Drafting My Quantitative Methodology
In this column, you will be directed to write your research proposal draft in a Word document. Tips and suggestions will help you to move from the planning guide to writing an actual research proposal
The methodology section tells in detail how you plan to tackle your research problem. It provides your work plan and describes the activities necessary for the completion of your project, and contains sufficient information for a reader to determine whether methodology is reliable and valid. A good proposal should contain sufficient details for another qualified researcher to duplicate the study. Taking information from your review of the literature, you should demonstrate your knowledge of alternative methods and make the case that your approach is the most reliable and valid way to address your research question.
When writing your proposal many of the following steps can be combined and/or reorganized to present a more cohesive piece of writing.
b., c., d. Write a very brief introduction to the methodology section as a whole. The introduction should state the goals of the research experiment (or restate them briefly if they've been covered in a previous section), and should suggest any distinct challenges that may stand in the way of achieving these goals. This general introduction should ideally be a single paragraph and it should have its own heading.
e., f., g. Write a summary of your research methodology. Again, this section should be relatively brief, but it can be longer than the introduction. The summary should quickly cover all of the main components of the methods you've used to conduct your research, omitting all of the lesser details. As you write, keep in mind that the purpose of this summary is to inform readers who do not read the extended version of the methodology, which you will write next. This section should also have its