefore, is as older as man. This is partly because scriptures, early writings and creativity were the products of research and knowledge discovered. However, in the ages such Stone Age, classical age and medieval era; people struggled from one country to the other in search for knowledge, and that fruit of their struggle is called research. While if compose into books and manuscripts will be term as documentary knowledge. For example: Durkheim in his days moved to Australia to study the aboriginal's people of Australia where he developed his work known as "Elementary Form of Religious Life" (Durkheim, 1912). Same applicable to Plato, Aristotle and Tales of Mellitus whose findings are what we are reading today as knowledge. Correspondingly, in the current day society of India and Nigeria, Researchers and some academicians undertake into researches in order to discover knowledge that will be beneficial to human kind. For example, on 14 Nov, 2019, the Archaeological Department of Madhav University engaged into research in Banas River Valley, which flows in that district. Whereas to the researchers, that place is an ancient settlement in the Banas river valley. Therefore, research is as older as man and there's no limit to what a researcher can discover in his effort toward research.

What then is Research?
In a literary sense, the word research may be split into two syllabic unit: Reand Search. Whereas RE-means doing something over and over, or again and again. And Search-means to dig look for knowledge, to be creative. Wikipedia stated that the word research is derived from middle French "recherché", which means "to go about seeking." According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, the term Research was first used in 1577, and is synonymous to delve, dig, examine, inquire, investigate, look, probe and explore. therefore, Research means search over and over, or again and again in order to find knowledge or discover a particular social phenomena and develop such findings as a new knowledge.

What is Social Research?
Social research is the research obtained from human interactions, their relationships and problems associated with them. Therefore, social research may be seen as a research related to man and his society particularly the problems in his surroundings (Ahuja, 2001).

