. Descriptive questions are concerned with documenting the features of people, places, institutions, etc. Explanatory questions are concerned with why something happened, why people do what they do, and so on. It is important to note that, even in the early stages of a research project, the sort of question that researchers address will shape the kinds of data that they go on to collect and, later, analyse. Indeed, it would be fair to say that the type of question that a researcher seeks to answer helps to establish the nature of the whole research project.
Qualitative and quantitative research studies can answer both descriptive and explanatory questions. So too can those using ‘mixed methods’ (combining qualitative and quantitative approaches), as is illustrated by the case of Orkin’s research in rural Ethiopia.