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What To Know About The Dissertation Research Methodology: 5 Basic Points


While many subjects require a dissertation in order to receive your degree that work can be approached in a similar way across the disciplines. That approach to writing is called your methodology, which is not necessarily the same as methods.

It is all about the details. Here you are trying to explain as clearly as possible why you chose this particular project so that your reader will be able to understand your thought processes. Your methodology should not contain any results, but what is should contain is enough information about how you obtained your results that any researcher reading it will be able to re-create your working methods. In this section of your dissertation you need to explain why you chose these particular methods of working to produce your data.

This is not the absolute guide to writing a methodology; you should always talk to your supervisor. Each department may require different amounts of information.

How to gather information

  • Interviews – perhaps more a guided conversation in which you collect opinions and memories of a selection of individuals
  • Observations – where you watch how people behave in certain situations
  • Questionnaires – are more useful than interviews if you need more standardized information from the selected individuals.
  • Analysis documents – birth, death and marriage certificates would be an example of the sort of documents you might need to study.

What to include in your methodology

  1. Show the methods by which you intend to work and explain how you intend to present your findings. It should also explain any changes and refinements to your procedures that were required as you went along.
  2. Be very detailed and descriptive in your writing. The purpose here is to allow your reader to re-create your methods if they need to check your working./li>
  3. This is where you explain how you intend to get your results but this is not the place to include any questionnaires or other data gathering format. As mentioned above the Methodology should allow your reader to reproduce your questionnaires./li>
  4. Remember to link back to the literature you used to inform your choice of project. And make sure that the literature is linked to your research questions./li>
  5. Make sure you keep your supervisor informed as to your dissertation project. Often their experience will let them see a flaw in your design so that you can sort out the problem before you get too deeply immersed in your project./li>

Thesis Guides

Key Notes

Key notes to remember when crafting your PhD paper is to always be aware of who your audience is and the direction you are trying to go with it. A lot of people make mistakes by randomly writing and not giving much thought beforehand.