Inquiry Processes

Nature of Inquiry

When scholars attempt to answer questions in a systematic way, they are engaged in inquiry. Many variations of inquiry exist, but all follow three sets of related activities—asking questions, making observations, and forming theories.

At base, all inquiry begins with interesting questions. What do we want to find out? Questions of definition seek clarification on concepts that delineate one thing from another—what something is and what it is not. Questions of fact ask about properties, connections, and characteristics. These questions form the basis for observations of how things appear in our experience. Questions of value look at the beauty, utility, or ethics of a set of ideas, experiences, or practices.

Questions determine what kind of observations to undertake, and there are many variations of observation. Some researchers look at behavior, some at self-reported feelings and thoughts, and some at records and discourse. Researchers may conduct observations firsthand, by doing experiments, by using instruments, by talking to people, or by careful reading and analysis.

The third part of inquiry is forming answers to questions, which is really the process of theorizing. Scholars carefully analyze their observations, interpret what they mean, and describe or explain what they saw in answer to their questions. Once patterns become apparent across situations, tentative theories can be created.

The three parts of inquiry—questions, observations, and theories—are intimately tied to one another in a circular way. Questions guide observations, observations form the basis of theories, theories help structure observations, and theories and observations suggest new questions.

Science, Humanities, Social Science

Three branches of scholarship primarily contribute to communication theory. These are science, humanities, and social science. Science is that branch of knowledge that relies mostly on objectivity, standardization, and quantification. Scientific research must be replicable, meaning that all observers using the same methods should come up with the same results. Scientists assume the world has a potentially observable structure and rely on methods of discovering this structure. Science is therefore mostly interested in nature.

Humanities is the branch of knowledge associated with subjectivity, or individual interpretation. Events may be understood in a number of ways, and scholars try to establish interpretations that make sense or are useful in answering certain kinds of questions. While science concentrates on what is “out there” in the world, humanities emphasizes what is “in here” within the interpreter. The humanities also are associated with human experience and human products such as literature, history, and philosophy, in which art, experience, and values are at stake.

Although often considered science, in reality the social sciences blend aspects of science and humanities. Because human social life is the object of social science, both objectivity and subjectivity are included. Social scientists who believe that social behavior can be observed objectively emphasize the scientific aspects of this branch; those who believe that individual subjective response is key emphasize humanistic methods. In fact, much of social science combines both—objective observation of patterns, followed by subjective interpretation of these patterns.

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