Lesson 2 Scope and Limitations

S C O P E&
LIM ITATIO N
S
what is S C O P
E ?
S co p refers to how far the
research area has explored and
ea ra m e t e r s in with the study will be
p
operating in.
The type of information to be included
in the scope of a research project
would include facts and theories
about the subject of the project.
The coverag e of the is in
study terms of:
1. General purpose
2. Population or sample
3. Time or duration
4. Subject matters and
topics discussed
5. Area or locality
Example:
This investigation as conducted to

determine the status of the teaching of
science in the high schools of Province A
as perceived by the teachers and students
in science classes during the school year
1989-1990. The aspects looked into were
the qualifications of teachers, their
methods and strategies, facilities forms of
supervisory assistance, problems and
proposed solutions to the problems.
What Has Been Included...
• General purpose : To determine the
status of the teaching of science.
• Subject matter: The teaching of science
• Topics ( aspects) studied:
Qualifications of teachers, their
methods and strategies, facilities, form
of supervisory assistance, problems
and proposed solutions to
problems
• Population or sample : teachers
and students
• Area or locality: High schools of
Province A
• Time or duration: School year 1989 -
w h a t is
L I M I TAT
Lim ita tio n s , also known
I O N ?are influences that the
bounds, as researcher
the
cannot control. They are
shortcomings , conditions the
or researcher
that cannot be controlled by the influences
that place restrictions on your methodology
and conclusions. Any limitations that might
influence the results should be mentioned.
delim itation s
Delimitations are choices made by the
researcher which should be
mentioned. They describe the boundaries
that you have set for the study. This is the
place to explain:
• the things that you are not doing (and why you
have chosen not to do them).
• the literature you will not review (and why not).
• the population you are not studying (and why
not).
• the methodological procedures you will not use
(and why you will not use them).
EX AM PLE:
Although the research has reached its aims,
there were some unavoidable limitations.
First, because of the time limit, this research
was conducted only on a small size of
population who were attending the Writing 3
course in their third semester at CTU.
Therefore, to generalize the results for larger
groups, the study should have involved more
participants at different levels. Second, the
students' overloaded work, to some extent,
might affect the result of the correlation
between the students' motivation in learning
W considering what
limitations there might be in your
hen
investigation, be thorough.
Consider all of the following:
1. your analysis
2. the nature of self-reporting
3. the instruments you utilized
4. the sample
5. time constraints
to write in English and their
writing perform because
they wereance
required to take part
in many studies at the same
time. Finally, the slow network
might discourage participants'
interests and motivation in
joining peer feedback activities.
IMPORTANCE of limitations
• A lw ays acknow led g e s tud y
a limitations. 's
It is far better for you to identify and
acknowledge your study's limitations
than to have them pointed out by your
professor and be graded down because
you appear to have ignored them.
• K e e p in m i n d t ha t a c k n o w l e d g e m e n t
of a s t u d y ' s limitations i s an
opp o rtu n it y to m a k e s u g g e s t i o n s
for further research.
• C l a m i n g l imitations is a
subjective p r o c e s s b e c a u s e y o u m
u s t e v a l u a t e the impact of those l
imitations.
Don' t just of
magnitude list akeystudy'
weaknesses and
s limitattions.
the
Limitations require a critical, overall
appraisal and interpretation of their
impact. You should answer the question:
do these problem with errors, methods,
validity, etc. eventually matter and, if
so, to what extent?
Descriptions of possible limitations
• All studies have limitations.

However, it is important that
you restrict your discussion
to limitations related to the
research problem under
investigation.
* Do not apologize for not
addressing issues that yo
u didn' t
possible methodological limitations
• S a m p l e size - the number of the

units of analysis you use in your
study is dictated by the type of
research problem you are investigating.
• Lack of available and/ or reliable
data - lack of reliable data will likely
require you to limit the scope of your
analysis, the size of your sample, or it
can be a significant obstacle in finding
a trend and a meaningful relationship.
• L a c k o f prior r e s e a r c h s t u d i e s o n
t h e topic - citing prior research studies
forms the basis of your literature
review and helps lay a foundation for
understanding the research problem
you're investigating.
• sometimes,
M e a s u r e u saefter com pleting
d to collect the d a t
interpretation
a - your of the finding s ,
discover that the way youyou gatherd data
inhibited your ability to conduct a
thorough analysis of the results.
• Self- reported da -
ta whether
syou are relying
elf-reported data orpre-existing
you are
conducting
on a qualitative research
study and gathering the data
yourself, self-reported data is
l imited by the fact that it
rarely can be independently
verified.
possible limitations of the researcher
• Longitudinal effects - Be sure to choose

a topic that does not require an excessive
amount of time to complete the literature
review, apply the methodology, and
gather and interpret the results.
• Cultural a n d othe r t yp e of b i a s -
Note that if you detect bias in a prior
research, it must be acknowledged and
measures taken should be explained
to avoid perpetuating bias.
B ia s - when a person, place, or thing is viewed or
shown in a consistently inaccurate way .
• A c c e s s - if study depends on access
people, organizations, or for
to
reason, access is denied whatever or
needs to be described. limited,
• Fl u en c y in a l a n g u a g e it - if your
research focuses on measuring the
perceived value of after-school
tutoring among Mexican-American
ESL students, and you're not
fluent in Spanish, you're limited
in being able to read and interpret
Spanish language research studies. This
deficiency should be acknowledged.
when discussing limitations, be
sure to...
• Describe each limitation in detailed but
concise terms.
• Explain why each limitation exists.
• Provide the r e a s o n s why each
limitation couldn't be overcome
using the method/s chosen to gather
the data.
• Assess the impact of each limitation in
relation to the overall findings and
• conclusions.
If appropriate, describe how
limitations these point to
could further the needof
research.
Writing tips
× Don' t th e im p o rta n ce of
inflate your f
indings!
We all want our academic work to be
viewed as excellent and worthy of a
good grade, but it is important that you
understand and openly acknowledge
the limitations of your study. Inflating
the importance of your study' s findings
in an attempt to hide its flaws is a big
turn off to your readers.
× N eg a tive res ults a re not a lim ita tion!
N e g a t i v e ev idence refers to findings
that unexpectedly challenge rather than
support your hypothesis. If you didn't get
the results you anticipated, it may
hypothesis was incorrect or you stumbled
mean your
onto something unexpected that
further study. Don' t fall into warrants the
thinking that results contrary to what trapyou
of
expected is a limitation to your study.
× S a m p l esize limitations in
qualitative research
Determining adequate sample size in

qualitative research is ultimately a matter
of judgment and experience in evaluating
the quality of the information collected
against the uses to which it will be applied
and the particular research method and
purposive sampling strategy employed.
Remember…
• Stating the study limitations not

only provides extra credence to
the study but provides the
reader caution not to expect
beyond what the study can and
promises to deliver, not
withstanding certain constraints.

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S C O P E&

This investigation as conducted to

• All studies have limitations.

• S a m p l e size - the number of the

• Longitudinal effects - Be sure to choose

Determining adequate sample size in

• Stating the study limitations not

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