Writing Research Methodology
Writing Research Methodology
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Published on February 25, 2019 by Shona McCombes. Revised on July 31, 2020.
In your thesis or dissertation, you will have to discuss the methods you used to do your
research. The methodology chapter explains what you did and how you did it, allowing
readers to evaluate the reliability and validity of the research. It should include:
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What research problem or question did you investigate? For example, did you aim to
systematically describe the characteristics of something, to explore an under-researched topic,
or to establish a cause-and-effect relationship? And what type of data did you need to achieve
this aim?
Did you need quantitative data (expressed in numbers) or qualitative data (expressed in
words)?
Did you need to collect primary data yourself, or did you use secondary data that was
collected by someone else?
Did you gather experimental data by controlling and manipulating variables, or
descriptive data by gathering observations without intervening?
Depending on your discipline and approach, you might also begin with a discussion of the
rationale and assumptions underpinning your methodology.
Why is this the most suitable approach to answering your research questions?
Is this a standard methodology in your field or does it require justification?
Were there any ethical or philosophical considerations?
What are the criteria for validity and reliability in this type of research?
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In a qualitative ethnography, you might aim to produce contextual real-world
knowledge about the behaviors, social structures and shared beliefs of a specific group
of people. As this methodology is less controlled and more interpretive, you will need to
reflect on your position as researcher, taking into account how your participation and
perception might have influenced the results.
Quantitative methods
In quantitative research, for valid generalizable results, you should describe your methods in
enough detail for another researcher to replicate your study.
Explain how you operationalized concepts and measured your variables; your sampling
method or inclusion/exclusion criteria; and any tools, procedures and materials you used to
gather data.
Surveys
Describe where, when and how the survey was conducted.
How did you design the questions and what form did they take (e.g. multiple choice,
Likert scale)?
What sampling method did you use to select participants?
Did you conduct surveys by phone, mail, online or in person, and how long did
participants have to respond?
What was the sample size and response rate?
You might want to include the full questionnaire as an appendix so that your reader can see
exactly what data was collected.
Experiments
Give full details of the tools, techniques and procedures you used to conduct the experiment.
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Existing data
Explain how you gathered and selected material (such as publications or archival data) for
inclusion in your analysis.
Qualitative methods
In qualitative research, since methods are often more flexible and subjective, it’s important to
reflect on the approach you took and explain the choices you made.
Discuss the criteria you used to select participants or sources, the context in which the
research was conducted, and the role you played in collecting the data (e.g. were you an active
participant or a passive observer?)
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Participant observation
Describe where, when and how you conducted the observation or ethnography.
What group or community did you observe and how did you gain access to them?
How long did you spend conducting the research and where was it located?
What role did you play in the community?
How did you record your data (e.g. audiovisual recordings, note-taking)?
Existing data
Explain how you selected case study materials (such as texts or images) for the focus of your
analysis.
In order to gain a better insight into the possibilities for improvement of the product
range, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 8 returning customers from the
main target group of Company X. A returning customer was defined as someone who
usually bought products at least twice a week from Company X. The surveys were used
to select participants who belonged to the target group (20-45 years old). Interviews
were conducted in a small office next to the cash register, and lasted approximately 20
minutes each. Answers were recorded by note-taking, and seven interviews were also
filmed with consent. One interviewee preferred not to be filmed.
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Before analysis the gathered data was prepared. The dataset was checked for missing
data
and outliers.
Table For this the “outlier labeling rule” was used. All values outside the
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calculated range were considered outliers (Hoaglin & Iglewicz, 1987). The data was then
analyzed using statistical software SPSS.
Qualitative methods
In qualitative research, your analysis will be based on language, images and observations
(often involving some form of textual analysis). Specific methods might include:
Content analysis: categorizing and discussing the meaning of words, phrases and
sentences
Thematic analysis: coding and closely examining the data to identify broad themes and
patterns
Discourse analysis: studying communication and meaning in relation to their social
context
The interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis was conducted. This involved
coding all the data before identifying and reviewing six key themes. Each theme was
examined to gain an understanding of participants’ perceptions and motivations.
You can acknowledge limitations or weaknesses in the approach you chose, but justify why
these were outweighed by the strengths.
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Unstructured interviews usually produce results that cannot be generalized beyond the
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sample group, but they provide a more in-depth understanding of participants’
perceptions, motivations and emotions.
Confirm that you followed established practices for this type of research
Discuss how you evaluated different methodologies and decided on your approach
Show that you took a novel methodological approach to address a gap in the literature
Our free citation generators can help you to create MLA citations and APA citations.
In either case, your methodology should be a clear, well-structured text that makes an
argument for your approach, not just a list of technical details and procedures.
Discuss obstacles
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If you encountered difficulties in collecting or analyzing data, explain how you dealt with them.
Show
howTable
you minimized
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critiques of your approach and demonstrate that you made the research as rigorous as
possible.
What is sampling?
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Shona McCombes
Shona has a bachelor's and two master's degrees, so she's an expert at writing a great thesis.
She has also worked as an editor and teacher, working with students at all different levels to
improve their academic writing.
