the methodology chapter is one of the
most important part of your thesis
it allows readers to evaluate the
reliability and validity of the research
and in this video you'll learn how to
write a strong methodology in four
simple steps hi i'm jessica from
scrubber here to help you achieve your
academic goals step 1 explain your
methodological approach
what was your research problem and what
type of data did you need to answer it
did you aim to describe the
characteristics of something to gain
more in-depth understanding of a topic
or to establish a cause-and-effect
relationship next what type of data did
you have to collect to achieve that aim
did you need quantitative data which is
expressed in numbers or qualitative data
expressed in words did you collect
primary data by yourself or use
secondary data that was already
collected by someone else
step 2 describe your methods of data
collection
now you've introduced your overall
approach you can move on to giving full
details of the research methods you used
here's an idea of what you should
include in general the sampling method
or criteria you use to select
participants or sources the tools
procedures and material you use to
gather data how you measured your
variables especially in quantitative and
experimental research you should give
enough detail for it to be replicated by
another researcher so let's say we're
researching the opinions of company's
customers and we collected our data
through surveys a paragraph from our
methodology chapter might look something
like this the example here describes
what type of questions were asked where
when and how the survey was conducted
here it describes the sampling method
used to select participants the sample
size and the response rate
also note that rewrite the methodology
chapter in the past tense
because the research has already been
conducted don't worry if you're not
using surveys we also have examples on
other methods you can find them in our
knowledgebase articles step 3
describe your methods of analysis in
this step you should describe how you
process and analyze the data avoid going
into too much detail here so don't start
presenting or discussing any of your
results for quantitative methods we're
dealing with numbers so we might
describe the data preparation before
analyzing software's that we use to
analyze the data which statistical
methods were used so here we've
described how we prepared the data by
checking for missing data and outliers
we used the statistical software SPSS to
analyze the data and the statistical
method use was a pair t-test for
qualitative methods were focusing on
words so your analysis will be based on
language images and interpretations you
might describe how you went about
categorizing the responses to identify
recurring themes and patterns we also
have an example for qualitative methods
it's in our knowledgebase article you
can check it out here step 4 evaluate
and justify your methodological choices
your methodology should make the case
for why you chose these particular
methods especially if you did not take
the most standard approach to your topic
discuss why other methods were not
suitable for objectives and show how
this approach contributes new knowledge
or understanding you can acknowledge
limitations or weaknesses in the
approach you chose but justify why B's
were outweighed by the strengths now we
can step up our game here are a few tips
to make your methodology chapter even
better focus on your objectives and
research questions show why your methods
suit your objectives and convince the
reader that you chose the best possible
approach to answering your problem
statement and research questions
strengthen your methodology by
referencing existing research that use
our methods or sighting methodological
literature that supports your choices
you can use scrubbers free citation
generators to create MLA or APA
citations click here if you encountered
any difficulties in collecting or
analyzing data explain how you deal with
them show how you minimize the impact of
any unexpected obstacles
now you're fully equipped to write your
research methodology check out article
for more examples before you go make
sure to drop a like and so skipper I'll
see you next time
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