Research methodology vs. research methods
The research methodology or design is the overall strategy and rationale that you used to carry out the research. Whereas, research methods are the specific tools and processes you use to gather and understand the data you need to test your hypothesis.
To further understand research methodology, let’s explore some examples of research methodology:
a. Qualitative research methodology example: A study exploring the impact of author branding on author popularity might utilize in-depth interviews to gather personal experiences and perspectives.
b. Quantitative research methodology example: A research project investigating the effects of a book promotion technique on book sales could employ a statistical analysis of profit margins and sales before and after the implementation of the method.
c. Mixed-Methods research methodology example: A study examining the relationship between social media use and academic performance might combine both qualitative and quantitative approaches. It could include surveys to quantitatively assess the frequency of social media usage and its correlation with grades, alongside focus groups or interviews to qualitatively explore students’ perceptions and experiences regarding how social media affects their study habits and academic engagement.
These examples highlight the meaning of methodology in research and how it guides the research process, from data collection to analysis, ensuring the study’s objectives are met efficiently.
When it comes to writing your study, the methodology in research papers or a dissertation plays a pivotal role. A well-crafted methodology section of a research paper or thesis not only enhances the credibility of your research but also provides a roadmap for others to replicate or build upon your work.
Wondering how to write the research methodology section? Follow these steps to create a strong methods chapter:
At the start of a research paper , you would have provided the background of your research and stated your hypothesis or research problem. In this section, you will elaborate on your research strategy.
Begin by restating your research question and proceed to explain what type of research you opted for to test it. Depending on your research, here are some questions you can consider:
a. Did you use qualitative or quantitative data to test the hypothesis?
b. Did you perform an experiment where you collected data or are you writing a dissertation that is descriptive/theoretical without data collection?
c. Did you use primary data that you collected or analyze secondary research data or existing data as part of your study?
These questions will help you establish the rationale for your study on a broader level, which you will follow by elaborating on the specific methods you used to collect and understand your data.
Now that you have told your reader what type of research you’ve undertaken for the dissertation, it’s time to dig into specifics. State what specific methods you used and explain the conditions and variables involved. Explain what the theoretical framework behind the method was, what samples you used for testing it, and what tools and materials you used to collect the data.
Once you have explained the data collection process, explain how you analyzed and studied the data. Here, your focus is simply to explain the methods of analysis rather than the results of the study.
Here are some questions you can answer at this stage:
a. What tools or software did you use to analyze your results?
b. What parameters or variables did you consider while understanding and studying the data you’ve collected?
c. Was your analysis based on a theoretical framework?
Your mode of analysis will change depending on whether you used a quantitative or qualitative research methodology in your study. If you’re working within the hard sciences or physical sciences, you are likely to use a quantitative research methodology (relying on numbers and hard data). If you’re doing a qualitative study, in the social sciences or humanities, your analysis may rely on understanding language and socio-political contexts around your topic. This is why it’s important to establish what kind of study you’re undertaking at the onset.
Now that you have gone through your research process in detail, you’ll also have to make a case for it. Justify your choice of methodology and methods, explaining why it is the best choice for your research question. This is especially important if you have chosen an unconventional approach or you’ve simply chosen to study an existing research problem from a different perspective. Compare it with other methodologies, especially ones attempted by previous researchers, and discuss what contributions using your methodology makes.
No matter how thorough a methodology is, it doesn’t come without its hurdles. This is a natural part of scientific research that is important to document so that your peers and future researchers are aware of it. Writing in a research paper about this aspect of your research process also tells your evaluator that you have actively worked to overcome the pitfalls that came your way and you have refined the research process.
1. Remember who you are writing for. Keeping sight of the reader/evaluator will help you know what to elaborate on and what information they are already likely to have. You’re condensing months’ work of research in just a few pages, so you should omit basic definitions and information about general phenomena people already know.
2. Do not give an overly elaborate explanation of every single condition in your study.
3. Skip details and findings irrelevant to the results.
4. Cite references that back your claim and choice of methodology.
5. Consistently emphasize the relationship between your research question and the methodology you adopted to study it.
To sum it up, what is methodology in research? It’s the blueprint of your research, essential for ensuring that your study is systematic, rigorous, and credible. Whether your focus is on qualitative research methodology, quantitative research methodology, or a combination of both, understanding and clearly defining your methodology is key to the success of your research.
Once you write the research methodology and complete writing the entire research paper, the next step is to edit your paper. As experts in research paper editing and proofreading services , we’d love to help you perfect your paper!
Here are some other articles that you might find useful:
What does research methodology mean, what types of research methodologies are there, what is qualitative research methodology, how to determine sample size in research methodology, what is action research methodology.
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This is very simplified and direct. Very helpful to understand the research methodology section of a dissertation
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The methodology chapter is one of the most important parts of any dissertation . This is because it’s where you set out your research approach, data-gathering techniques and various other crucial factors.
As such, your methodology must be clear, concise and packed with detail. A good methodology chapter will provide a step-by-step breakdown of every stage of your research, ideally so that subsequent researchers would be able to recreate your work at a later date.
If that sounds like a lot of pressure, try not to worry: We have a few tips to help make sure that your work fits the scientific bill.
And don’t forget that Proofed’s expert proofreaders are available to check your work before handing in, so now there’s no reason that your methodology shouldn’t be perfectly preserved for future scientists!
Your research approach makes a massive difference to the methods you use. Quantitative research, for instance, deals with numerical data and statistics, while qualitative research often focuses on subjective meanings. Clearly stating the approach you’re using will help your reader follow your work.
Detail is key when it comes to methodology. Make sure to describe how your data was gathered and analyzed , as well as relating the sampling method used if relevant.
Every decision you make should be justified. One way to do this is to consider how the methods you choose help to answer your research question. You may also wish to compare your method with those used in similar existing studies.
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Different methods each have their own strengths and weaknesses. Consider whether the methodology you have chosen has any constraints, perhaps by comparing it with alternative methods that you could have used.
Modern research demands high ethical standards, especially if human subjects are involved. If this is the case with your work, your methodology section should include details of how you have minimized the risk of harm to your subjects. This will include issues of confidentiality and consent.
Your methodological choices have a direct impact on whether your results can be validly applied to other populations. You should therefore consider whether your work can be generalized within the methodology chapter.
The appendices are your best friend when writing up your methodology. This is where you can put any indirectly relevant material – including questionnaires, consent forms and other documents used in the research – so that the main body of your methodology section remains clear and succinct.
We hope you’ve found these tips helpful. For more information about writing a dissertation or thesis, read our full dissertation writing guide.
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Published on February 5, 2021 by Pritha Bhandari . Revised on June 22, 2023.
The methods section of an APA style paper is where you report in detail how you performed your study. Research papers in the social and natural sciences often follow APA style. This article focuses on reporting quantitative research methods .
In your APA methods section, you should report enough information to understand and replicate your study, including detailed information on the sample , measures, and procedures used.
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Structuring an apa methods section.
Participants
Other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about writing an apa methods section.
The main heading of “Methods” should be centered, boldfaced, and capitalized. Subheadings within this section are left-aligned, boldfaced, and in title case. You can also add lower level headings within these subsections, as long as they follow APA heading styles .
To structure your methods section, you can use the subheadings of “Participants,” “Materials,” and “Procedures.” These headings are not mandatory—aim to organize your methods section using subheadings that make sense for your specific study.
Heading | What to include |
---|---|
Participants | |
Materials | |
Procedure |
Note that not all of these topics will necessarily be relevant for your study. For example, if you didn’t need to consider outlier removal or ways of assigning participants to different conditions, you don’t have to report these steps.
