Collecting Information

I have seen that there are a number of methods available to collect data and uses as sources, including, surveys, sensors, internet and printed source. I think that surveys are a good method to use, as they can give you an overall idea of what people think about your question. However, I feel that it can be hard to generalise any results that you find which means that they are not representative of the population as a while. Also, in making your results more accurate using this method is costly and time consuming. Using sensors as a method of data collecting is a good method because it gives you accurate data, which is quantitative, this is because the answers are usually numbers, they are not options, this means that the data is easier to analyse. This is because they can be shown on graphs, plus these readings are accurate as they are measured by a computer and can be precise. The internet can be used as a source to collect information, this is because there are vast amount of data available including statistics, for example from The Office for National Statistics and The CIA Fact Book. The advantage of using this is your method to collect data is that it is already in a form that the computer can understand. However, it is relatively easy for anybody to created a website and add information to it. This data can sometimes not be true. This means that you have to make a judgement as to how much you can trust a source that is found on the internet. I feel that some sources can be trusted more than others, for example those produced by government agencies. You can also use the printed source as a method of collecting data. The advantage of using this method is that most of the information printed can be trusted as they are checked and edited, and you can use an index to find exactly the information you desire, instead of having to go through many web pages, which often does not contain relevant information. The method which I prefer to use is the printed word, this is because information can often be found easier and quicker as you are able to use index pages, and what the book says it is about if often what it is. For example the internet pages, do not always contain the information they say they do.