With this in mind, the page length of your methods section will generally be less than any other section of your paper except the conclusion.
Remember that you are not writing a how-to guide about a particular method.
You should make the assumption that readers possess a basic understanding of how to investigate the research problem on their own and, therefore, you do not have to go into great detail about specific methodological procedures.
The focus should be on how you applied a method, not on the mechanics of doing a method.
The methodology section of a research paper answers two main questions: How was the data collected or generated? The writing should be direct and precise and always written in the past tense.
The introduction to your methodology section should begin by restating the research problem and underlying assumptions underpinning your study.It demonstrates to the reader that you can provide a cogent rationale for the decisions you made to minimize the impact of any problems that arose. Institute of Public and International Affairs, University of Utah; Writing the Experimental Report: Methods, Results, and Discussion. A well designed quantitative research study can often be accomplished in very clear and direct ways, whereas, a similar study of a qualitative nature usually requires considerable time to analyze large volumes of data and a tremendous burden to create new paths for analysis where previously no path associated with your research problem had existed.Just as the literature review section of your paper provides an overview of sources you have examined while researching a particular topic, the methodology section should cite any sources that informed your choice and application of a particular method [i.e., the choice of a survey should include any citations to the works you used to help construct the survey]. University of Wisconsin, Madison; Rudestam, Kjell Erik and Rae R. “The Method Chapter: Describing Your Research Plan.” In . There can be multiple meaning associated with the term "theories" and the term "methods" in social sciences research.Do not provide any background information that does not directly help the reader understand why a particular method was chosen, how the data was gathered or obtained, and how the data was analyzed in relation to the research problem [note: analyzed, not interpreted!Save how you interpreted the findings for the discussion section].wiki How's Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article meets our high quality standards. The research methodology section of any academic research paper gives you the opportunity to convince your readers that your research is useful and will contribute to your field of study.An effective research methodology is grounded in your overall approach – whether qualitative or quantitative – and adequately describes the methods you used.A description of a research study's method should not be confused with a description of the sources of information. A helpful way to delineate between them is to understand "theories" as representing different ways of characterizing the social world when you research it and "methods" as representing different ways of generating and analyzing data about that social world.Such a list of sources is useful in and of itself, especially if it is accompanied by an explanation about the selection and use of the sources. Framed in this way, all empirical social sciences research involves theories and methods, whether they are stated explicitly or not.In some cases, the IRB approval notice is included as an appendix to your paper.The methodology section of your paper should be thorough but to the point.