Scientific research has provided knowledge and understanding that has freed humankind from the ignorance that once promoted fear, mysticism, superstition, and illness

Content:
Introduction……………………………………………………….3
Main body
1.1 Scientific Principles …………………………………………….8
1.2 Factors affecting the development of research…………………12
1.3 Research practices………………………………………………20
Conclusion………………………………………………………….30
Bibliography………………………………………………………..33

Introduction
Scientific research has provided knowledge and understanding that has freed humankind from the ignorance that once promoted fear, mysticism, superstition, and illness. Developments in science and scientific methods, however, did not come easily. Many of our ancestors had to face persecution, even death, from religious and political groups because they dared to advance the notion that knowledge and understanding could be gained through systematic study and practice. Today, the benefits of scientific research are understood. We appreciate the advances in the biological and physical sciences that allow the control of environment, the prohing of the universe, and communications around the globe. We also appreciate the advances in biochemistry and molecular biology that have led to curative drugs, to genetic counseling, and to an unparalleled understanding of structure-function relationships in living organisms. We look hopefully to the development of life itself and, in concert with social-behavioral scientists, the unraveling of the relationship between mind and brain. Despite the potential moral issues raised by the latter advances, the history of science provides us faith that knowledge and understanding can be advanced for the benefit of humanity.
The scientific method is an empirical method of acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries). It involves careful observation, applying rigorous skepticism about what is observed, given that cognitive assumptions can distort how one interprets the observation. It involves formulating hypotheses, via induction, based on such observations; experimental and measurement-based testing of deductions drawn from the hypotheses; and refinement (or elimination) of the hypotheses based on the experimental findings. These are principles of the scientific method, as distinguished from a definitive series of steps applicable to all scientific enterprises.
Although procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another, the underlying process is frequently the same from one field to another. The process in the scientific method involves making conjectures (hypothetical explanations), deriving predictions from the hypotheses as logical consequences, and then carrying out experiments or empirical observations based on those predictions. A hypothesis is a conjecture, based on knowledge obtained while seeking answers to the question. The hypothesis might be very specific, or it might be broad. Scientists then test hypotheses by conducting experiments or studies. A scientific hypothesis must be falsifiable, implying that it is possible to identify a possible outcome of an experiment or observation that conflicts with predictions deduced from the hypothesis; otherwise, the hypothesis cannot be meaningfully tested.
Linguistics is the scientific study of language and is one of the sciences recognized by the American Academy of Sciences. Linguists regularly apply for and are granted research funds by the National Science Foundation. In virtually any major university or college, a student can major in linguistics and many major universities grant a PhD degree in linguistics. There are academic associations and peer-reviewed professional journals within the field of linguistics. Similarly, sociolinguistics is an established branch of linguistics with peer-reviewed professional journals. Linguistics is a well-known science, and there are scores if not hundreds of professional peer-reviewed journals. However, there is confusion over the term “linguist”. The English language has two main meanings of the word “linguist”: one, a speaker adept at a foreign language, and two, a scientist who studies human language as a set of natural phenomena. Academic, scientific linguists belong to the second group (although many are also adept at foreign languages; for example, one of my major research interests is the semantic system of Swahili, a Bantu language which I also teach at the university level). Forensic Linguistics applies the science of linguistic investigation to issues of law. Forensic Linguistics augments legal analysis by applying rigorous, scientifically accepted principles of analysis to legal evidence like contracts, letters, confessions, and recorded speech. Linguists- as all scientists- seek to explain the nonrandom distribution of data. Just as bullets do not randomly issue from firearms nor chemical concentrations randomly spread throughout a human body, words are not found to randomly issue from the keyboards and mouths of speakers of English or any other language. Words adhere to patterns; these patterns are the subjects of systematic observation of scientific linguists. As in all other sciences, linguistics solves problems by constructing competing hypotheses and then testing which hypothesis better explains the non-random distribution of the data. For example, Galileo noticed that while the hypothesis that the Sun revolves around the Earth explained much of the data (it certainly looks like it does) - the competing hypothesis, that the Earth revolves around the Sun, explained more of the non-random distribution of the data (for example, the observed, nonrandom orbits of the planets) and was therefore the superior hypothesis. Linguistics may stand alone in the forensic sciences in that after lay users of language are presented with the linguistics analysis, they often indicate that the linguistcs analysis is selfevidently true; however, before the analysis is presented, lay users of language often cannot apprehend what the analysis will show. A useful analogy is to medical experts. They describe and define what X-rays show; so linguistic experts describe and define the underlying structure of written and spoken language. Both sets of experts can do this because they are trained and skilled in what to look for as they assess the meanings and implications discovered in their observations.

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