The APA also provides specific reporting guidelines for different types of research design. These tell you exactly what you need to report for longitudinal designs , replication studies, experimental designs , and so on. If your study uses a combination design, consult APA guidelines for mixed methods studies.
Detailed descriptions of procedures that don’t fit into your main text can be placed in supplemental materials (for example, the exact instructions and tasks given to participants, the full analytical strategy including software code, or additional figures and tables).
The AI-powered APA Citation Checker points out every error, tells you exactly what’s wrong, and explains how to fix it. Say goodbye to losing marks on your assignment!
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Begin the methods section by reporting sample characteristics, sampling procedures, and the sample size.
When discussing people who participate in research, descriptive terms like “participants,” “subjects” and “respondents” can be used. For non-human animal research, “subjects” is more appropriate.
Specify all relevant demographic characteristics of your participants. This may include their age, sex, ethnic or racial group, gender identity, education level, and socioeconomic status. Depending on your study topic, other characteristics like educational or immigration status or language preference may also be relevant.
Be sure to report these characteristics as precisely as possible. This helps the reader understand how far your results may be generalized to other people.
The APA guidelines emphasize writing about participants using bias-free language , so it’s necessary to use inclusive and appropriate terms.
Outline how the participants were selected and all inclusion and exclusion criteria applied. Appropriately identify the sampling procedure used. For example, you should only label a sample as random if you had access to every member of the relevant population.
Of all the people invited to participate in your study, note the percentage that actually did (if you have this data). Additionally, report whether participants were self-selected, either by themselves or by their institutions (e.g., schools may submit student data for research purposes).
Identify any compensation (e.g., course credits or money) that was provided to participants, and mention any institutional review board approvals and ethical standards followed.
Detail the sample size (per condition) and statistical power that you hoped to achieve, as well as any analyses you performed to determine these numbers.
It’s important to show that your study had enough statistical power to find effects if there were any to be found.
Additionally, state whether your final sample differed from the intended sample. Your interpretations of the study outcomes should be based only on your final sample rather than your intended sample.
Write up the tools and techniques that you used to measure relevant variables. Be as thorough as possible for a complete picture of your techniques.
Define the primary and secondary outcome measures that will help you answer your primary and secondary research questions.
Specify all instruments used in gathering these measurements and the construct that they measure. These instruments may include hardware, software, or tests, scales, and inventories.
Make sure to report the settings of (e.g., screen resolution) any specialized apparatus used.
For each instrument used, report measures of the following:
Giving an example item or two for tests, questionnaires , and interviews is also helpful.
Describe any covariates—these are any additional variables that may explain or predict the outcomes.
Review all methods you used to assure the quality of your measurements.
These may include:
For data that’s subjectively coded (for example, classifying open-ended responses), report interrater reliability scores. This tells the reader how similarly each response was rated by multiple raters.
Report all of the procedures applied for administering the study, processing the data, and for planned data analyses.
Data collection methods refers to the general mode of the instruments: surveys, interviews, observations, focus groups, neuroimaging, cognitive tests, and so on. Summarize exactly how you collected the necessary data.
Describe all procedures you applied in administering surveys, tests, physical recordings, or imaging devices, with enough detail so that someone else can replicate your techniques. If your procedures are very complicated and require long descriptions (e.g., in neuroimaging studies), place these details in supplementary materials.
To report research design, note your overall framework for data collection and analysis. State whether you used an experimental, quasi-experimental, descriptive (observational), correlational, and/or longitudinal design. Also note whether a between-subjects or a within-subjects design was used.
For multi-group studies, report the following design and procedural details as well:
Describe whether any masking was used to hide the condition assignment (e.g., placebo or medication condition) from participants or research administrators. Using masking in a multi-group study ensures internal validity by reducing research bias . Explain how this masking was applied and whether its effectiveness was assessed.
Participants were randomly assigned to a control or experimental condition. The survey was administered using Qualtrics (https://www.qualtrics.com). To begin, all participants were given the AAI and a demographics questionnaire to complete, followed by an unrelated filler task. In the control condition , participants completed a short general knowledge test immediately after the filler task. In the experimental condition, participants were asked to visualize themselves taking the test for 3 minutes before they actually did. For more details on the exact instructions and tasks given, see supplementary materials.
Outline all steps taken to scrutinize or process the data after collection.
This includes the following:
To ensure high validity, you should provide enough detail for your reader to understand how and why you processed or transformed your raw data in these specific ways.
The methods section is also where you describe your statistical analysis procedures, but not their outcomes. Their outcomes are reported in the results section.
These procedures should be stated for all primary, secondary, and exploratory hypotheses. While primary and secondary hypotheses are based on a theoretical framework or past studies, exploratory hypotheses are guided by the data you’ve just collected.
This annotated example reports methods for a descriptive correlational survey on the relationship between religiosity and trust in science in the US. Hover over each part for explanation of what is included.
The sample included 879 adults aged between 18 and 28. More than half of the participants were women (56%), and all participants had completed at least 12 years of education. Ethics approval was obtained from the university board before recruitment began. Participants were recruited online through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk; www.mturk.com). We selected for a geographically diverse sample within the Midwest of the US through an initial screening survey. Participants were paid USD $5 upon completion of the study.
A sample size of at least 783 was deemed necessary for detecting a correlation coefficient of ±.1, with a power level of 80% and a significance level of .05, using a sample size calculator (www.sample-size.net/correlation-sample-size/).
The primary outcome measures were the levels of religiosity and trust in science. Religiosity refers to involvement and belief in religious traditions, while trust in science represents confidence in scientists and scientific research outcomes. The secondary outcome measures were gender and parental education levels of participants and whether these characteristics predicted religiosity levels.
Religiosity
Religiosity was measured using the Centrality of Religiosity scale (Huber, 2003). The Likert scale is made up of 15 questions with five subscales of ideology, experience, intellect, public practice, and private practice. An example item is “How often do you experience situations in which you have the feeling that God or something divine intervenes in your life?” Participants were asked to indicate frequency of occurrence by selecting a response ranging from 1 (very often) to 5 (never). The internal consistency of the instrument is .83 (Huber & Huber, 2012).
Trust in Science
Trust in science was assessed using the General Trust in Science index (McCright, Dentzman, Charters & Dietz, 2013). Four Likert scale items were assessed on a scale from 1 (completely distrust) to 5 (completely trust). An example question asks “How much do you distrust or trust scientists to create knowledge that is unbiased and accurate?” Internal consistency was .8.
Potential participants were invited to participate in the survey online using Qualtrics (www.qualtrics.com). The survey consisted of multiple choice questions regarding demographic characteristics, the Centrality of Religiosity scale, an unrelated filler anagram task, and finally the General Trust in Science index. The filler task was included to avoid priming or demand characteristics, and an attention check was embedded within the religiosity scale. For full instructions and details of tasks, see supplementary materials.
For this correlational study , we assessed our primary hypothesis of a relationship between religiosity and trust in science using Pearson moment correlation coefficient. The statistical significance of the correlation coefficient was assessed using a t test. To test our secondary hypothesis of parental education levels and gender as predictors of religiosity, multiple linear regression analysis was used.
If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.
Methodology
Research bias
In your APA methods section , you should report detailed information on the participants, materials, and procedures used.
You should report methods using the past tense , even if you haven’t completed your study at the time of writing. That’s because the methods section is intended to describe completed actions or research.
In a scientific paper, the methodology always comes after the introduction and before the results , discussion and conclusion . The same basic structure also applies to a thesis, dissertation , or research proposal .