Steps of Social Research
Just like perspective, several scholars and writers have different understanding upon how the hierarchy or steps of social research should be organize. Is like making an announcement to all students in the campus to meet at the school gate or Chairman's office; everyone has his own axis to follow, but atlas the whole students will meet in the same place. However, some researchers believed that some steps are not necessary important or compulsory to be apply; one can carry out his research without applying some steps and can arrive at the same conclusion with the same findings. What's important is the careful application of the steps and procedures of the research. However, several books, articles stated different numbers of steps to follow; some stated 11 steps, some 7 and some have different numbers as it depends on the scholar or author of the work. But, they are all right; is just the differences in perspective and methodology; some used hypothesis and others don't. According to Kothari, C.R (1985) the steps agreed by various scholars are as follows: STEP1: Selection of the Research Problem: this has to do with the topic of the research. A broad area will be choosing, and split into sub-areas. For example: a researcher that wants to study a particular problem in Madhav University should chose an area of the problem surrounding the school and then split that area into narrow or specific areas to be study. Like, a researcher that wants to study Exam Malpractice in the school should split it into sub-areas such as: However, at this point, the researcher has succeeded in splitting the topic "Exams Malpractice." What is next for him to choose the above splinted areas of his interest to work on, i.e., perhaps he wants to know the causes, reasons, impacts or even proffera solution to the problem of Exams Malpractice. The researcher should choose one of the splits areas and adopt it as a topic of his research. Let assume a researcher choose "Causes of Exams Malpractice among students of Madhav University". Thus, will be his research topic. STEP2: Review of Related Literature: in this step, a researcher need to read or review books, journals, magazines and many important documents that addresses his topic of study. For example, since our topic is on Exams Malpractice, we need to study previous works of other researchers in order to widen our horizon on what we are trying to study. Like, we are supposed to check the available papers either print or non-print documents that must have done researches on similar topic (Exams Malpractice among students). If a researcher can check journals with title like "journal of exams malpractice in India" that will help him to know more about his topic of study since they are related to his topic. However, review of literature is important because it help the researcher to explore more knowledge and write a lot on his topic of concern. Also, a researcher need to review any theory that he thinks is relevance to his topic of discussion. E.g., like to choose Functionalist theory and adopt it in order to explain exams malpractice in Madhav University. STEP3: Formulation of Research Objectives: in this step a researcher must have intention in his mind on what he wants to achieve. Some scholars said that research objectives are the heart of every research work. A research topic without objectives is like a food without soup; one cannot eat. In fact, for some researchers is just a trash. For example, a researcher that wants to study exams malpractice in Madhav University need to set out his goals that he wants to achieve at the end of his research. The objectives are like questions raised by the researcher which he need to answer at the end of his research. Objections are like: *To understand the nature of Exam Malpractice among students in Madhav University. *To examine the causes of exams malpractice among students in Madhav University *To know the effects of Exam Malpractice on Student's performance in Madhav University. *To proffer solutions on the problem of Causes of Exams Malpractice among students in Madhav University. However, every researcher has his own way of forming objectives. Some may have 3 and some may have 4, and some more than that, it depends on how he wants to explore his topic of study. Note: literature can be review base on the above objectives. A researcher needs to review literature on each and every objective (nature, causes, effects, solutions of exams malpractice). STEP4: Formulation of Hypothesis: the word hypothesis refers to the tentative statement (statement that is subject to verification), it may be true or false. However, in the scientific community hypothesis is known as wise guess. Also, the aim of hypothesis is to show the relationship between two variables stated by the researcher. For example: *High level of truancy is the cause of exams malpractice in Madhav University. *High level of poverty among students will lead to exams malpractice in Madhav University. *Girls are more likely to fail exams due to gender differences in Madhav University. These are assumptions drawn by the researcher and they can only be testifying or nullify after he carried out his data collection from the field work and gather the responses of people he is studying. STEP5: Research design: it tells how the researcher wants to conduct his research. *The method he wants to apply (quantitative or qualitative) *The tools of data collection (questionnaire, interview, observation) *Who will respond to the research questions and how many respondents? *How will the data collected can be analyze (software, manual, graphs, tables) *Which test would be use to verify the hypothesis (chi-square, Anova or T-test). Note: the researcher should say something about the geographical area of Madhav, ethnic consideration of Madhav and Variables to be study. STEP6: Sampling procedure: in sampling procedure, a particular section of the population will be selected and generalization will be make for the whole population. For example, if a researcher wants to study Madhav University, he supposed to pick some parts of the population and make generalization. Like to choose 3 students from each faculty and make generalization for the whole population of the school. STEP7: Data Collection: in this stage, the data collected from field by the researcher will be put in a computer for computation. The computer will give a result for statistical test. For example, Madhav University is the area of the research, and after distributing a questionnaire within the school, the data collected by a researcher can be run in a statistical package for social sciences (SPSS), econometric and other related computer applications. STEP8: Data analyses and interpretation: the data is to be analyze and written in tabulation consisting of percentages and intervals, graph, charts, diagram or texts of the findings. From there a researcher that is studying Madhav University will know the percentage of the students that engage in exams malpractice and their reasons for doing that. However, this is an opinions of the respondents who filled in the questionnaires that was issued by the researcher. STEP9: Testing of hypothesis: in this stage, a researcher will test whether his assumption is true or not. Like in the case of this study where we said "high level of poverty among students will lead to exams malpractice in Madhav University". Here, the hypothesis will try to prove whether there's a relationship between poverty and exams malpractice in this research. As such that can be understood by looking at our percentages in data analysis stated above. If what the hypothesis state about Madhav students in formulation of hypothesis is true, then the hypothesis will be tested agreed. If it's not true, then the hypothesis will be rejected and that's what is called as null hypothesis (hypothesis has been rejected). STEP10: Conclusion and suggestion: this is the summary of the researcher's findings on Exams Malpractice in Madhav University and a researcher need to discuss the findings and suggest a possible way forward on that problem (Causes of Exams Malpractice in Madhav University). STEP11: Report Writing: in this step, a researcher need to systematically arrange his work for publication as journals, project or any related document. The procedures are as follows:

Preliminary Pages
i. Tittle Page ii. Abstract iii.

Conclusion
In conclusion, it has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that research is the way to obtain the scientific knowledge. In doing so, one need to have a clear understanding of the steps to be taken in doing the research. The above steps are therefore the simplest ways a suitable, and scientific knowledge can be carry out in the social science.