Structure your methodology chapter around these six key headings for a clear, comprehensive methods section that covers everything it needs to.

The methodology chapter of your dissertation serves as a guide to the research process. It includes several key sections that are super important for a comprehensive understanding of your study. Here are the key sections.

(1) Context: Begin by providing an overview of the research aims and objectives. Explain the question or topic you aimed to explore and the approach you took to investigate it. Mention the research design (qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods) and the broader ontological or epistemological framework.

(2) Sampling: Describe how you selected your sample, considering the size, inclusion/exclusion criteria, and where you found participants or cases. Explain the reasoning behind your chosen sampling method (e.g., cluster, random, purposive, snowball sampling) and justify its suitability for your study.

(3) Data Collection: Outline the techniques you used to collect data and justify their appropriateness based on your aims, objectives, and research questions. Discuss any alternative approaches you considered but decided not to use, emphasising the consistency of your chosen method with your research goals.

(4) Data Analysis: Explain how you analysed the data and why you did it this way. Link the data analysis method back to your research approach and demonstrate how it helps answer your research questions. Mention any alternative approaches you considered but ultimately rejected.

(5) Ethical Considerations: Describe the measures you implemented to ensure research ethics, including preventing harm, obtaining informed consent, addressing privacy concerns, and avoiding deception. Discuss the information provided to participants, its accessibility, and the opportunities for them to ask questions or withdraw from the research. If you didn’t have any participants and were analysing secondary data or something like documents / media representations, discuss any ethical issues that arose and how you addressed them.

(6) Changes and Reflections: Reflect on the differences between your initial plans and what actually happened in your research. Address any unexpected issues encountered during participant recruitment or data collection and explain how you adapted to overcome them.

By following this outline, you can ensure a well-structured and comprehensive methodology chapter for your dissertation.

Here are the relevant sections of the video that relate to each one.

Chapters
0:00 - 0:53 Introduction and overview
0:54 - 2:05 Context
2:06 - 3:00 Sampling
3:01 - 4:22 Data collection
4:23 - 5:22 Data analysis
5:23 - 6:21 Ethical considerations
6:22 - 7:26 Changes and reflections
7:27 - 8:35 One important thing to remember

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