Depending on the length and type of document, you might also include a literature review or theoretical framework before the methodology.
If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.
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Research methodology involves a systematic and well-structured approach to conducting scholarly or scientific inquiries. Knowing the significance of research methodology and its different components is crucial as it serves as the basis for any study.
Typically, your research topic will start as a broad idea you want to investigate more thoroughly. Once you’ve identified a research problem and created research questions , you must choose the appropriate methodology and frameworks to address those questions effectively.
Research methodology is the process or the way you intend to execute your study. The methodology section of a research paper outlines how you plan to conduct your study. It covers various steps such as collecting data, statistical analysis, observing participants, and other procedures involved in the research process
The methods section should give a description of the process that will convert your idea into a study. Additionally, the outcomes of your process must provide valid and reliable results resonant with the aims and objectives of your research. This thumb rule holds complete validity, no matter whether your paper has inclinations for qualitative or quantitative usage.
Studying research methods used in related studies can provide helpful insights and direction for your own research. Now easily discover papers related to your topic on SciSpace and utilize our AI research assistant, Copilot , to quickly review the methodologies applied in different papers.
While deciding on your approach towards your research, the reason or factors you weighed in choosing a particular problem and formulating a research topic need to be validated and explained. A research methodology helps you do exactly that. Moreover, a good research methodology lets you build your argument to validate your research work performed through various data collection methods, analytical methods, and other essential points.
Just imagine it as a strategy documented to provide an overview of what you intend to do.
While undertaking any research writing or performing the research itself, you may get drifted in not something of much importance. In such a case, a research methodology helps you to get back to your outlined work methodology.
A research methodology helps in keeping you accountable for your work. Additionally, it can help you evaluate whether your work is in sync with your original aims and objectives or not. Besides, a good research methodology enables you to navigate your research process smoothly and swiftly while providing effective planning to achieve your desired results.
Usually, you must ensure to include the following stated aspects while deciding over the basic structure of your research methodology:
Explain what research methods you’re going to use. Whether you intend to proceed with quantitative or qualitative, or a composite of both approaches, you need to state that explicitly. The option among the three depends on your research’s aim, objectives, and scope.
Based on logic and reason, let your readers know why you have chosen said research methodologies. Additionally, you have to build strong arguments supporting why your chosen research method is the best way to achieve the desired outcome.
The mechanism encompasses the research methods or instruments you will use to develop your research methodology. It usually refers to your data collection methods. You can use interviews, surveys, physical questionnaires, etc., of the many available mechanisms as research methodology instruments. The data collection method is determined by the type of research and whether the data is quantitative data(includes numerical data) or qualitative data (perception, morale, etc.) Moreover, you need to put logical reasoning behind choosing a particular instrument.
The results will be available once you have finished experimenting. However, you should also explain how you plan to use the data to interpret the findings. This section also aids in understanding the problem from within, breaking it down into pieces, and viewing the research problem from various perspectives.
Anything that you feel must be explained to spread more awareness among readers and focus groups must be included and described in detail. You should not just specify your research methodology on the assumption that a reader is aware of the topic.
All the relevant information that explains and simplifies your research paper must be included in the methodology section. If you are conducting your research in a non-traditional manner, give a logical justification and list its benefits.
Include information about the sample and sample space in the methodology section. The term "sample" refers to a smaller set of data that a researcher selects or chooses from a larger group of people or focus groups using a predetermined selection method. Let your readers know how you are going to distinguish between relevant and non-relevant samples. How you figured out those exact numbers to back your research methodology, i.e. the sample spacing of instruments, must be discussed thoroughly.
For example, if you are going to conduct a survey or interview, then by what procedure will you select the interviewees (or sample size in case of surveys), and how exactly will the interview or survey be conducted.
This part, which is frequently assumed to be unnecessary, is actually very important. The challenges and limitations that your chosen strategy inherently possesses must be specified while you are conducting different types of research.
You must have observed that all research papers, dissertations, or theses carry a chapter entirely dedicated to research methodology. This section helps maintain your credibility as a better interpreter of results rather than a manipulator.
A good research methodology always explains the procedure, data collection methods and techniques, aim, and scope of the research. In a research study, it leads to a well-organized, rationality-based approach, while the paper lacking it is often observed as messy or disorganized.
You should pay special attention to validating your chosen way towards the research methodology. This becomes extremely important in case you select an unconventional or a distinct method of execution.
Curating and developing a strong, effective research methodology can assist you in addressing a variety of situations, such as:
As a researcher, you must choose which tools or data collection methods that fit best in terms of the relevance of your research. This decision has to be wise.
There exists many research equipments or tools that you can use to carry out your research process. These are classified as:
An interview aimed to get your desired research outcomes can be undertaken in many different ways. For example, you can design your interview as structured, semi-structured, or unstructured. What sets them apart is the degree of formality in the questions. On the other hand, in a group interview, your aim should be to collect more opinions and group perceptions from the focus groups on a certain topic rather than looking out for some formal answers.
In surveys, you are in better control if you specifically draft the questions you seek the response for. For example, you may choose to include free-style questions that can be answered descriptively, or you may provide a multiple-choice type response for questions. Besides, you can also opt to choose both ways, deciding what suits your research process and purpose better.
Similar to the group interviews, here, you can select a group of individuals and assign them a topic to discuss or freely express their opinions over that. You can simultaneously note down the answers and later draft them appropriately, deciding on the relevance of every response.
If your research domain is humanities or sociology, observations are the best-proven method to draw your research methodology. Of course, you can always include studying the spontaneous response of the participants towards a situation or conducting the same but in a more structured manner. A structured observation means putting the participants in a situation at a previously decided time and then studying their responses.
Of all the tools described above, it is you who should wisely choose the instruments and decide what’s the best fit for your research. You must not restrict yourself from multiple methods or a combination of a few instruments if appropriate in drafting a good research methodology.
A research methodology exists in various forms. Depending upon their approach, whether centered around words, numbers, or both, methodologies are distinguished as qualitative, quantitative, or an amalgamation of both.
When a research methodology primarily focuses on words and textual data, then it is generally referred to as qualitative research methodology. This type is usually preferred among researchers when the aim and scope of the research are mainly theoretical and explanatory.
The instruments used are observations, interviews, and sample groups. You can use this methodology if you are trying to study human behavior or response in some situations. Generally, qualitative research methodology is widely used in sociology, psychology, and other related domains.
If your research is majorly centered on data, figures, and stats, then analyzing these numerical data is often referred to as quantitative research methodology. You can use quantitative research methodology if your research requires you to validate or justify the obtained results.
In quantitative methods, surveys, tests, experiments, and evaluations of current databases can be advantageously used as instruments If your research involves testing some hypothesis, then use this methodology.
As the name suggests, the amalgam methodology uses both quantitative and qualitative approaches. This methodology is used when a part of the research requires you to verify the facts and figures, whereas the other part demands you to discover the theoretical and explanatory nature of the research question.
The instruments for the amalgam methodology require you to conduct interviews and surveys, including tests and experiments. The outcome of this methodology can be insightful and valuable as it provides precise test results in line with theoretical explanations and reasoning.
The amalgam method, makes your work both factual and rational at the same time.
If you have kept your sincerity and awareness intact with the aims and scope of research well enough, you must have got an idea of which research methodology suits your work best.
Before deciding which research methodology answers your research question, you must invest significant time in reading and doing your homework for that. Taking references that yield relevant results should be your first approach to establishing a research methodology.
Moreover, you should never refrain from exploring other options. Before setting your work in stone, you must try all the available options as it explains why the choice of research methodology that you finally make is more appropriate than the other available options.
