Introduction:
The quality of your research depends highly on choosing a perfect method of reasoning. In qualitative research, inductive reasoning is the most common method used to draw conclusions. By using this type of reasoning method, researchers will be free to follow any direction while conducting the research. There are many ways in which the inductive method can help you give quality results in academic research.
This article will explain all the ways inductive reasoning can help you in academic research.
Inductive Reasoning:
Inductive reasoning is also called inductive logics. It is a reasoning method in which you draw a conclusion from a number of observations. Many researchers think of inductive reasoning as a bottom-up logic because in this, you will widen some specific information into broad information. In this, you will look for the patterns and trends through proper observation and then develop some explanation in a theoretical form. This means that no hypothesis or theories will be used in the inductive research at the start of the study. Thus, the researcher will be free to change the direction of his research while conducting his study. It is crucial to focus that this approach does not use relevant theories while forming objectives and the main research question. The aim of this approach is to draw meanings from the collected data to identify the trends and patterns to create a theory. Nonetheless, this method does not prevent the researchers from using any relevant theories for exploring the ideas. You learn from the experience in this method by observing the regularities, resemblances and patterns to reach conclusion and make a theory. You also have an option to get masters dissertation help for inductive reasoning approach. However, you must need to learn how it is helpful in research.
7 Ways inductive approach is helpful in research:
It can help establish probability:
Inductive reasoning can be helpful in academic research as it can help establish probability. You may observe that there will be rain in a cloudy season. By using a pure inductive approach, you will say that there will be rain every day during a cloudy season. You can observe that there will be days when this is not true. However, you can generate a probability that it will rain on cloudy days and you need to be prepared using the inductive method.
It allows the researcher to be wrong:
An inductive approach can also help in academic research by allowing the researcher to be wrong. This method allows you to give rigorous observation. In this way, you can determine if your assumptions are true or not. That is why, detectives widely use this method to resolve crimes. By using this approach, they can see trends or patterns that can help them draw conclusions. The inductive method helps them to set their paths in motion. They can prove their conclusion to be right or wrong through proper investigation. This shows that an inductive approach can help the researcher to have some specific direction for conducting research.
So many possibilities:
Inductive reasoning can greatly help you in academic research as it will allow you to have many possible answers to one question. As we have discussed, you have various probabilities in an inductive approach. However, not all of the probabilities would be true, but you will have many options for your research. When you need to create a perception or gauge an idea, you must require a valid starting point. The inductive method will give that starting point for your research. You can use this method naturally and consciously while conducting your academic research. From friends to peers, we use this method to judge the personality or intention of other people. This shows that this method is very suitable for qualitative research.
Encourages further exploration:
Inductive reasoning starts with a particular inference or specific observation. This method can help fuel more exploration to investigate the judgement or check if your premises are right or wrong. During this process, the person who uses this type of reasoning will try to explore more within the given context. He will try his best to try various scenarios to come up with a conclusion. This type of exploration is not very effective if you want to investigate or study probabilities, but it is very helpful for the person using the inductive method to understand how accurate or inaccurate their initial assumptions or statements have been.
Gives better understanding:
The inductive method can help you better understand the phenomenon and things happening in daily life. Inductive arguments are usually considered as the major form of reasoning method for academic tasks as it can help you better understand several concepts. That is why; inductive reasoning is very useful for any business and academic research.
Supports scientific method:
The scientific method is a process for drawing conclusions about the natural world. Scientists make observations and gather data, then formulate hypotheses. The middle step of this process is called inductive inference because it involves making logical assumptions based on existing information.
Generates meaningful conclusion:
The inductive approach starts by observing the world in detail and moving towards more abstract ideas and generalisations. For instance, consider a premise where your friend has borrowed some money from you and promised to pay it back in a week, but he did not. After this, he will make sure that he will pay you back in the coming days but then again did not pay back. He again failed to keep feeling to keep his promise. In the end, you will draw a conclusion that your friend is never going to give your money back to you. This means you can generate a meaningful conclusion at the end of your observation.
Conclusion:
From the above guide, you can have the understanding of the benefits of using inductive reasoning in a research. It will allow you to have so many possible answers to a single question. That is why researchers widely use this approach to draw meaningful inference, as they can see trends or patterns that can help them draw conclusion.