How to Write a Dissertation Methodology Chapter
This is a general guide on how to conduct and write a methopdolgy. You are also advised to check the course or program information and materials provided by teaching staff, including your project supervisor, for subject-specific guidance.
Writing your dissertation methodology
So, what Is a dissertation methodology chapter? In simple terms, a dissertation methodology chapter is a part of a scientific work in which you have to discuss the methods you used when doing your research, and describe how you actually used them. The aim of a methodology chapter is to show a reader the reliability of a work he or she is going to read, so this part is essential for every dissertation or thesis.
How to Write a Methodology Chapter in a Dissertation
While writing your thesis, you’ll need to describe the methods you employed to steer your review. The method section illustrates your message and how you came up with it, enabling readers in determining the exploration’s credibility and believability. When wringing the study, you should include;
- The nature of your research
- How data was selected and collected
- Methods you used to analyse your data
- Materials and tools used in the investigation
- The rationale used in choosing the methods
The general format of the methodology chapter is that it should be written in the past tense. To the point when you write your method in your dissertation, you will have chosen your research topic and extensively researched what other academics in the field have said about your issue. You’ll also have looked at how these researchers arrived at their conclusions – the assumptions they used, the theoretical frameworks they utilised, and the data collection, marshalling, and presentation strategies they used.
The methodology must also follow sustained steps to ensure that your dissertation delivers the intended idea. These steps include;
- Explaining the methodological approach to your work
- Describing how data was collected
- Discussing how the analysis was carried out
- Evaluating and justifying the methodological choices you made
These steps will help you ensure that your methodological chapter establishes a clear relationship between the research question, the literature review and how you arrived at your conclusion. Each step has a way how it should be written.
- Explaining the methodological approach to your work
In this section, you should start by introducing a general overview of your overall approach to your dissertation. Next, you explain the nature of your dissertation in terms of the type of question you are handling and the kind of data needed to take it. Three different methods can be used in obtaining information. These methods include;
- Qualitative method: These are the best methods to use when you intend to describe, interpret, categorise, identify patterns and make generalisations.
- Quantitative method: These methods are best for measuring, ranking, categories, pattern identification, and generalising.
- Mixed method: This method allows you to combine numerical measurements and in-depth exploration when writing your dissertation.
The key to explaining your approach is to show that it is appropriate for solving the research challenge or questions you addressed at the outset. When presenting your approach, you should summarise the important questions you want to answer, but this does not have to be an identical repetition; you may wish to rephrase the problem in a way that links your literature review and technique. Depending on your field and approach, you may also want to start by explaining the reasons and assumptions that drive your technique. Next, you address if you aimed to tackle a practical or a theoretical problem and why your method is most suitable for tackling the question. Next, the reader must understand if the methodology is standard or needs a justification. Finally, you need to know the criteria for validity and rigorousness in your dissertation.
- Describing how data was collected
It would be best to offer detailed specifics of the procedures you employed to conduct the study once you have explained your overarching methodological approach. Outline the data-gathering techniques, methods, and materials you employed and the criteria you used to choose participants or sources. This is the methodology’s core, yet it isn’t a methodology in and of itself. This section of your approach explains how you gathered and analysed data or addressed your research topic. This should be written in such a way that it might be read by another researcher and used in a different context than your dissertation. Your reader should, for example, be able to apply a new form of statistical model to their data set after reading your techniques section.
- Discussing how the analysis was carried out
At this step, you explain how you processed and analysed your information. While at it, you should avoid going into too much detail by not starting any discussion at this step. Your technique not only explains why you chose it and why you feel it will produce the finest outcomes, the most insightful collection of analyses and conclusions, or the most distinctive point of view. This will be based in part on your literature review, with the purpose of presenting your selections as well-informed and well-supported by great scholarship, as well as demonstrating originality and innovation. You should also make sure that the explanation for your strategy is directly related to your research problem; your reader should be able to understand that the methodology you’ve selected is a considered and unique solution to the issues you’re attempting to solve.
- Evaluating and justifying the methodological choices you made
If you didn’t take the most traditional approach to your issue, your methodology should explain why you picked these specific approaches. Explain why other techniques were ineffective for your goals and how this strategy adds new information or insight. You can admit the approach’s shortcomings or flaws but explain why the benefits overcame them. There are no perfect research methods, and the one you’ve chosen is bound to have some flaws. For example, you could have chosen a small-scale collection of interviews over a bigger set of data on replies to the same topic because you value the unique viewpoints of a group of interviewers on the subject you’re looking at. This, on the other hand, indicates that you’ve avoided taking a quantitative approach to the problem, which may have provided its own set of important insights.
While the basic framework of your methodology section will be the same regardless of your discipline, the specifics will most likely vary greatly based on the topic area you’re researching. Let’s look at some of the most popular sorts of dissertations and the material that must be included in the methodology part of each one.
