A Brief Guide On How To Write A Research Paper Methodology

The methodology section of a research paper is one of the most important components as it points out directly and clearly which scientific method you used to conduct a particular study. Your study’s validity is judged on two basic questions that should be presented in this section: 1) How did you generate or collect the information/data? And; 2) How did you analyze/evaluate the information/data? This article briefly guides towards composing a great research paper methodology:

Describe the Equipment and Materials Used

All sections of a good research paper methodology should be written in a straightforward manner without inclusion of any opinion. To start this section, simply describe the equipment and materials used in your study. In sciences for instance, you would describe lab equipment. In psychology or any other social science, you would discuss surveys or questions used to ask participants.

Explain How Samples Used Were Gathered

Next, you should explain the details of how the samples used in arriving at your conclusion were gathered. Again, this will differ across disciplines so be sure you check with your professor or read previously published assignments to understand what you need to communicate in this portion. If it’s a survey then you can state something like “24 participants were given a 12 question survey. 10 male and 14 female respondents were given 10 minutes to complete the survey…” and so forth.

Explain What Measurements/Calculations Were Used

Again, you should use just straightforward language throughout. The next few sentences after describing how samples were gathered is to provide some explanation as to what measurements were used. In the science disciplines this much easier to express, however, in social sciences you need to present some sort of scoring or definition system. For instance, you can explain that a survey question asked for participants to rank answers. This will allow you to create a scoring system (e.g., 87% of respondent’s provided an average of above 4 when asked about their level of satisfaction).

Describe the Statistical Methods Used on Data

Finally, this last section should clearly explain the statistical (or scientific) method used on the information gathered so that another person reading your study could replicate the experiment and arrive at the exact same findings. The entire methodology section needs to be accurate for this reason. You will gain more credibility if everything you state is clearly considered to be transparent and non-contradictory.