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Brainstorming: The First Step to Writing Your Essay Methodology

The importance of explaining the methodology in a research paper or an essay is that it imparts clarity. Methodology is just between you and your sources, it is the approach adopted in preparing the paper. Though essays are generally shorter and less elaborate in their content than research papers, they also require a methodology description. Short methodology overview will help you to avoid a lot of questions, like “Why did you use only these sources?”, or “Why didn’t you consider Mr. X’s research on the relevant topic”. This page was designed with the aim to explain you on examples how to write your essay methodology .

Navigation through Methodology Example page

• Research Methodology Example
• How to Introduce Methodology in the Essay?

Data Collecting Methodology

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• Data Analysis Methodology

Adopting an Approach

Describing your methodology, project methodology examples, download a methodology example.

Essay methodology examples may be easily accessible on the net. However, trying to adapt an essay methodology example from the net for your essay may become messy if care is not exercised. Even if the subject of the example and your assignment are similar, not necessarily the same approach is used in then. Therefore, though choosing the right methodology that suits your assignment is important.

How to introduce Methodology in the Essay?

Though preparing an essay involves defined methods, it is seldom revealed within the essay. But it does not mean that you cannot include essay methodology in your essay. While writing a Frankenstein essay or a Macbeth essay , you definitely would have used some method to collect, research, and organize your information. Try to reflect on that in the essay and it will provide your reader with a guideline to your essay.

For example an essay on Macbeth can be written very differently, depending on your essay question and your methodology .

• Since 17th century a lot of scholars were trying to provide there interpretation of Macbeth. You may choose several interpretations and compare them. But then you need to explain why you choose such topic and these very interpretations. The answer to these questions will be your methodology description.
• Macbeth is covered with superstitions, why not to study them? The topic is very interesting. But how are you going to approach it? Are you going to rely on some studies in your essay or do the research of your own? What sources are you going to use? Perhaps, you’ll decide to use articles from press, as it’s a great means of transition of gossips. Or perhaps, you’d like to take an interview with an actor from a local theater and ask him about that.
• It is known that Shakespeare based his play on some other sources. So your essay may address the question how these sources were used in Macbeth.
• You may be interested how customs and manners (including the attitude to witchcraft) are described in Macbeth, and reflect whether these attitudes were common in Shakespeare’s time.

Research methodology involves the collection and analysis of materials relevant to the study. Thus, in all of these cases there are 4 basic ways to deal with the essay methodology :

– identify data collecting methods

– identify data analysis methods

– adopt the approach of some scholar

– describe what are you doing and why

The type of research method that you follow will be much determined by the type of study. Depending on the purpose, your research method may take different forms. Some of the examples of research methods are: experimental, expository, action, pure, and applied research. Also, based on the source of materials for the research and study, you may have primary research and secondary research. But how do you know which research methods should you use? Decide your purpose of research first; then the purpose itself decides the method. The type of research method that you follow is determined by the type of study. Depending on the purpose, your research method may take different forms. Some of the examples of research methods are: experimental, expository, action, pure, and applied research. Also, based on the source of materials for the research and study, you may have primary research and secondary research. But how do you know which research methods should you use? Decide your purpose of research first; then the purpose itself decides the method.

Data collecting methods may be different. If you’ve done something special to get your information, you definitely need to mention it. For example, you may mention that:

• you conducted an interview . In this case you should specify how many people you have interviewed, what did you ask them, and who these people were.
• prepared a questionnaire . If you have a questionnaire you need to specify which type of questions did you use, who your respondents were and how did you distribute it.
• searched archive . Though we live in the information age, not all information is available on-line. So, when you are doing a research paper on history a visit to an archive will provide you with unique material for analysis.
• decided to base your essay on observation .

Data collecting methodology also includes the explanation of your choice of sources . Even if in the essay you compare two articles that were given to you at class, your essay will benefit if you’ll try to explain these choice. For instance, that the authors held different views on the same issue because of their different professional background.

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Data Analysis Methodology (Click on Image to Enlarge)

Data analysis methods may be divided into quantitative and qualitative . For instance you may either conduct a number of interviews for quantitative analysis, or have just a couple of them for case studies.

