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How to Write the Methods Section of a Research Paper

How to Write the Methods Section of a Research Paper

Published by on 2021-05-18 10:04:40

Conducting analysis, learners need to find a lot of information, investigate it, and perform different experiments that lead to a particular result. Since research papers are academic writing, everything that you state should be well-documented and backed up. Moreover, all the experiments have to be easy to replicate.

In mere words, it's a detailed guide on all methods that you performed to achieve a achieve a particular result. Other scientists will have the ability to replicate your experiment and verify or dispute your study using the methods section of the research paper. Also, the methodology part helps readers understand the nature of your experiments.

Unfortunately, it's not enough to merely tell some info about the ways of your study. According to an example of the methods section, you ought to present a lot of vital information. Everything has to be well-structured, properly formatted, carefully edited and be resented in a particular order. In the post below, you will find out how to compose this part.

Method Section of a Research Paper Writing

Creating the methodology section, you need to tell as much as possible about data collection on your research topic. The list of methods that learners use contains surveys, experiments, existing data, interviews, observation, and even focus groups. However, if you used a different way to gather information, you should note it in the methods part.

For instance, if your study is based on a questionnaire, you should tell all the details so that they can repeat your experiment. Any instruction on how to write a methods section of a research paper will tell you that writers have to tell how they created questions. Also, feel free to mention the questions if you don't exceed the world's limit of your paper. You should show how you performed your survey and shared non-personalized information about those who joined your research. This information may include age, profession, sex, interests, etc.

Examining an APA methods section example, you can discover that it consists of three different parts that are:

  • participants;
  • materials;
  • procedure. 

These are the three primary components of any methodology part of research writing. According to the APA style, these sections have to be organized in the form of subheadings. It's also allowed to add the third level headings if needed. Usually, they are used to represent different methods.

Participants

You have to start writing the methodology part of a study paper by every specifying participant. They can be humans or particular subjects. Any items or animals can be characterized without thorough details. In case you used electronic devices in your research only, you should specify the minimal technical requirements to replicate your analysis. However, if computers were used for analyzing data, you ought to mention the software used for conducting your research, according to the instructions on how to write a methods and materials section.

If your research is based on analyzing data obtained from people, you need to describe the audience as thoroughly as possible. Tons of personal characteristics should be noted in addition to the primary ones. You can describe a group of people by the educational, economic, and even immigration status.

You can highlight the distinctive peculiarities of a group of people that imply the number of languages people know, how many times a year they have a vacation, or how much money they tend to spend for entertainment monthly. Reading how to write a methods section, you have to remember that you should specify the criteria that forced you to select a particular group of people. If there was any reward provided to participants, this information must be included in the methodology section of the research paper.

Materials

The materials heading should provide detailed information about the required items to replicate the experiment. In this paragraph, you have to write about the used equipment, instruments, or extra help of specialists. This information will help you break the ice between your paper and readers. Using the provided details, they will take a deep dive into your research and understand its basics. You also need to mention the instructions you followed.

Procedure

It is the last piece of the methodology part. There, you need to write a detailed guide on how you accumulated the data. You should describe all the applied procedures and note all distinctive peculiarities or innovations applied. For instance, if you conducted a survey and created a neuroimaging based on the gathered data, you must write down every step you conducted.

Learners need to understand the way gathered information was analyzed. Exploring a method section example on the Internet, you will find that analytic strategies are always specified as detailed as possible.

Things to Know Writing Method Part

Never be shy about looking for help online if you don't know how to write the methods section. Many detailed guides can help you discover how to write a methods section of a research proposal. They can help you avoid a lot of obstacles and write an outstanding paper that matches all the requirements.

Even though details are very important in writing the methods section of a research paper, you should keep it brief. Try not to pay a lot of attention to popular and well-known methods. For instance, there is no need to write a lot of sentences describing how to conduct research or surf the Internet. It will keep readers safe from a text that delivers zero useful information.

The methodology part may seem boring for a large number of readers. In most cases, they are full of technical information that describes research in more detail. Therefore, don't be shy about adding some visual information like charts to engage readers.