How to write about research methods

How to write about research methods
Dr Patrick Brindle

Research methods are the thing that unites an otherwise
divided academic community
As academic researchers we all have our individual research
topics and interests, and the community of other researchers
operating in the same field is relatively small
But we all need to do good research

Potentially, our readership, when writing about methods, could be
bigger and much more wide ranging than it might be when we’re
writing about our research findings

When we write about research methods we need to be aware that
our audience is more wide-ranging than it would be for many of the
other things we write as academics
The way we write therefore needs to be meaningful to a community
of readers who may not share our substantive research interests

For PhD students your first task as a writer is to visualise your
examiners as your core readership
They are your audience, so what will they need to know, what won’t
they know already, and what will you need to explain to them and
justify?
The PhD Methods Chapter

You’re not writing for yourself, you’re communicating to others –
your examiners – how you designed and carried out your research
The PhD Methods Chapter

If you’re writing a research paper, your audience is your peer
reviewers, and beyond that your academic research colleagues and
PhDs working in similar fields to you
Methods sections in standard research
papers

• Visualise what your readers will want and need to see before you
write your methods section
• But remember how much shorter a methods section in a
research paper is than a PhD chapter
papers

• When writing an empirical paper, don’t write too much in your
methodology section
• Just give enough (and no more) information to allow your readers
to be able to evaluate how your data was created and how your
methods underpin your theories and arguments
papers

• Contrast this with a methodological article
• A paper written entirely to engage in issues of method and
methodology
• Here your entire word count can be devoted to methodological
discussion
Methodological articles

• For methods papers (just as with methods books and book
chapters) your audience will be much more wide ranging than it
will be for more standard ‘empirical’ research papers

• Understand the breadth of your audience

• New application of an existing method
• New critique of an existing method
• Refine or engage with methodological theory
• New refinements in practice (for instance by using technology in
a new way)
The point is to have something new or unique to say about methods
What might go in a methodological article?

• Never about you; always about audience
• Remember, your readers were not there while you did your
research
Good methodological writing…

• Ask yourself, would someone who was NOT there while I did my
research understand everything they need to in my methods
writing?

1. Consider writing about methodology from day one of your
research
Capture the decisions and the rationale behind them (as they
happen)
Principles and strategies when writing about
methods

• Writing from the start removes some of the pressure and can
reduce the chances of getting writer’s block

• Use it to develop your writing organically
• Keep it up to date
• Write and reflect regularly on your research practice to generate
a corpus of ongoing writing you can use later
Keeping a research diary…

• What should you keep a note of in your research diary?

If space allows, state the seemingly obvious

2. No methodology chapter or section is an island
Don’t disconnect your methodological writing from the rest of your
thesis or paper

Try to avoid writing in dry and overly abstract tones, so make it more
concrete and meaningful

• Show findings, context, data to illustrate and make concrete your
methodology section
• Particularly show material that serves to illustrate your
methodological point

• Draw also on methodological literature in your discussion of
method

• Relate your methodological writing back to the research problem

• Your methodological decisions make most sense when put in the
context of practice and the research problem
• An example from survey research

• We’re adding rich material and meaningful context to our
methodological writing

• The principle of showing as well as telling
• Not just a principle for fiction writing

Showing AND telling = the methodological / writing principle of
warrant

• Understand who is reading and why they’re reading a methods
book
• Whether they’re students or senior academics, it’s most often to
learn a new method for themselves
Writing a methods book

• When writing methods book, try to articulate a rationale for why
other researchers or students should consider adopting the
method themselves

• As a book author remember you’re future readers won’t have the
benefit of you to be there to help them in person when they read
your book
• So has your book covered everything in sufficient detail and
made it meaningful?

• An account of the most important and reader-appropriate
decisions you made in your research

How many of those decisions merit writing about?
• In a PhD chapter?
• In a research paper methods section?

5. Consider stating and eliminating your alternatives as a narrative
device in methods writing

Decisions imply alternatives
• What were they?
• What were their merits?
• Why did you reject such alternatives?

• You’re demonstrating erudition, that you’re aware of the range of
methodological options and have made your decision for good
reasons

6. Write with openness, clarity and charity

‘Charity’ in research writing

The importance of full disclosure

7. Write about the situational details in your research?

When should you write about situational details in methods writing?

In quantitative research consider writing for replication

Do your readers have sufficient information to repeat the study
themselves?

Consider writing for improvement and replication

7. If in doubt, everything relates to your research problem

7. If in doubt, everything relates to your research problem
To help with the problem of what to include and exclude in your
writing

8. Consider the question of identity

Is writing about your identity something expected of you or not?

Writing about your identity vis-à-vis your research practice
How has who you are as a researcher impacted on the questions
you ask, your thinking about your topic, the responses I might get,
the theories I come up with

9. Consider a chronological structure to your methods writing?

The research project as a journey
vs
Compare and contrast before and after

10. Can you look for unique contributions, precedents and
innovations?

Flaunt your methodological innovations

11. When writing about methods, every problem could potentially be
a writing opportunity

The problems we experience when conducting research – and no
research project is ever perfect – could be starting points for you to
engage more deeply in issues of methodology for yourself

Back to the problem of what to include and what to leave out when
writing about methods
Ask yourself: what difference did method(s) make?

12. Conclude with self evaluation
An honest appraisal of what you did

How to write about research methods

How to write about research methods

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How to write about research methods