You should always go for a quantitative research methodology if your research requires gathering large amounts of data, figures, and statistics. This research methodology will provide you with results if your research paper involves the validation of some hypothesis.
Whereas, if you are looking for more explanations, reasons, opinions, and public perceptions around a theory, you must use qualitative research methodology.The choice of an appropriate research methodology ultimately depends on what you want to achieve through your research.
1. how to write a research methodology.
You can always provide a separate section for research methodology where you should specify details about the methods and instruments used during the research, discussions on result analysis, including insights into the background information, and conveying the research limitations.
There generally exists four types of research methodology i.e.
The set of techniques or procedures followed to discover and analyze the information gathered to validate or justify a research outcome is generally called Research Methodology.
Your research methodology directly reflects the validity of your research outcomes and how well-informed your research work is. Moreover, it can help future researchers cite or refer to your research if they plan to use a similar research methodology.
The ‘methodology’ chapter tells the reader exactly how the research was carried out. So, it needs to be accurate.
After all, the benchmark of a ‘good methodology’ is whether or not the reader feels confident enough to replicate it. To inspire that level of confidence in your reader, you’ll need to be clear and precise.
But how do you write a clear and precise methodology chapter? Well, begin by identifying the key elements of a research methodology.
Methodology chapters do vary, so it’s difficult to provide an exhaustive checklist. Having said that, most good methodologies tend to include:
Each element can be quite tricky to get your head around, so let’s explore them in a bit more depth.
Before writing your methodology, you should know which research design you are using. Broadly speaking, there are three types of Research Design : Experimental, Descriptive, and Review. Under these headings, there are various sub-types, as shown in the table:
Experimental | This is when two (or more) groups are tested in relation to a specific intervention or phenomenon. | Field-experiment, controlled experiment, quasi-experiment | Psychology, Health, Natural Sciences, Education, Computer Science. |
Non-Experimental (or Descriptive) | This does not compare one group with another; rather it explores the relationship between a particular intervention (or phenomenon) and its effects on a population. | Case-study, Naturalistic Observation, Ethnographic study, Survey (including Questionnaire or Interview) | Commonly used in Sociology and Social Psychology. Also, Business and Marketing, Health and other disciplines. |
Review | This is when you collect and evaluate existing secondary research to see what new insights can be gained. You might also consider how these insights could impact policy. | Systematic review, Meta-analysis | Nursing and Health.
Review dissertations are less common than experimental or descriptive ones. |
Most methodology chapters begin with a description of the research design. Then, with reference to the research question(s), they explain why the research design was a suitable choice.
Secondly, you should clearly describe which research philosophy (or epistemology) you adopted.
This might seem like a waste of time, but it’s not!
If you clearly communicate your research philosophy to the reader, they’ll be able to understand what assumptions you made whilst conducting your research. This will not only make your research simpler to understand, but it’ll also make it easier for someone to replicate.
According to Saunders et al., (2009) , there are, broadly speaking, 5 philosophical approaches:
There are objective ‘truths’ about the world that can be understood through robust, objective research. The researcher can be objective and unbiased. | |
Our understanding of reality is in a state of flux so there are no ‘fixed truths’. Indeed, the job of the researcher is not to unearth absolute ‘truths’ about the world. Rather, their purpose is to discover useful/practical insights that can provide solutions to current problems. | |
Unlike positivism, the researcher acknowledges that they are biased, but they attempt to be as objective as possible. There are no ‘absolute truths’ to uncover since social reality is historically/socially-constructed. As such, it is assumed that studying social and historical data can help us to understand our shared social realities. | |
Unlike positivism and critical realism, the researcher assumes that they cannot be objective because the social world is difficult to understand. Moreover, the existing theories we have for understanding the world may be limiting. As such, the researcher believes that their interpretations of the data play a key role in shaping the findings and developing new theories. | |
What counts as ‘knowledge’ in society is constituted through dominant ideologies and complex operations of power (I.e. Sexism, Racism). As such, the job of the researcher is to expose these operations of power, whilst recognising that they are also embedded within them. |
You should be clear about which ‘world view’ you adopted when you carried out your research. Importantly, this can help you to consider the strengths and weaknesses of your research. It’s this kind of critical thinking that’ll earn you the best grades!
Next, you should explain whether your dissertation took a ‘deductive’ or ‘inductive’ approach. What’s the difference? Well,
It’s best to thinking of deductive research as a “top-down” or “theory-led” approach, and inductive research as a “bottom up” or “findings-led” approach.
If you are not sure, ask yourself whether you formulated a hypothesis or not. If you have a hypothesis, your research is probably deductive.
The methodology should also define your chosen research strategy (quantitative, qualitative or mixed-methods). In brief:
A quantitative strategy collects numerical data, which is then analysed through statistical methods. In contrast, a qualitative strategy collects textual data, perhaps from interviews or media sources, and analyses it through a qualitative method such as thematic analysis. Finally, there’s the mixed-methods approach that combines both strategies in one dissertation.
When it comes to choosing a research strategy, there’s no ‘one best way’ as it really depends on the aims of your research. If you need help choosing a research strategy, one of our PhD Experts would be glad to assist.
Once you’ve laid the groundwork, it’s time to get down the ‘nitty-gritty’. Indeed, most methodologies will cover some or all of the following:
Often, it helps to use these as subheadings to organise your ideas. But, bear in mind that some of the above headings might not be relevant to your dissertation.
One of the most common questions students ask is ‘How do I structure the methodology for my dissertation?’ . It’s quite difficult to advise on this because each dissertation varies.
However, as mentioned, most methodologies begin with an overview of the research design and a re-iteration of the research question(s). Then, a description of the research philosophy, approach, and strategy are provided. Finally, once all that is out of the way, the procedure, sampling, data collection/analysis, validity and reliability, and ethics etc., are usually discussed.
For further guidance, it’s advisable to:
If you are studying Natural Sciences, Computer Sciences, Psychology, Business/Management, or a Health-related degree, chances are your dissertation will need a ‘Methodology’ chapter. On the other hand, if you are studying a Humanities or Arts degree, you probably won’t need to include a ‘Methodology’ chapter.
In that case, you’ll probably explain your research design in the Introduction of your dissertation . As always, it’s best to check with your supervisor if you are unsure.
Here are some final pointers by our dissertation writing service to keep in mind when writing your methodology chapter:
Writing the methodology isn’t easy. In fact, it’s probably one of the hardest parts of the dissertation. But if you take it step-by-step and seek regular feedback from your supervisor, you’ll find it a lot easier.
What does a methodology chapter need to include? What's the best way to structure the chapter? What does validity in research mean?
Working with primary research? Take a look at our webpage for guidance on different forms of Primary research .
Look at our Research methods webpage to help you identify the right methodology for your dissertation.
What is a methodology.
The methodology is perhaps the most challenging and laborious part of the dissertation . Essentially, the methodology helps in understanding the broad, philosophical approach behind the methods of research you chose to employ in your study. The research methodology elaborates on the ‘how’ part of your research.
This means that your methodology chapter should clearly state whether you chose to use quantitative or qualitative data collection techniques or a mix of both.
Your research methodology should explain the following:
You will be required to provide justifications as to why you preferred a certain method over the others. If you are trying to figure out exactly how to write methodology or the structure of a methodology for a dissertation, this article will point you in the right direction.
Students must be sure of why they chose a certain research method over another. “I figured out” or “In my opinion” statements will not be an acceptable justification. So, you will need to come up with concrete academic reasons for your selection of research methods.
The methodology generally acts as a guideline or plan for exactly how you intend to carry out your research. This is especially true for students who must submit their methodology chapter before carrying out the research.
