A Manual For Writers Of Research Papers, Theses, And Dissertations: Methodology Section
The methodology or methods section of your dissertation, thesis or research paper simply outlines what you did in order to come up with your results and/or conclusion. You describe who was involve in your study, materials you used and procedures you followed in order to come up with sufficient data related to your research. A significant point to remember is as you write this section, other researchers should be able to replicate what you did and how you did it. Pay close attention as you complete this section and avoid leaving out details that could change the outcome for another researcher. The following points can help you get started writing your methodology.
- Know important components that make up your methodology section. This could vary depending on school guidelines. Common essential parts include participants, materials, procedure and design.
- The methodology section may have several subsections. You will decide which sections you will write and how they will appear based on how you want readers to understand your findings. Based on each subsection you will write your content.
- This content should be written in past tense because you are describing what you did and what occurred. Keep details simple but leave out information that is not necessary for replication. Stay focused on your content and think about your reading audience and any other researcher that would be interested in copying your actions.
- Detail people who took part in your work; also known as participants. You can talk about how they were chosen to take part, where they are from, ages, how many participated, and so forth.
- Describe material used. This will be just about everything you used to help you complete your experiment. You will mention what books, pictures, instruments and other materials essential to your research. You will detail how these materials were used by you and those who participated.
- Write the procedures used to help you carry out your research. You will simply state what actions you took and what others did during the experiment. How did you collect your information and what did the participants do? State steps you took to get things done.
- Remember to proofread your work. For this section it is important to check for errors and typos. Read over procedures and steps to ensure they can be followed and replicated. Your discussion and results section should be in sync with content detailed in your methodology.