(Based on Nicholas Walliman: Research Methods: the Basics. Routledge, 2011)
- Categorization - form a typology of works, personalities, objects, etc.
- Description - observe and write up what you consider typical, specific, or accidental
- Explanation - answer the question: why?
- Evaluation - make judgements and compare to a norm, scale, typology, etc.
- Comparison - list the similarities and differences in order to better understand one or both of the compared things
- Correlation - do two phenomena influence each other? How? Are there links between two things? Or, are they independent?
- Prediction - on the basis of past correlations, tell how probable a future event, action, outcome, etc. could be.
- Control/validatation - in technology or sciences implementing the new correlation, correspondance, cause and effect, etc. In humanities: state the probability of similar correspondance, correlation, etc. in cases you have not investigated.