2.4 Collecting Information

This step entails collecting information about your question or your data. For your question, you collect information by performing a literature search or asking experts in order to ensure that your question is a good one. In the next chapter, we will discuss characteristics of a good question. For your data, after you have some expectations about what the result will be when you inspect your data or perform the analysis procedure, you then perform the operation. The results of that operation are the data you need to collect, and then you determine if the data you collected matches your expectations. To extend the restaurant metaphor, when you go to the restaurant, getting the check is collecting the data.