Your methodology should link back to the literature review and clearly state why you chose certain data collection and analysis methods for your research/dissertation project.
The methodology chapter consists of the following:
For those who are submitting their dissertation as a single paper, their methodology should also touch on any modifications they had to make as their work progressed.
However, it is essential to provide academic justifications for all choices made by the researcher.
The theme of your research methodology chapter should be related to your literature review and research question (s).
You can visit your college or university library to find textbooks and articles that provide information about the commonly employed research methods .
An intensive reading of such books can help you devise your research philosophy and choose the appropriate methods. Any limitations or weaknesses of your chosen research approach should also be explained, as well as the strategies to overcome them.
To research well, you should read well! Read as many research articles (from reputed journals) as you can. Seeing how other researchers use methods in their studies and why will help you justify, in the long run, your own research method(s).
Regardless of the chosen research approach, you will find researchers who either support it or don’t. Use the arguments for and against articulated in the literature to clarify why you decided to choose the selected research design and why the research limitations are irrelevant to your research.
The typical structure of the methodology chapter is as follows:
In research jargon, generalisability is termed external validity . It means how generalisable your research findings are to other contexts, places, times, people, etc. External validity is expected to be significantly high, especially in quantitative studies.
According to USC-Research Guides (2017) , a research design’s primary function is to enable the researcher to answer the research questions through evidence effectively. Generally, this section will shed light on how you collected your data.
The researcher will have to justify their choice of data collection methods, such as the one that was reviewed, the use of data tools (interviews, phone surveys, questionnaires, observation, online surveys , etc.) and the like.
Moreover, data sampling choice should also be clearly explained with a focus on how you chose the ethnicity, group, profession and age of the participants.
It is recommended to prepare these questions at the start of your research. You should develop your research problem and questions. This approach can allow the room to change or modify research questions if your data collection methods do not give the desired results.
It’s a good practice to keep referring to your research questions whilst planning or writing the research design section. This will help your reader recall what the research is about; why you have done what you did. Even though this technique is recommended to be applied at the start of every section within a dissertation, it’s especially beneficial in the methodology section.
In short, you will need to make sure that the data you are going to collect relates to the topic you are exploring. The complexity and length of the research design section will vary depending on your academic subject and the scope of your research, but a well-written research design will have the following characteristics:
This will discuss your chosen philosophy to strengthen your research and the research model. Commonly employed philosophies in academia are
There are several other research philosophies that you could adopt.
The choice of philosophy will depend on many factors, including your academic subject and the type and complexity of the research study. Regardless of which philosophy is used, you will be required to make different assumptions about the world.
Once you have chosen your research philosophy, the next step will describe your research context to answer all the questions, including when, where, why, how and what of your research.
Essentially, as a researcher, you will be required to decide whether you will be using a qualitative method, a quantitative method or a mix of both.
Using both qualitative and quantitative methods leads to the use of a mixed-methods approach. This approach also goes by another seldom-used name: eclectic approach.
The process of data collection is different for each method. Typically, you would want to decide whether you will adopt the positivist approach, defining your hypothesis and testing it against reality.
If this is the case, you will be required to take the quantitative approach, collecting numerical data at a large scale (from 30 or more respondents) and testing your hypotheses with this data.
Collecting data from at least 30 respondents/participants ensures reliable statistical analysis . This is especially true for quantitative studies. If the data contains less than 30 responses, it won’t be enough to carry out reliable statistical analyses on such data.
The other option for you would be to base your research on a qualitative approach, which will point you in a direction where you will be investigating broader areas by identifying people’s emotions and perceptions of a subject.
With a qualitative approach, you will have to collect responses from respondents and look at them in all their richness to develop theories about the field you are exploring.
Finally, you can also use a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods (which is becoming increasingly popular among researchers these days). This method is beneficial if you are interested in putting quantitative data into a real-world context or reflecting different perspectives on a subject.
Research philosophy in the ‘research onion.’
This section will require you to clearly specify how you gathered the data and briefly discuss the tools you used to analyse it. For example, you may choose to conduct surveys and/or interviews as part of the data collection process.
Similarly, if you used software such as Excel or SPSS to process the data , you will have to justify your software choice. In this section of your methodology chapter , you will also have to explain how you arrived at your findings and how reliable they are.
It is important to note that your readers or supervisor would want to see a correlation between your findings and the hypothesis/research questions you based your study on at the very beginning.
Your supervisor or dissertation research assistant can play a key role in helping you write the methodology chapter according to established research standards. So, keep your supervisor in the loop to get their contributions and recommendations throughout the process.
In this section, you should briefly describe the methods you’ve used to analyse the data you’ve collected.
The qualitative method includes analysing language, images, audio, videos, or any textual data (textual analysis). The following types of methods are used in textual analysis .
Discourse analysis:
Discourse analysis is an essential aspect of studying a language and its uses in day-to-day life.
Content analysis:
It is a method of studying and retrieving meaningful information from documents Thematic analysis:
It’s a method of identifying patterns of themes in the collected information, such as face-to-face interviews, texts, and transcripts.
Example: After collecting the data, it was checked thoroughly to find the missing information. The interviews were transcribed, and textual analysis was conducted. The repetitions of the text, types of colours displayed, and the tone of the speakers was measured.
Quantitative data analysis is used for analysing numerical data. Include the following points:
Other important sections of your methodology are:
Always consider how your research will influence other individuals who are beyond the scope of the study. This is especially true for human subjects. As a researcher, you are always expected to make sure that your research and ideas do not harm anyone in any way.Discussion concerning data protection, data handling and data confidentiality will also be included in this brief segment.
Even though there is no established rule to include ethical considerations and limitations within the methodology section, it’s generally recommended to include it in this section, as it makes more sense than including it, say, after the discussions section or within the conclusion.
This is mainly because limitations almost always occur in the methodology stage of research. And ethical considerations need to be taken while sampling, an important aspect of the research methodology.
Here are some examples of ethical issues that you should be mindful of
All such issues should be categorically addressed and a justification provided for your chosen research methodology by highlighting the study’s benefits.
Is your research study and findings reliable for other researchers in your field of work? To establish yourself as a reliable researcher, your study should be both authentic and reliable.
Reliability means the extent to which your research can yield similar results if it was replicated in another setting, at a different time, or under different circumstances. If replication occurs and different findings come to light, your (original) research would be deemed unreliable.
Good dissertation writers will always acknowledge the limitations of their research study. Limitations in data sampling can decrease your results’ reliability.
A classic example of research limitation is collecting responses from people of a certain age group when you could have targeted a more representative cross-section of the population.Be humble and admit to your own study’s limitations. Doing so makes your referees, editors, supervisors, readers and anyone else involved in the research enterprise aware that you were also aware of the things that limited your study.
Limitations are NOT the same as implications. Sometimes, the two can be confused. Limitations lead to implications, that is, due to a certain factor being absent in the study (limitation) for instance, future research could be carried out in a setting where that factor is present (implication).
At this point, you might have a basic understanding of how to craft a well-written, organised, accurate methodology section for your dissertation. An example might help bring all the aforementioned points home. Here is a dissertation methodology example in pdf to better understand how to write methodology for a dissertation.
Sample Dissertation Methodology
If not, we can help. Our panel of experts makes sure to keep the 3 pillars of Research Methodology strong.
A scientific or lab-based study.
A methodology section for a scientific study will need to elaborate on reproducibility and meticulousness more than anything else. If your methods have obvious flaws, the readers are not going to be impressed. Therefore, it is important to ensure that your chosen research methodology is vigorous in nature.