Quantitative methods are used when you can rely on some reliable statistics. Mostly these are used in the essays connected with economics, where descriptive method can be applied. Quantitative methods are also widely used in social sciences and humanities. It’s hardly possible to imagine a sociological discussion that will not appeal to some statistics. Content analysis is a popular quantitative method used in philology, political science and history. Due to content analysis you may count how often certain topics are connected together in speeches of politics, and arrive at some interesting conclusion.

Qualitative methods are widely used in different research areas. The most popular qualitative method is case study , though context analysis, and surveys are also popular.

You may also follow the methodology of some author in your analysis. For instance, try to apply the approach of Edward Said to the analysis of some book that deals with foreign lands. Or try to find the similarities of description of ceremonies connected with presidential post with the ceremonies of the king’s court as described by Mark Bloch. Though such methodologies don’t have names of their own, it is possible to apply them in your essay.

If you fail to identify your methods, you can always just describe steps of your research. If you keep notes on how you engaged in the research, you will have enough material to prop up a methodology segment in your essay. Ensure that you have data on

• The means used in research, such as digital library, books and publications, internet, etc.
• The sources of information, such as particular publications, books, websites, etc.
• The reason you chose those sources of information. The authenticity of the website like encyclopedia.com or the popularity of the publication, say National geographic.
• The steps you used to confirm the veracity of the information, namely how you have crosschecked the information at another authentic site or publication.

A project methodology gives an idea about how the project is carried out and an interpretation of the results. It may be related to entirely new activities, like a project, to bring out a new product or to existing activities like discovering problems and developing solutions. The following is an example of a project methodology for problem solving:

• Developing the problem statement
• Detecting the causes
• Recognizing the alternative solutions
• Deciding the best solution
• Implementation of the solution
• Review and feed back

A correct project methodology is a precondition to the successful execution of projects, as it gives the project required degree of consistency.

Research Methods Examples

A research methodology section will inform the reader about:

• Scope of the Study – This lets the reader know your scope of study.
• Sources of Data and Information – Whether it is primary and secondary.
• Tools for Analysis- such as mathematical models, tables, graphs, etc.
• Limitation of the Study

Research methodology is the main body of any research, thus it deserves good effort and endeavor from the students.

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• What Is a Research Methodology? | Steps & Tips

What Is a Research Methodology? | Steps & Tips

Published on August 25, 2022 by Shona McCombes and Tegan George. Revised on June 22, 2023.

Your research methodology discusses and explains the data collection and analysis methods you used in your research. A key part of your thesis, dissertation , or research paper , the methodology chapter explains what you did and how you did it, allowing readers to evaluate the reliability and validity of your research and your dissertation topic .

It should include:

• The type of research you conducted
• How you collected and analyzed your data
• Any tools or materials you used in the research
• How you mitigated or avoided research biases
• Why you chose these methods
• Your methodology section should generally be written in the past tense .
• Academic style guides in your field may provide detailed guidelines on what to include for different types of studies.
• Your citation style might provide guidelines for your methodology section (e.g., an APA Style methods section ).

Table of contents

How to write a research methodology, why is a methods section important, step 1: explain your methodological approach, step 2: describe your data collection methods, step 3: describe your analysis method, step 4: evaluate and justify the methodological choices you made, tips for writing a strong methodology chapter, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about methodology.

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Your methods section is your opportunity to share how you conducted your research and why you chose the methods you chose. It’s also the place to show that your research was rigorously conducted and can be replicated .

It gives your research legitimacy and situates it within your field, and also gives your readers a place to refer to if they have any questions or critiques in other sections.

You can start by introducing your overall approach to your research. You have two options here.

Option 1: Start with your “what”

What research problem or question did you investigate?

• Aim to describe the characteristics of something?
• Explore an under-researched topic?
• Establish a causal relationship?

And what type of data did you need to achieve this aim?

• Quantitative data , qualitative data , or a mix of both?
• Primary data collected yourself, or secondary data collected by someone else?
• Experimental data gathered by controlling and manipulating variables, or descriptive data gathered via observations?

Option 2: Start with your “why”

Depending on your discipline, you can also start with a discussion of the rationale and assumptions underpinning your methodology. In other words, why did you choose these methods for your study?

