If you go to the internet and do a research for statistics to back up your argument for a speech you are writing for your communications class, it is considered:
a. primary research.
b. investigative research.
c. systematic research.
d. secondary research.

It is a investigative research - B or secondary research - D are most likely answers.

I would have to go with investigative research because you're doing exactly that; you're investigating in order to give a certain speech.

A primary research would be when you would collect the statistics yourselves. A systematic research would be when you would collect A LOT of the data on a certain topic; which is very time consuming and cumbersome
A secondary research would include only researching on primary sources, but its possible you're not doing that. 

A. radioactive dating