Any information related to the procedure, setup and equipment should be clearly stated so other researchers in your field of study can work with the same method in the future if needed.
Variables that are likely to falsify your data must be taken into the equation to avoid ambiguities. It is recommended to present a comprehensive strategy to deal with these variables when gathering and analysing the data and drawing conclusions.
Statistical models employed as part of your scientific study will have to be justified, and so your methodology should include details of those statistical models.
Another scholar in the future might use any aspect of your methodology as the starting point for their research. For example, they might base their research on your methodology but analyse the data using other statistical models. Hence, this is something you should be mindful of.
Like scientific or lab-based research, a behavioural and social sciences methodology needs to be built along the same lines. The chosen methodology should demonstrate reproducibility and firmness so other scholars can use your whole dissertation methodology or a part of it based on their research needs.
But there are additional issues that the researcher must take into consideration when working with human subjects. As a starting point, you will need to decide whether your analysis will be based on qualitative data, quantitative data or mixed-method of research, where qualitative data is used to provide contextual background to quantitative data or the other way around.
Here are some questions for you to consider:
While you will be required to demonstrate that you have taken care of the above questions, it is equally important to make sure that you address your research study’s ethical issues side-by-side.
Of course, the first step in that regard will be to obtain formal approval for your research design from the ethics bodies (such as IRBs – institutional review boards), but still, there will be many more issues that could trigger a sense of grief and discomfort among some of the readers.
The rigour and dependability of the methods of research employed remain undisputed and unquestionable for humanities and arts-based dissertations as well. However, the way you convince your readers of your dissertation’s thoroughness is slightly different.
Unlike social science dissertation or a scientific study, the methodology of dissertations in arts and humanities subjects needs to be directly linked to the literature review regardless of how innovative your dissertation’s topic might be.
For example, you could demonstrate the relationship between A and B to discover a new theoretical background or use existing theories in a new framework.
The methodology section of humanities and arts-based dissertations is less complex, so there might be no need to justify it in detail. Students can achieve a seamless transition from the literature review to the analysis section.
However, like with every other type of research methodology, it is important to provide a detailed justification of your chosen methodology and relate it to the research problem.
Failing to do so could leave some readers unconvinced of your theoretical foundations’ suitability, which could potentially jeopardise your whole research.
Make sure that you are paying attention to and giving enough information about the social and historical background of the theoretical frameworks your research methodology is based on. This is especially important if there is an essential difference of opinion between your research and the research done on the subject in the past.
A justification of why opposing schools of thought disagree and why you still went ahead to use aspects of these schools of thought in your methodology should be clearly presented for the readers to understand how they would support your readings.
Some degree programs in the arts allow students to undertake a portfolio of artworks or creative writing rather than produce an extended dissertation research project.However, in practice, your creative research will be required to be submitted along with a comprehensive evaluative paper, including background information and an explanation that hypothesises your innovative exercise.
While this might seem like an easy thing to do, critical evaluation of someone’s work is highly complex and notorious in nature. This further reinforces the argument of developing a rigorous methodology and adhering to it.
As a scholar, you will be expected to showcase the ability to critically analyse your methodology and show that you are capable of critically evaluating your own creative work.Such an approach will help you justify your method of creating the work, which will give the readers the impression that your research is grounded in theory.
All chapters of a dissertation paper are interconnected. This means that there will undoubtedly be some information that would overlap between the different chapters of the dissertation .
For example, some of the text material may seem appropriate to both the literature review and methodology sections; you might even end up moving information from pillar to post between different chapters as you edit and improve your dissertation .
However, make sure that you are not making the following a part of your dissertation methodology, even though it may seem appropriate to fit them in there:
It might seem relevant to include details of the models your dissertation methodology is based on. However, a detailed review of models and precedents used by other scholars and theorists will better fit in the literature review chapter, which you can link back to. This will help the readers understand why you decided to go in favour of or against a certain tactic.
There is absolutely no need to provide extensive details of things like lab equipment and experiment procedures. Having such information in the methodology chapter would discourage some readers who might not be interested in your equipment, setup, lab environment, etc.
Your aim as the author of the document will be to retain the readers’ interest and make the methodology chapter as readable as possible.
While it is important to get all the information relating to how others can reproduce your experiment, it is equally important to ensure your methodology section isn’t unnecessarily long. Again, additional information is better to be placed within the appendices chapter.
The methodology is not the section to provide raw data, even if you are only discussing the data collection process. All such information should be moved to the appendices section.
Even if you feel some finding or numerical data is crucial to be presented within the methodology section, you can, at most, make brief comments about such data. Its discussion, however, is only allowed in the discussions section .
The factors which can determine if your dissertation methodology is ‘great’ depend on many factors, including the level of study you are currently enrolled in.
Undergraduate dissertations are, of course, less complex and less demanding. At most universities in the UK, undergraduate students are required to exhibit the ability to conduct thorough research as they engage for the first time with theoretical and conceptual frameworks in their chosen research area.
As an undergraduate student, you will be expected to showcase the capacity to reproduce what you have learnt from theorists in your academic subject, transform your leanings into a methodology that would help you address the research problem, and test the research hypothesis, as mentioned in the introduction chapter.
A great undergraduate-level dissertation will incorporate different schools of thought and make a valuable contribution to existing knowledge. However, in general, undergraduate-level dissertations’ focus should be to show thorough desk-based and independent research skills.
Postgraduate dissertation papers are much more compound and challenging because they are expected to make a substantial contribution to existing knowledge.
Depending on the academic institute, some postgraduate students are even required to develop a project published by leading academic journals as an approval of their research skills.
It is important to recognise the importance of a postgraduate dissertation towards building your professional career, especially if your work is considered impactful in your area of study and receives citations from multiple scholars, enhancing your reputation in academic communities.
Even if some academics cite your literature review and conclusion in their own work, it is a well-known fact that your methodology framework will result in many more citations regardless of your academic subject.
Other scholars and researchers in your area of study are likely to give much more value to a well-crafted methodology, especially one they can use as the starting point for their own research.
Of course, they can alter, refine and enhance your methodology in one way or another. They can even apply your methodological framework to a new data set or apply it in a completely new situation that is irrelevant to your work.
Finally, postgraduate dissertations are expected to be highly convincing and demonstrate in-depth engagement. They should be reproducible and show rigour, so the findings and conclusions can be regarded as authentic and reliable among scientific and academic communities.
The methodology is the door to success when it comes to dissertation projects. An original methodology that takes into consideration all aspects of research is likely to have an impact on the field of study.
As a postgraduate student, you should ask yourself, Is my dissertation methodology reproducible and transferable? Producing a methodology that others can reproduce in the future is as important as answering research questions .
The methodology chapter can either make or break the grade of your research/dissertation paper. It’s one of the research elements that leave a memorable impression on your readers. So, it would help if you took your time when it comes to choosing the right design and philosophical approach for your research.
Always use authentic academic sources and discuss your plans in detail with your supervisor if you believe your research design or approach has flaws in it.
Did this article help you learn how to write a dissertation methodology and how to structure a dissertation methodology? Let us know in your comments.
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This template covers all the core components required in the methodology section of a typical dissertation, thesis or research paper, including:
The purpose of each section is explained in plain language, along with practical examples to help you understand exactly what’s required.
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What format is the template (doc, pdf, ppt, etc.).
The methodology chapter template is provided as a Google Doc. You can download it in MS Word format or make a copy to your Google Drive. You’re also welcome to convert it to whatever format works best for you, such as LaTeX or PDF.
