What Is a Research Methodology? On What Basis Would You Choose the Methodology for Your Thesis?
Is It too difficult to Choose the Right Methodology for Your Thesis?
A research methodology is the methodological procedure that is used by the researcher to determine the relationship between variables. Through the methodology, the researcher is able to collect data and provide an interpretation or analysis of the topic according to the methodology used. The methodology thus refers to the methods and procedures that are used by the researcher to carry out the study or to examine whether the hypothesis as identified in the study is valid or null.
Methodologies describe the way a research study is conducted and sometimes the focus is on quantitative aspects of the data and sometimes according to the study, the emphasis would be on the qualitative aspects of data interpretation. So methodologies can be qualitative, quantitative or mixed approach methodology.
Choosing the right kind of methodology for your paper would directly depend on what the thesis wants to achieve. Before choosing the methodology, determine what do you want to find out. Is the sample of your study particularly large and do you need to use surveys and other related tools to collect data? Do you need to conduct interviews as part of the research study? Conducting interviews and analysis of the interview results is a qualitative process whereas conducting a survey and collecting data from a survey is a quantitative methodological process. A mixed-methods approach uses both quantitative and qualitative methodological analysis. You can use any of these methods according to your preferences or direction of research. You must consult with your supervisor to determine which methodology is best for you considering the overall research agenda.A research methodology is thus the methodology you choose to conduct your research. You choose the methodology based on two factors: 1) your preferences and 2) your project requirements.
Choosing the correct methodology is not an extremely difficult process, but may be challenging if you are not aware of the subject matter or do not know how to conduct the research.
In order to choose the right method, you must know about all the relevant methods and doing a thorough study is crucial to the selection of methodology. You must be able to conduct a literature review and complete a thorough study on methodological procedures. Consult your supervisor. This is very important, as you may find it difficult to choose your research method without guidance, but your supervisor will naturally guide you towards the right direction.
Choosing a methodological approach is crucial to your research process as soon as you have the topic or the title, the natural progression is to move towards choosing the correct methodology.
You must consider the following steps to understand how methodology must be chosen for your research.
1. Choose the research topic and title, and conduct a database search of studies to understand what type of study relates to what type of method.
2. Make a table or informal list of your literature review research papers to understand the type of methodologies that were used in these research papers.
3. Now compare and contrast these research studies and the methodologies used to filter the similar methodologies and separate the different methodologies that are used in these papers.
4. Considering your research topic and title, what are the methodologies that could be appropriate for the specific title and agenda?
5. Consider similar studies in your research field. What type of methodology did these research studies use and how could you compare, contrast studies and use a similar or same research methodology?
6. What tools would you need to implement your research methodology?
7. Is your methodological approach compatible with the research title, research topic and research question? This is a very important question as a research methodology has to be well -aligned with other aspects of research.
These are some of the basic questions or premises that have to be considered while you work on your research methodology and try to select the most appropriate method for your research. For more information, check out customwritten.com/writing/academic-proposal.
As you evolve from a student to a researcher, you understand the importance and value of methods in a thesis. As a first year student, you do not generally get to know what methods you must use in an essay, so you write all kinds of essays and use different methods or no methods and approaches to validate your points.
As you become a seasoned researcher, you realize that methodology is almost central to the thesis or research paper as methodology determines the direction and structure of the thesis. This means once you have the methodology, you know how you should go about creating the structure of a thesis and how you should conduct your research and move forward to the data collection. Methodology determines data collection and the methods are influential in determining the direction your research will take.
Probably you never understood how important methodologies are in research and that the methodologies are crucial to a research paper and agenda. This blog post however, tries to improve your understanding of methodology and helps you to choose the correct methodological approach for your research paper or project.
Remember the first step to research would always be selecting the appropriate research question and correct research agenda and topic or title, Once you have these, you should be able to move to the the methods. Every thesis will tend to have its own methodological approach so the structure of a thesis would vary according to the research methods and research approaches. For example, when you use a quantitative research methodology, you must produce a survey or other tools assessed with a rating scale, so the structure of your essay will emphasize on sampling tools and other quantitative approaches to study the identified variables. On the other hand, if you use a qualitative method for your study, the structure of your essay will change and emphasize on the subjective aspects of your interpretation and study, so research methodologies will actively change your essay structure and approach to study.