Transcription
The methodology chapter is one of the most important part in your dissertation. It allows readers to evaluate the reliability and validity of the research. In this video, you’ll learn how to write a strong methodology with 4 simple steps. Hi, I'm Jessica from Scribbr, here to help you achieve your academic goals.
Step 1 explain your methodological approach. What was your research problem and what type of data did you need to answer it? Did you aim to describe the characteristics of something, to gain more in-depth understanding of a topic, or to establish a cause-and-effect relationship? Next, what type of data did you have to collect to achieve that aim? Did you need quantitative data, which is expressed in numbers; or qualitative data, expressed in words? Did you collect primary data by yourself, or use secondary data that was already collected by someone else? Did you gather experimental data, by intervening and measuring variables in a controlled situation, or did you collect descriptive data, by gathering observations without intervening?
Step 2, describe your methods of data collection. Now you’ve introduced your overall approach, you can move onto giving full details of the research methods you used. Here’s an idea of what you should include in general: The sampling method or criteria you used to select participants or sources. The tools, procedures and materials you used to gather data. How you measured your variables. Especially in quantitative and experimental research, you should give enough detail for it to be replicated by another researcher. So, let’s say we’re researching the opinions of a company’s customers, and we collected our data through surveys. A paragraph from our methodology chapter might look something like this: The example here describes what type of questions were asked. Where, when, and how the survey was conducted. Here, it describes the sampling method used to select participants, the sample size and response rate. Also, note that we write the methodology chapter in the past tense, because the research has already been conducted. Don’t worry if you’re not using surveys, we have examples of other methods as well, you can find them in our Knowledge Base article! (refer to article)
Step 3, describe your methods of analysis. In this step, you should describe how you processed and analyzed the data. Avoid going into too much detail here, so don’t start presenting or discussing any of your results. For quantitative methods, we’re dealing with numbers. So we might describe: The data preparation before analyzing. Softwares that were used to analyze the data. Which statistical methods were used. So here, we’ve described how we prepared the data, by checking for missing data and outliers. We used the statistical software SPSS to analyze the data, and the statistical method used was a paired t-test. For qualitative methods, we’re focusing on words. So your analysis will be based on language, images, and interpretations. You might describe how you went about categorizing the responses to identify recurring themes and patterns. We also have an example for qualitative methods, it’s in our Knowledge Base article, check it out here! (refer to article)
Step 4, evaluate and justify your methodological choices. Your methodology should make the case for why you chose these particular methods, especially if you did not take the most standard approach to your topic. Discuss why other methods were not suitable for your objectives, and show how this approach contributes new knowledge or understanding. You can acknowledge limitations or weaknesses in the approach you chose, but justify why these were outweighed by the strengths. Now we can step up our game, here are a few tips to make your methodology chapter even better. Focus on your objectives and research questions. Show why your methods suit your objectives and convince the reader that you chose the best possible approach to answering your problem statement and research questions. Strengthen your methodology by referencing existing research that used similar methods, or citing methodological literature that supports your choices. You can use our free citation generators to create MLA or APA citations, click here! If you encountered any difficulties in collecting or analyzing data, explain how you dealt with them. Show how you minimized the impact of any unexpected obstacles. Now you’re fully equipped to write a research methodology! Check out our article for more examples, make sure to drop a like and subscribbr before you go. I’ll see you in the next one!