Writing Your Doctoral Dissertation or Thesis Faster

A Proven Map to Success

by E. Alana James and Tracesea Slater

Are  You  Ready  to  Write  Your  Methodology?  

What is Included in an Award-Winning Methodology Chapter?

•  An outstanding methodology chapter ties together the threads laid out the review of literature

•  Your purpose in writing the methodology chapter is to set up the building blocks of your research study in such a way as to convince your reader that your methodology is strong and will resist the tensions created by data collection and analysis in the real world (Booth, Colomb, & Williams, 2008; Garson, 2002; Hoyle, Harris, & Judd, 2002; Leedy & Ormrod, 2005)

Why Start Your Writing With Methodology?

•  Less redundancy in writing •  Helps you avoid a literature review that turns out not to

support the methodology section of your proposal (variables, key background topics and considerations)

•  Methodology supports every section in your proposal and your entire dissertation

Standard Content Required in the Methodology Chapter

•  Se#ng  up  Internal  Consistency:  Linkages  from  Methodological  Design  to  Other  Parts  of  Your  Proposal    –  Importance  of  your  study    –  QuesAons  you  are  asking  or  what  hypotheses  you  are  tesAng    –  Conceptual  or  theoreAcal  issues    –  ParAcipants,  sample,  and  populaAon  –  Data  collecAon  and  analysis    –  Ethical  issues    –  Delimiters  (the  parameters  you  the  researcher  place  on  the  study)  –  AssumpAons  and  limitaAons    

•  What  PorAons  of  Methodology  Should  be  Included  in  Which  Chapters?    

Methodology Writing Tips: Do...

•  Write with your own voice and ideas, citing others who agree with you rather than quoting them.

•  Remember that your reader understands research methods better than you do.

•  Refer to other sections where an aspect is discussed in length rather than be redundant.

Methodology Writing Tips: Don’t…

•  Use words for which you are not completely sure of the meaning or process involved.

•  Describe your methodology differently in each section. •  Change the way in which you describe your problem or

purpose from section to section. •  Use textbook explanations in the methods sections.

Final Considerations for Designing and Writing Methodology

•  Conceptual and Theoretical Frameworks •  Problem Statement Final Checklist •  Ethical Review, Data Collection, and Analysis Final

Checklist

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Where Should I Go to Dig Deeper? Suggested Resources to Consider

•  Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Creswell remains the easiest to grasp yet thorough introduction to research methodology.

•  Gliner, J. A., Morgan, G. A., & Leech, N. L. (2009). Research methods in applied settings: An integrated approach to design and analysis (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. An excellent text recommended by one of our reviewers as a great basic for quantitative research.

•  Maxwell, J. A. (2013). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage. A classic. This book offers a concise yet rigorous and thorough examination of qualitative design.

•  Morgan, G. A., Leech, N. L., Gloeckner, G. W., & Barrett, K. C. (2011). IBM SPSS for introductory statistics: Use and interpretation. New York: Routledge. Chapters 1, 3 and 6 respectively are a must read for quantitative researchers covering variables, research problems, questions, measurement, and descriptive statistics and the selection of and interpretation of inferential statistics. This is written in down-to-earth language and augmented by a thorough example that uses data from the High School and Beyond study.

•  Ravitch, S. M., & Riggan, M. (2012). Reason & Rigor: How conceptual frameworks guide research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. This provides an explicit and in-depth discussion of how to employ conceptual frameworks eas a means to increase and ensure that the primary to the party will be rigor in your overall research design.

•  Sapsford, R. (2007). Survey research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. This is an excellent resource for quantitative work.