Top Dissertation Methodology Writing Tips

The methodology section of your dissertation comes after the literature review. In this section, you have to explain what methodological approaches you have chosen for your research and why. You also have to explain how you arrived at the conclusion and findings, why they are reliable and how they provide answers to your research questions and hypotheses. Below are some tips for writing a good dissertation methodology:

1.         Define your research problem:

First of all, you have to define and explain your research problem and the philosophy behind it.

2.         Explain your research approach:

Next, give an overview of your research approach. Here, you will have to decide which research approach (qualitative or quantitative) you have used and how.

3.       Research strategy and design:

In this section, you will explain how you gathered the data, reason for choosing your research method such as survey questionnaires, interviews, group discussions etc, and how you selected your sample or the sampling techniques used.

4.       Data gathering and analysis:

Next, you will explain what data collection tool you used for your research and why, like a questionnaire or a computerized interview system. For example, if you used a questionnaire you will have to explain the reason for employing it. In addition to that, you also have to show how you arrived at your findings by performing an analysis of the data you gathered. You also have to state why your findings are reliable and how they answer your research questions or hypotheses.

5.       Ethics:

Your methodology should also explain how you have followed the ethics of your research, especially if your research contains any human subjects. You need to explain the steps that you took to make sure that no one was harmed during the research. This part should also include how you dealt with data protection and confidentiality issues.

6.       Reliability and validity:

Your methodology should be both reliable and valid. Reliability measures the extent to which your research is reliable. Validity refers to whether the research is able to answer the questions that it was intended to answer. Issues concerning reliability and validity include accuracy and precision.

7.       Generalizability:

This refers to the extent to which your results are true and to what extent they can be generalized to other populations as well.

8.       Limitations:

Finally, you have to state in what ways your study was limited.