Quantitative methods are more likely to be used when the research questions are best answered by numbers or statistical data, such as comparisons and relationships between variables, which can be generalized and draw on a large sample. Surveys, experiments, and quasi-experiments very often draw on quantitative strategies to answer research questions. Quantitative methods also normally rely on data gathered from an instrument—a test or assessment of some sort that can easily be quantified. However, there are also times when language itself is quantified (counted and tallied) in some types of discourse analysis or forensic linguistics.
Unlike with qualitative methods, quantitative research strategies are based on the idea that knowledge is objective and generalizable across contexts. In order to conduct an effective quantitative study you need to consider how to isolate the variables that are important to answering your research questions and design a procedure that avoids confounded results. For this method, you need to do a lot of preplanning to ensure that your projects results in meaningful findings.
Conducting Research Surveys Via E-mail and the Web by 