The methodology template follows the standard format for academic research projects, which means it will be suitable for the vast majority of dissertations and theses (especially those within the sciences), whether they adopt a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods approach. The template is loosely based on Saunders’ research onion , which is recommended as a methodological framework by many universities.
Keep in mind that the exact requirements for the methodology chapter/section will vary between universities and degree programs. These are typically minor, but it’s always a good idea to double-check your university’s requirements before you finalize your structure.
This template can be used for a dissertation, thesis or research project at any level of study. Doctoral-level projects typically require the methodology chapter to be more extensive/comprehensive, but the structure will typically remain the same.
This can vary a fair deal, depending on the level of study (undergrad, Master or Doctoral), the field of research, as well as your university’s specific requirements. Therefore, it’s best to check with your university or review past dissertations from your program to get an accurate estimate.
As a rule of thumb, you should provide enough detail for another researcher to replicate your study. This includes clear descriptions of procedures, tools, and techniques you used to collect and analyse your data, as well as your sampling approach.
In the methodology chapter, your language should be technical enough to accurately convey your research methods and processes, but also clear and precise to ensure it’s accessible to readers within your field.
Aim for a balance where the technical aspects of your methods are thoroughly explained without overusing jargon or overly complex language.
If you conducted a pilot study, you can include it in the methodology to demonstrate the feasibility and refinement of your methods. Be sure to obtain the necessary permissions from your research advisor before conducting any pilot studies, though.
Yes, you’re welcome to share this template in its original format (no editing allowed). If you want to post about it on your blog or social media, we kindly request that you reference this page as your source.
Yes, we do. We are constantly developing our collection of free resources to help students complete their dissertations and theses. You can view all of our template resources here .
Yes, we can assist with your methodology chapter (or any other chapter) on a coaching basis. If you’re interested, feel free to get in touch to discuss our private coaching services .
If you’re working on a research proposal, you’ll also want to check these out…
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Writing the parts of scientific reports
The title of this chapter can vary, such as Procedure(s) or Experiments or Materials and Methods , depending on the discipline, the project or subject of the study. The location of this chapter within a paper can vary. In a simple thesis it typically precedes the Results chapter. In a project report there might not be a separate chapter with the title ‘Methodology”, but this might be part of the description of the project tasks or research design.
Overall, the purpose of this section is to provide the reader with information on the methods used to answer the research question (s), to achieve the objectives of the projects. Another important aspect is the justification for each method, which means why they were used, and also how. This involves a restatement of the research aim/ objectives and explains to the reader how the chosen research method (s) help answer the research questions. At this stage ethical issues or limitations of the research can also be stated.
In other studies, the primary goal of this section is to convey to the reader the validity of the research which has been undertaken. The reader must be able to replicate the experiment and obtain essentially the same result.
In social science readers are often not only interested in the findings but in the methods you used to obtain them such as how you chose your sample, how representative it is, the questions posed in the survey or asked in the interview. The method section then becomes a detailed account of the steps undertaken in your research. Methods sections of projects using a non-experimental approach most likely have the three components of description , explanation and justification of data and method.
Therefore, the methods section fulfills three purposes (Lea, 2014):
The overall structure follows the general-to-specific pattern, and also the logical organization of your project.
Introduction | Provide overview of the entire section; restate overall purpose of the investigation; review of research aims. |
Why (not)? | Rationale of choice of research methods including strengths and weaknesses of different methods (here you might refer to other research or methodological literature). Mention other methods you could have used if you had been able to do so. |
What and when? | Overview of methods or overall design of experiment: the order should help the reader to understand how methods are connected, built on each other and to understand the process of your research. |
How? | Description of methods and/or materials (description of experiment, field or laboratory equipment, calculations, simulations, software, procedures, statistical treatment, considerations of sampling and design techniques for surveys and interviews) |
How? | Details on how data are processed, evaluated, how the results are calculated (statistical treatment, other assessment instruments with clear justification of why this method is used) |
If experiments are used as a method, procedures followed and how results were calculated have to be presented. A typical structure:
Use present tense to restate the aim/ purpose of your paper: this paper investigates the effects….
Most parts of this section use past tense + passive:
How it was done (passive voice + by ….. ing): the test was carried out by using a saturated solution of …
Why it was done (passive voice + to + verb): the …. was used to measure …
Use of sub-headings
This section often has subheadings which should, whenever possible, match those to be used in the results section.
Describing sequence
Sequence, or order, is important in describing processes. The table below shows some common expressions.
first | the first step is.. | to begin with | initially |
beforehand/ before this | at the same time | during | after this/ later |
secondly, thirdly, etc. | next/the next step is… | subsequently | in the following stage |
following this | lastly/ finally | the last stage | the last step is to |
You may also want to explain:
something is done: | or something is done: |
Academic Writing in a Swiss University Context Copyright © 2018 by Irene Dietrichs. All Rights Reserved.
This chapter introduces the aims, method and structure of the study, which is located at the intersection of travel (writing) and periodical studies. Concerning the Victorian period, travel and the periodical press were interconnected. With their specific mediality, Victorian periodicals habituated large and socially diverse audiences to the idea and practice of travel. However, they did so with individual profiles that are distinguished in the case studies of the subsequent chapters.
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Modernity is here understood as “a rising self-consciousness of living in a modern age” (Gunn and Vernon 2011 , 6). Beetham calls periodicals “the characteristic modern form of print” ( 1989 , 96), and Mussell states that “the press was a source of pride and admiration, its periodic production and distribution of print a symbol of modernity, technological achievement, commercial endeavour and innovation” ( 2012 , 42).
On the “increased democratization of travel” in the nineteenth century see, for example, Blanton ( 2002 , 45).
Accounts of touristic and scientific travel, reviews of travel books and recommendations for travel were published, for instance, in Thomas Cook’s advertising journal The Excursionist (founded in 1851), Vacation Tourists and Notes of Travel (founded in 1860), The Alpine Journal (founded in 1863), Illustrated Travels (founded in 1869), The Geologist (founded in 1858), The Fishing Gazette (founded in 1877) or Cycling (founded in 1891).
The term “travel writing” has been defined in different ways; for a survey of exclusive and inclusive definitions see, for example, Thompson ( 2011 , 12–27) and Youngs ( 2013 , 1–15). Youngs emphasises that travel writing is a genre that “cannot easily be fixed or contained” (15) but defines it as consisting of “predominantly factual, first-person prose accounts of travels that have been undertaken by the author-narrator” (3); the present book uses the term “travelogue” with this meaning.
See, for example, Innes Shand’s observation in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine : “those who devote themselves earnestly to the literary profession, whether for the sake of a livelihood or with the idea of influencing opinion, will naturally turn towards the journals or periodicals. In either case, and in the latter perhaps rather than the former, they may hope for exceedingly liberal remuneration, for the leading organs have abundance of good work that must be regularly done by those who are competent to undertake it” ( 1878 , 646).
On the multiple relations between books and periodicals and their markets see Brake ( 2001 ).
The metaphor of travelling for reading occurs frequently in the editorials of Victorian periodicals. See, for example, the Leisure Hour ’s first address to its readers, which promised that readers would “accompany us in our visits to the hoary relics of other times” and “listen to the prows of Columbus as they cut their way through the virgin-waves of the Atlantic” (H. D. 1852 , 9).
Household Words 6, no. 147 (15 January 1853) and no. 150 (5 February 1853).
Handbooks, surveys and histories published during the past decade convey a good impression of current research interests. For travel writing see, for example, Smethurst and Kuehn ( 2015 ), Thompson ( 2016 ), Das and Youngs ( 2019 ), Pettinger and Youngs ( 2020 ), Forsdick et al. ( 2019 ) or Schaff ( 2020 ). For periodicals research see King et al. ( 2016 ) and Easley et al. ( 2018 ).
