How To Write A Methodology Chapter For A Dissertation Or Thesis (4 Steps + Examples)

Learn how to write a high-quality methodology chapter/section for your dissertation, thesis or research project. In this video, Emma unpacks and explains what the methodology chapter is, why it's important, and how to write it up.
HOW TO WRITE THE METHODOLOGY:
00:00 Intro & Overview
01:39 What is the research methodology chapter?
02:52 Why is the methodology chapter important / what's the purpose?
05:03 How to write the methodology chapter
06:21 Section 1 - Introduction
07:23 Section 2 - Research Design (7 Choices)
08:17 Research philosophy
10:23 Research type (qual vs quant)
12:00 Research strategy
14:21 Time horizon
15:41 Sampling strategy
17:15 Data collection methods
18:16 Data analysis techniques
20:05 Section 3 - Methodological limitations
21:54 Section 4 - Concluding summary
22:54 Recap & wrap up
KEY RESOURCES:
FREE TEMPLATE: Methodology Chapter - bit.ly/3O9BGLs
FREE WEBINAR: Research Methodology Basics - bit.ly/3ObFMCR
ONLINE COURSE: Research Methodology Bootcamp - bit.ly/3NOV2nM
1-ON-1 COACHING: Free Consultation - bit.ly/3OmgoKR
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Research philosophy & paradigms - gradcoach.com/research-philos...
Qualitative vs quantitative approaches - gradcoach.com/choose-research...
Research design options (qualitative and quantitative) - gradcoach.com/research-design/
Sampling methods - gradcoach.com/sampling-methods/
Qualitative analysis methods - gradcoach.com/qualitative-dat...
Quantitative analysis methods - gradcoach.com/quantitative-da...
Saunder’s research onion - gradcoach.com/saunders-resear...
To learn more about how to write the research methodology chapter/section, as well as any other part of the typical dissertation or thesis, visit the Grad Coach blog at gradcoach.com/blog/.
For 1-on-1 private coaching, visit gradcoach.com/dissertation-co... for more information and to book a free initial consultation.
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I am so grateful to have found this page. It has already helped me immensely with Chapter one, and I feel confident in beginning my Methodology chapter. I just wanted to say thank you!

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You can't imagine how helpful this is for my dissertation. I can't thank you enough for your effort to make it really simple and clear to make me understand. Genuine applause for your amazing channel!

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Thank you Emma. You are indeed great and doing such great service to humanity !

[@mmfia6354]

Thank you a lot, amazing explanation, I wrote it down for benefit because my mother language arabi, I spent 13 hours to type what she said All the best 7 keys design 1- research philosophy: how data should be gathered, analyzed and used positivism VS interpretivism (Positivism) ,1- common in quantitative studies 2- researcher can observe reality objectively 3- single reality 4- reality existi independently of the observer (interpretivism qualitative) 2 - research types: a- inductive b- deductive a- inductive: theory is generated from the data upward b- deductive: starts with an established theory or framework (from collecting data) مثل بحثي النظرية research strategy: (your research action plan): 1- experiments 2- case studies 3- ethnography 4- grounded theory 5- action research 6- phenomenology let us look at two of these (experiments and ethnography) experiments research: make use of the scientific method where one group group one / control (No variables are manipulated) group two / experimental (A specific variable is manipulated) 3- ethnography (involves observing and capturing the experiences and perception of participants in their natural environment, for example people at home or at the office) "in an uncontrolled environment" this research strategy would be far less suitable if your research aims involve identifying causation but would be very valuable, if you were looking to explore and examine a group culture, for example the corporate culture at s specific company. time horizon: 1- cross - sectional 2- longitudinal 1- cross - sectional (all data collected at one point in time) 2- longitudinal (data collected at multiple points in time) in other word, whether the data for your study were all collected at one point in time cross-sectional or multiple points in time longitudinal * depends again on your research aims and research questions, if fro example, your aim is to assess how a specific gtoup of people's perspectives regarding a topic change over time you would likely adopt a longitudinal time horizon examining the same change over time you would likely adopt a longitudinal time horizon examining the same people's perspectives at multiple point in time. another important factor here is that of practical constraints. in other words, whether you have the time necessary to adopt a longitudinal approach which could involve collecting data over multiple months, years or even decades. oftentimes the time pressures of your degree program will force your hand into adopting a cross-sectional time horizon. the sampling strategy (who to collect data from) there are two main categories of sampling, (probability sampling and non-probability sampling). probability sampling (random, representative sample data). non-probability sampling (Non-random, non-representative) probability sampling involves a random and therefore representative selection of participants from a population. whereas non-probability sampling entails selecting participants in a non-randomized and therefore non-representative manner. for example, a non-probability strategy could involve selecting participants based on ease of access. this is called a convenience sample. the right sampling approach depends largely on what you are trying to achieve in you study. specifically, whether you are trying to develop findings that are generalizable to a population or not. practicalities and resource constraints also play a large role here as it is often quite challenging to gain access to a truly random sample. data collection methods (how exactly you will go about collecting the necessary data for your study. your choice of data collection method or methods will depend on the type of data that you plan to collect. in other words, qualitative, words based or quantitative numbers-based data. typically, quantitative research relies on surveys, data generated by lab equipment, analytics software or existing data sets. quantitative collection methods (surveys online/ offline) (lab equipment data) (analytics data) (secondary data) qualitative research on the other hand often makes use of in-person collection methods, such as (interviews), (focus group) and (participant, observation). so, as you can see there is a tight Data analysis techniques once you have collected your data how will you go about analysing it? (be as specific as possible about the analysis methods and techniques used) ( what exactly you discuss here will depend largely on the type of study you are conducting.) For qualitative studies, common analysis methods include content analysis, thematic analysis, discourse analysis. for quantitative studies, you will almost always make use of descriptive stats: (mean, median, mode, standard deviation etc.) statistics and in many cases, you will also use inferential statistics techniques. inferential stats: (correlation analysis, regression analysis) for example, ( correlation and regression analysis). in this section, it is also important to discuss how you prepared your data for analysis and what software you used if any. for example, quantitative data will often require some initial preparation such as removing duplicates or incomplete responses and calculating composite measures. as always remember to clearly state both what you did and why you did it. all right with these seven core design choices covered, the meat and potatoes of your methodology chapter are sorted. limitations of methodology: with your key research design choices outlined and justified the next step is to discuss the limitations of your design. importantly no research design or methodology is perfect there will always be trade-offs between the ideal design and the design that is practical and viable given your constraints. therefore, this section of your methodology chapter is where you will discuss the trade-offs you had to make and why these were justified given the context. so, what goes into this section? methodological limitations can vary greatly from study to study. ranging from common issues such as: lack of time, budget constraints, analysis method limitations, sampling issues. for example, you may find that you did not manage to attract enough survey respondents to achieve the desired sample size or that your sample is skewed heavily towards a certain demographic resulting in reduced representativeness. in this section, it is important to be critical of the shortcomings of your study. by being critical you will demonstrate to your maker that you have a strong understanding of research design. so do not be shy here. at the same time do not beat your study to death. outline your study's methodology limitations. how to keep it balanced : (outline the limitations, justify the limitations, mitigation actions, value provided). why these were justified given the context, how you mitigated their impacts to the best degree possible and how your studies still provide value despite these limitations. once you have discussed your limitation you are on the home stretch. it is time to wrap up the methodology chapter. the concluding summary in this section, you will want to concisely summarize the key takeaways from the chapter, there is no need to repeat every design (consider using a figure to visually summarize the key design choices) importantly this section needs to be brief a paragraph. make sure that when you write up your concluding summary you only include what you have already discussed in your chapter. do not add any new information. the core structure of your methodology chapter should include the folowing: 1- brief introduction 2- research design a detailed discussion of the seven core research design choices: a- research philosophy b- type c- strategy d- time horizon e- sampling f- data collection & analysis methods 3- a discussion of the methodological limitations 4- brief concluding summary

