A research design can be defined as an operating model or blueprint for a research project, which accounts for internal reasoning (causality) and external reasoning (generalizability). If the introduction in a research paper raises the question to be investigated, the research design contains directions to determine the answer. As a blueprint is to building a house, a research design is to conducting a research project. The research design stipulates the parts of the research project, how they are arranged, and how they function. However, the research design does not determine the type of data, how the data are collected, or how they are analyzed any more than a blueprint tells a house builder the color of the walls or what furniture will occupy its various rooms.
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