In many cases, qualitative and q uantitative researches are different, although there
are a lot of alikeness too, complementing to each other. All of social researchers have
systematically collected and analyzed empirical data and carefully examined their
patterns in order to understand and explain social life.Differences between qualitative
and q uantitative life can create confusion among students, researchers, and readers of
research reports. Those who appraise qualitative research by means of q uantitative
research standards often get dissappointed, and such is the case with the contrary one.
It is the best to appraise each of the styles. To appraise their respective strengths, it is
very important to understand differences of researchers? orientation.
One of differences between the two styles derives from the existing data
characteristics. Soft data take form of impressions, words, sentences, photos, symbols,
and so on, dictating research strategies and techniq ue of data collection that is
different compared to hard data, taking form of numbers.
Another difference is that researchers qualitatively and q uantitatively have varied
assumptions on social life and different objectives. The difference can make tools used
by other forces become unsuitable and irrelevant to others.