What makes the methodology section crucial?

You have the chance to explain how you carried out your study and the rationale behind your method selections in your Methodology section. Additionally, you can use it to demonstrate that the investigation was extensively conducted and is replicable.

It offers your research credibility, places it in the context of your field, and provides your readers with a resource to turn to if they have any concerns or criticisms about other sections.

Step I: Describe your approach to methodology

You can begin by outlining your general research strategy. Here, you have two choices.

Choice A: Begin with your WHAT

• What issue or query did you look into for your research?
• Do you intend to enumerate the qualities of something?
• Are you Investigating a subject that hasn’t received enough attention?
• Are you identifying a causal connection?
• What kind of data were you in need of to accomplish this goal?
• Data that is qualitative, quantitative, or a combination of both?
• Did you gather primary data by yourself, or did another person gather secondary data?
• Descriptive data was obtained by observations, or experimental data was obtained through the control and manipulation of variables?

Choice B: Begin with your WHY

According to your field of study, you might also begin by going over the justification and underlying premises of your method. In simple terms, why did you pick these research methods?

• Why is this the most effective strategy for addressing your research question?
• Is this the accepted practice in your field of work, or does it need to be justified?
• Did your decision-making entail any ethical issues?
• What standards of reliability and validity apply to this kind of research? How could you stop bias from skewing your results?

Step II: Explain how you collected your data.

After giving your reader a brief overview of your methodology, you should go into great detail on how you collected your data.

Quantitative Approaches

You must provide enough information about quantitative research techniques for a different researcher to duplicate the research for it to be deemed generalizable.

Describe how you executed your ideas and evaluated your variables in this section. Talk about the sample strategy you employed, the criteria for inclusion and exclusion you utilized, and any methods, materials, or instruments you used to collect your data.

Surveys 

Describe the location, timing, and methodology of the survey.

• How was the questionnaire created?
• What format did your questions use, such as a Likert scale/multiple choice?
• Did you carry out your survey in person or online?
• What technique did you employ for participant selection?
• What were the size of your sample and response percentage?

Experimentation

Describe in fully the instruments, methods, and processes you employed to carry out your experiment.

• How was the experiment created?
• How could you find your test subjects?
• How did you change the variables and measure them?
• What devices did you employ?

Current data

• Describe the process you used to collect and choose the data (which could be datasets or historical data) for your analysis.
• Where did you get the information?
• How were the data created at the beginning?
• What criteria, such as a date range, did you employ to choose the material?

Qualitative approaches

The procedures used in qualitative research are frequently non-rigid and arbitrary. Therefore, it is essential to clearly describe the methodology decisions you took.

In your written work, be sure to go over the criteria utilized to choose your data, the setting in which your study was done, and the role that you had in data collection (for example, were you a participant who took part or a passive spectator) in detail.

Focus groups or interviewing

Describe the setting, timing, and methodology of the interviews.

• How were volunteers found and chosen?
• How many people participated?
• Which interview format—structured, semi-structured, or unstructured—was used?
• What length did the interviews have?
• How were they captured on tape?

 Observer participation

• Describe the location, timing, and methodology of your ethnographic or observational study.
• Which society or group did you focus on? How much time were you there for?
• How could you get into this organization? What part did you perform in the neighbourhood?
• How much time did it take you to complete the study? Where did it stand?
• What methods of data collecting did you use (audio-visual footage, taking notes, etc.)?

 Current data

• What criteria did you use to choose the case study data for your analysis?
• What kind of sources did you examine?
• How were they chosen by you?

Mixed techniques

Research using mixed methods mixes quantitative and qualitative techniques. Mixed methods might be a good option for you if a solitary quantitative or qualitative study is inadequate to address your research queries.

Remember that using both forms of data isn’t the only aspect of a mixed methods study. Instead, it involves giving serious thought to both sorts of facts and incorporating them into firm conclusions.

Mixed methods are utilized less often than standalone studies, mostly since they are very difficult to execute correctly. It’s particularly important to firmly defend your methods if you decide to pursue hybrid methods.

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