See, for example, Walton ( 1983 ) for the British seaside, Petzold ( 2018 ) for Norway, Walchester ( 2018 ) for the Alps and mountaineers, Liedke ( 2018 ) for leisure, Demoor ( 2015 ) on Waterloo tourism and Lago ( 2023 ) on the role of nineteenth-century periodicals articles in creating “a complex, ever-evolving perception” of the Scottish landscape ( 2023 , 89).
For example, Korte ( 2015 ) on the presentation of Germany in British periodicals.
For example, Keirstead ( 2015 ) on Dickens, Pusapati ( 2017 ) on Martineau and Ledbetter ( 2017 ) on Craik.
But see Kirsten Belgum’s investigation of the interplay of illustration and text in geographical periodicals ( 2019 and 2022 ) and my own sketch of a media-sensitive approach to travel in Victorian periodicals (Korte 2022 ). Marius Warholm Haugen ( 2017 , 2018 , 2019 ) has discussed the travel book review as a micro-travelogue and as a form of remediation in French newspapers and journals of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
In his article on the periodical press as popular literature, this was already emphasised by the journalist E. S. Dallas: “Literature [...] is not only the expression of public opinion and the index of contemporary history, it is itself a great force that reacts on the life which it represents, half creating what it professes only to reflect” ( 1859 , 97).
This was earlier emphasised by Pykett, who points out that periodicals were not a mirror but a “central component” of Victorian culture and so “can only be read and understood as part of that culture and society, and in the context of other knowledges about them” ( 1989 , 102).
See, for example, Nicholson ( 2012 ) and Liddle ( 2015 ). For a comprehensive assessment of the assets of the digitisation of the nineteenth-century periodical press, and changes periodicals undergo through digitisation, see Mussell ( 2012 ). Kirsten Belgum, Keith Handley and Rachel Bott ( 2018 ) describe a digital humanities project to visualise trends in travel destinations between 1800 and 1900, but this project used published books of travel writing rather than articles in periodicals.
However, searchable digitised texts were useful for a pre-study that checked which periodicals would be most fruitful for an analysis of travel texts; for this, the Gale and ProQuest databases (Proquest’s British Periodicals, Gale Cengage’s Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals) were searched for the (truncated) key words travel* and touri* and related keywords such as excursion , ramble , journey and trip . The exception was the sub-corpus of periodicals for working people, of which few have been digitised to date.
The term “magazine” in the Victorian era “referred to publications characterized by the variety and heterogeneity of their constituent genres and by a diversity of voices”, but the term was “largely interchangeable with journal” (Beetham 2009 , 391).
See Mussell ( 2012 , 25 and 55–56). See also Wald, who speaks of “a common program cumulatively implemented through repetition” ( 2007 , 422).
See also Beetham ( 1989 ) and Ledbetter: “Thus we might see a periodical title less as a discardable resource and more as periodically renewable resource that, through repetition and familiarity, reinforced its encoded ideology” ( 2009 , 14).
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Korte, B. (2024). Introduction: The Nexus of Travel, Travel Writing and Periodicals 1850–1900. In: Travel in Victorian Periodicals, 1850-1900. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-64197-8_1
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Section 2 - The Methodology. The next section of your chapter is where you'll present the actual methodology. In this section, you need to detail and justify the key methodological choices you've made in a logical, intuitive fashion. Importantly, this is the heart of your methodology chapter, so you need to get specific - don't hold back on the details here.
Step 1: Explain your methodological approach. Step 2: Describe your data collection methods. Step 3: Describe your analysis method. Step 4: Evaluate and justify the methodological choices you made. Tips for writing a strong methodology chapter. Other interesting articles.
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Overview: Writing The Methodology Chapter. Develop a (rough) outline before you start writing. Draw inspiration from similar studies in your topic area. Justify every research design choice that you make. Err on the side of too much detail, rather than too little. Back up every design choice by referencing literature. 1.
Learn how to write a strong methodology chapter that allows readers to evaluate the reliability and validity of the research. A good methodology chapter incl...
In any research, the methodology chapter is one of the key components of your dissertation. It provides a detailed description of the methods you used to conduct your research and helps readers understand how you obtained your data and how you plan to analyze it. This section is crucial for replicating the study and validating its results.
The Easies Way to Write the Methodology Chapter. by Antony W. June 6, 2024. In this lesson, you'll learn how to write the methodology chapter of a thesis, dissertation, or a research paper, step-by-step. So if you've reached this section in your assignment and you simply no idea how to proceed, this article will point you in the right ...
Qualitative Research Methodology. This is a research methodology that involves the collection and analysis of non-numerical data such as words, images, and observations. This type of research is often used to explore complex phenomena, to gain an in-depth understanding of a particular topic, and to generate hypotheses.
Research Methodology Example. Detailed Walkthrough + Free Methodology Chapter Template. If you're working on a dissertation or thesis and are looking for an example of a research methodology chapter, you've come to the right place. In this video, we walk you through a research methodology from a dissertation that earned full distinction ...
Tips to write an effective methodology chapter. 1. Remember who you are writing for. Keeping sight of the reader/evaluator will help you know what to elaborate on and what information they are already likely to have. You're condensing months' work of research in just a few pages, so you should omit basic definitions and information about ...
Learn how to write a high-quality methodology chapter/section for your dissertation, thesis or research project. In this video, Emma unpacks and explains wha...
Tips for Writing Your Dissertation's Methodology Chapter. The methodology chapter is one of the most important parts of any dissertation. This is because it's where you set out your research approach, data-gathering techniques and various other crucial factors. As such, your methodology must be clear, concise and packed with detail.
3 Methodology3. Methodology(In this unit I use the word Methodology as a general term to cover whatever you decide to include in the chapter where you discuss alternative methodological approaches, justify your chosen research method, and describe the process and participants i. your study).The Methodology chapter is perhaps the part of a ...
The main heading of "Methods" should be centered, boldfaced, and capitalized. Subheadings within this section are left-aligned, boldfaced, and in title case. You can also add lower level headings within these subsections, as long as they follow APA heading styles. To structure your methods section, you can use the subheadings of ...
Provide the rationality behind your chosen approach. Based on logic and reason, let your readers know why you have chosen said research methodologies. Additionally, you have to build strong arguments supporting why your chosen research method is the best way to achieve the desired outcome. 3. Explain your mechanism.
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Tips for writing a robust methodology. Here are some final pointers by our dissertation writing service to keep in mind when writing your methodology chapter: A common mistake students make is that they write too many words for the methodology chapter. Generally speaking, the methodology should account for around 15% of the full dissertation ...
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Production of raw data- While writing the methodology chapter of a dissertation, you should refrain from generating raw data. To make work easier for the reader, raw data can be confined to an appendix, which the readers can refer to. A dissertation's methodology chapter comes after the literature review section.
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This template covers all the core components required in the methodology section of a typical dissertation, thesis or research paper, including: The opening section. Research philosophy. Research type. Research strategy. Time horizon. Sampling strategy. Data collection methods. Data analysis methods.
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The purpose of this introductory chapter is to convey what methodology is, why it is needed, and the key tenets that guide what we do as scientists. These foci may seem obvious—after all, everyone knows what methodology is and why it is needed. Perhaps so, but the answers are not all so obvious. It is useful to give the rationale for what we ...
This chapter introduces the aims, method and structure of the study, which is located at the intersection of travel (writing) and periodical studies. Concerning the Victorian period, travel and the periodical press were interconnected. With their specific mediality,...