We choose the descriptive research approach as it grants permission to our attainment of
the objectives. First of all, the descriptive research is both synthetic (holistic) and analytic
(constituent). This characteristic is in accord with our general researchaim: to investigate
the characteristics of biographical discourse both at the macro level and at the constituent
level. Secondly, the descriptive research operates on the basis of hypotheses, thus its
deductive nature. In our study, hypotheses are generated based on previous related research
and careful study on distinguishing features of the biographical genre (see chapter 2 for the
study’s hypotheses). Thirdly, the descriptive study aims togather data without any
manipulation of the research context, which makes it non-intrusive and deal with naturally
occurring data. Our data are pre-existing as published articles and the preexistent data are
retained without any adjustment of the researcher. Fourthly, the descriptive study’s
subjects can be both treated asindividuals and individual variations, enabling the average
behavior for the subjects group. Therefore, eachbiography in our archive can be explored
in details and variations in the results yielded can be compared and conclusions can be
drawn with regards to the underlying reasons for the differences. Average numerical
results can also be attained to describe the general characteristics of the genre as a whole.