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72 comments
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thanks a lot
Reply
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10/2/2020 How to Write a Research Methodology in Four Steps
It's so helpful
Reply
In a QUALITATIVE STUDY, must one use the three analysis discussed , content,
thematic and discourse for analysis
Reply
Hi,
No, these are just three examples of methods you could use to analyze
qualitative data; you can choose between these approaches (among others).
Reply
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10/2/2020 How to Write a Research Methodology in Four Steps
This article is indeed helpful. My problem is the fact that I am not gathering my own
raw
data and
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am using information from past studies. I find it difficult to piece
together a methodology based on this.
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Very helpful.
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it is helpful
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This information helped me to fine the correct way to write my final thesis, thanks a
lot.
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21st February,2020,
I will relate with you on other issues relating to research proposal privately
when I get your email adress.
Thanks
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Quantitative methods
In quantitative research, your analysis will be based on numbers. In the methods section you
might include:
How you prepared the data before analyzing it (e.g. checking for missing data, removing
outliers, transforming variables)
Which software you used to analyze the data (e.g. SPSS, Stata or R)
Which statistical tests you used (e.g. two-tailed t-test, simple linear regression)
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I'm very grateful. It helped me a great deal. More blessings to you. Thanks
Reply
I was struggling writing research methodology,only God knows how helpful this
article is to me.
Thank you very much.
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Best wishes
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10/2/2020 How to Write a Research Methodology in Four Steps
It's just so crazy how useful and informative this article/website it. Thank you so
much!
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Reply
wow may Almighty Allah bless you and your family.. wonderful help, and very
interested thank you so much
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Reply
Hellow Dr Shona I have learnt from this article and thought that there's lot of themes
for those who don't know about how to conduct a research, just it is a good academic
advisor program particular at research,let me embracing you that your work is not for
nothing but God stay blessing u
Reply
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10/2/2020 How to Write a Research Methodology in Four Steps
AQIB SHUJA
Table · December 15, 2019 at 3:00 PM
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As being a physical educationist, I've learnt a lot for my research through this article.
As I've different topics for research e.g 1.will power and sports, 2. Sports
pharmacology & 3. Overtraining syndrome in sports (OTS).
This article really helps me alot for my submission.
Reply
Reply
Hi James, thanks for your question. You can learn more in our articles about
creating a research design and writing a research proposal. Hope that helps!
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10/2/2020 How to Write a Research Methodology in Four Steps
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Hi Cheki, you can learn about this in our guide to research design. Hope this
helps!
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In fact your website is one of the best websites in guiding someone writing a paper, i
give you five star rating..
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Thanks so much it was very nice to have read your work it gives me some good ideas
on how to get started.
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if i could have found this website before i started my project, i believe i could be much
better off.
Regards,
Dinerou Karuchas
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thanks
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We're very happy for this one post as then thanks you very soo much
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This was a great outline to use for my research paper. Thank you!
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This was really a good guide to my research methodology and i really appreciate you.
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Sani Musa Dan Birni Fagge, Kano, Nigeria. · September 30, 2019 at 6:25 PM
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10/2/2020 How to Write a Research Methodology in Four Steps
thanks to your good and advanced guiding articles to currently graduated students
also as I recently planning to write my defence book this gives me extra guiding and
gain knowledge of written thesis
thank you
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Reply
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10/2/2020 How to Write a Research Methodology in Four Steps
Arjay · September
Table 8, 2019 at 7:27 AM
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Thank You for all the detailed . Its help me a lot in doing my research study God Bless
and More Power.
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I have really enjoyed this article, is so educative and informative. We're looking
forward to getting more of this.
Thanks great, Allah bless you???
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Where should I use empirical and theoretical research? what are really they are?
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This was very helpful in clearing many foggy things. I was trying to help someone and
this came in handy. 5 stars for this!
I definitely would come back to this very soon in my thesis.
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It's helpful
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Tunde Morakinyo
Table · August 29, 2019 at 11:42 AM
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It is very educative.
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I was completely stuck how to write my methodology, and this has been brilliant,
thank you so much!
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Abubakar
TableAliyu Gombe · August 14, 2019 at 10:03 AM
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Thank you. Very helpful and well structured. Can you suggest any article helpful to
evaluate different methodologies?
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10/2/2020 How to Write a Research Methodology in Four Steps
Thank you before i study this guide it was impossible for me to write my
thesis.bless you be successful.
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Reply
The article was very helpful, the steps in writing a methodology were very clear and
they helped me avoid including things that should not be in the methodology.
Reply
This is article is very helpful and I have been using it as a guide for my dissertation.
however, I have one question. Is it preferable to write the methodology in first person
or third?
Thanks.
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Hi Elias, thanks for your question! The answer depends partly on the
conventions of your discipline. Social scientists and humanities researchers
sometimes use the first person, but scientific writing often requires you to
avoid it. It's best to focus on consistency – if you have used the first person
elsewhere in your dissertation, you should use it in this chapter too. If not, use
the third person (as the examples in this article do).
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Thank you for helping me to gain more insight on what research methodology is all
about, and I would like to be receiving more tips on academic research writing from
you. I appreciate your work, keep it on.
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You've cleared up quite a few cobwebs. Simply brilliant. God bless you. xx
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Very helpful
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10/2/2020 How to Write a Research Methodology in Four Steps
The methodology part was the only missing part of my research paper.
Thank you so
Table of much for this article.
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