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Excellent session on Methodology. Breaks down all the important points and makes them really clear. Well done.

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I think this is by far the best concise in relation to research methodology as compared to various videos, books etc I had read. ESPECIALLY SECTION 2 RESEARCH DESIGN.

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Thanks so much for your videos on the various chapters on dissertation/thesis writing. They have been so helpful to me in writing my Master's thesis.

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Me and my group in class are doing a term paper and I was tasked with doing the methodology. I wasn't really sure what and how I was gonna do it, and this video greatly helped me understand further. Thanks a lot! :D

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Fantastic !!!! I watched this at the last stage of writing my methodology and it was a game-changer for me. Thank you for this

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[@GradCoach]

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Thanks a lot. I could not even grasp the concept of methodology until this video. Now I have it all figured out.

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I was really confused about my methodology section, and this video was super helpful! can't thank you enough!

[@GradCoach]

Glad it helped!

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Thank you for these great explanations.... I love following your lectures...

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Thanks to the content creators I am now more confident in writing my methodology chapter Thanks a lot

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Love how you analysed each subject. I've learnt so much from your style of teaching. Thank you so much.

[@GradCoach]

Thanks for the feedback!

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Thumps up for a very lucid presentation of the methodology chapter. Thank you.

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Confused myself in my dissertation write up and this video helped to bring my mind back down to breaking the sections up. Thank you.

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it's a wow. I enjoy the whole video. Appreciate the summary as always. Thank you for having knowledge based videos.

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Very helpful to clarify main points for methodology chapter

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Great and clear explanation. Very helpful let me start revising my methodology chapter

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Thank you so much! This helped me so much because this is my first time making a thesis.

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I was about to start my methodology chapter writing with all information from my uni. This video gave me a complete understanding of the methodology. Thank you so much,

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Thank you very much. This is very useful for our research methodology.

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Thanks Emma for this brief chapter description... My submission is due by 15 days and I was so confused how to write methodology chapter

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Glad it was helpful! Good luck with your submission.

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I am starting my dissertation and this video is highly helpful in comparison to my uni lectures. Now, I can confidently start my paper.

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Glad it was helpful!

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This video made me so inspired to start. However, most of these concepts are not usually mentioned straightforwardly as it is quite obvious when you look at a paper (e.g. no one will say my data is quantitative or true experiment was conducted). Very good for 1st years and 2nd years of Psychology students though =) clear and fun

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Happy to hear that!

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You're welcome. Good luck with the proposal.

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Thank you Emma

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Thank you so much; been struggling to write research methodology 😍crystal clear now

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Great! Good luck.

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Thanks

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This was so helpful. Thank you so much.

[@GradCoach]

You're welcome :)

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