• Why is this the best way to answer your research question?
• Is this a standard methodology in your field, or does it require justification?
• Were there any ethical considerations involved in your choices?
• What are the criteria for validity and reliability in this type of research ? How did you prevent bias from affecting your data?

Once you have introduced your reader to your methodological approach, you should share full details about your data collection methods .

Quantitative methods

In order to be considered generalizable, you should describe quantitative research methods in enough detail for another researcher to replicate your study.

Here, explain how you operationalized your concepts and measured your variables. Discuss your sampling method or inclusion and exclusion criteria , as well as any tools, procedures, and materials you used to gather your data.

Surveys Describe where, when, and how the survey was conducted.

• How did you design the questionnaire?
• What form did your questions take (e.g., multiple choice, Likert scale )?
• Were your surveys conducted in-person or virtually?
• What sampling method did you use to select participants?
• What was your sample size and response rate?

Experiments Share full details of the tools, techniques, and procedures you used to conduct your experiment.

• How did you design the experiment ?
• How did you recruit participants?
• How did you manipulate and measure the variables ?
• What tools did you use?

Existing data Explain how you gathered and selected the material (such as datasets or archival data) that you used in your analysis.

• Where did you source the material?
• How was the data originally produced?
• What criteria did you use to select material (e.g., date range)?

The survey consisted of 5 multiple-choice questions and 10 questions measured on a 7-point Likert scale.

The goal was to collect survey responses from 350 customers visiting the fitness apparel company’s brick-and-mortar location in Boston on July 4–8, 2022, between 11:00 and 15:00.

Here, a customer was defined as a person who had purchased a product from the company on the day they took the survey. Participants were given 5 minutes to fill in the survey anonymously. In total, 408 customers responded, but not all surveys were fully completed. Due to this, 371 survey results were included in the analysis.

• Information bias
• Omitted variable bias
• Regression to the mean
• Survivorship bias
• Undercoverage bias
• Sampling bias

Qualitative methods

In qualitative research , methods are often more flexible and subjective. For this reason, it’s crucial to robustly explain the methodology choices you made.

Be sure to discuss the criteria you used to select your data, the context in which your research was conducted, and the role you played in collecting your data (e.g., were you an active participant, or a passive observer?)

Interviews or focus groups Describe where, when, and how the interviews were conducted.

• How did you find and select participants?
• How many participants took part?
• What form did the interviews take ( structured , semi-structured , or unstructured )?
• How long were the interviews?
• How were they recorded?

Participant observation Describe where, when, and how you conducted the observation or ethnography .

• What group or community did you observe? How long did you spend there?
• How did you gain access to this group? What role did you play in the community?
• How long did you spend conducting the research? Where was it located?
• How did you record your data (e.g., audiovisual recordings, note-taking)?

Existing data Explain how you selected case study materials for your analysis.

• What type of materials did you analyze?
• How did you select them?

In order to gain better insight into possibilities for future improvement of the fitness store’s product range, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 8 returning customers.

Here, a returning customer was defined as someone who usually bought products at least twice a week from the store.

Surveys were used to select participants. Interviews were conducted in a small office next to the cash register and lasted approximately 20 minutes each. Answers were recorded by note-taking, and seven interviews were also filmed with consent. One interviewee preferred not to be filmed.

• The Hawthorne effect
• Observer bias
• The placebo effect
• Response bias and Nonresponse bias
• The Pygmalion effect
• Recall bias
• Social desirability bias
• Self-selection bias

Mixed methods

Mixed methods research combines quantitative and qualitative approaches. If a standalone quantitative or qualitative study is insufficient to answer your research question, mixed methods may be a good fit for you.

Mixed methods are less common than standalone analyses, largely because they require a great deal of effort to pull off successfully. If you choose to pursue mixed methods, it’s especially important to robustly justify your methods.

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Next, you should indicate how you processed and analyzed your data. Avoid going into too much detail: you should not start introducing or discussing any of your results at this stage.

In quantitative research , your analysis will be based on numbers. In your methods section, you can include:

• How you prepared the data before analyzing it (e.g., checking for missing data , removing outliers , transforming variables)
• Which software you used (e.g., SPSS, Stata or R)
• Which statistical tests you used (e.g., two-tailed t test , simple linear regression )

In qualitative research, your analysis will be based on language, images, and observations (often involving some form of textual analysis ).

Specific methods might include:

• Content analysis : Categorizing and discussing the meaning of words, phrases and sentences
• Thematic analysis : Coding and closely examining the data to identify broad themes and patterns
• Discourse analysis : Studying communication and meaning in relation to their social context

Mixed methods combine the above two research methods, integrating both qualitative and quantitative approaches into one coherent analytical process.

Above all, your methodology section should clearly make the case for why you chose the methods you did. This is especially true if you did not take the most standard approach to your topic. In this case, discuss why other methods were not suitable for your objectives, and show how this approach contributes new knowledge or understanding.

In any case, it should be overwhelmingly clear to your reader that you set yourself up for success in terms of your methodology’s design. Show how your methods should lead to results that are valid and reliable, while leaving the analysis of the meaning, importance, and relevance of your results for your discussion section .

• Quantitative: Lab-based experiments cannot always accurately simulate real-life situations and behaviors, but they are effective for testing causal relationships between variables .
• Qualitative: Unstructured interviews usually produce results that cannot be generalized beyond the sample group , but they provide a more in-depth understanding of participants’ perceptions, motivations, and emotions.
• Mixed methods: Despite issues systematically comparing differing types of data, a solely quantitative study would not sufficiently incorporate the lived experience of each participant, while a solely qualitative study would be insufficiently generalizable.

Remember that your aim is not just to describe your methods, but to show how and why you applied them. Again, it’s critical to demonstrate that your research was rigorously conducted and can be replicated.

1. Focus on your objectives and research questions

The methodology section should clearly 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 .

2. Cite relevant sources

Your methodology can be strengthened by referencing existing research in your field. This can help you to:

• Show that you followed established practice for your type of research
• Discuss how you decided on your approach by evaluating existing research
• Present a novel methodological approach to address a gap in the literature

3. Write for your audience

Consider how much information you need to give, and avoid getting too lengthy. If you are using methods that are standard for your discipline, you probably don’t need to give a lot of background or justification.

Regardless, your methodology should be a clear, well-structured text that makes an argument for your approach, not just a list of technical details and procedures.

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Normal distribution
• Measures of central tendency
• Chi square tests
• Confidence interval
• Quartiles & Quantiles

Methodology

• Cluster sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Thematic analysis
• Cohort study
• Peer review
• Ethnography

Research bias

• Implicit bias
• Cognitive bias
• Conformity bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Availability heuristic
• Attrition bias

Methodology refers to the overarching strategy and rationale of your research project . It involves studying the methods used in your field and the theories or principles behind them, in order to develop an approach that matches your objectives.

Methods are the specific tools and procedures you use to collect and analyze data (for example, experiments, surveys , and statistical tests ).

In shorter scientific papers, where the aim is to report the findings of a specific study, you might simply describe what you did in a methods section .

In a longer or more complex research project, such as a thesis or dissertation , you will probably include a methodology section , where you explain your approach to answering the research questions and cite relevant sources to support your choice of methods.

In a scientific paper, the methodology always comes after the introduction and before the results , discussion and conclusion . The same basic structure also applies to a thesis, dissertation , or research proposal .

Depending on the length and type of document, you might also include a literature review or theoretical framework before the methodology.

Quantitative research deals with numbers and statistics, while qualitative research deals with words and meanings.

Quantitative methods allow you to systematically measure variables and test hypotheses . Qualitative methods allow you to explore concepts and experiences in more detail.

Reliability and validity are both about how well a method measures something:

• Reliability refers to the  consistency of a measure (whether the results can be reproduced under the same conditions).
• Validity   refers to the  accuracy of a measure (whether the results really do represent what they are supposed to measure).

If you are doing experimental research, you also have to consider the internal and external validity of your experiment.

A sample is a subset of individuals from a larger population . Sampling means selecting the group that you will actually collect data from in your research. For example, if you are researching the opinions of students in your university, you could survey a sample of 100 students.

In statistics, sampling allows you to test a hypothesis about the characteristics of a population.

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