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Oh no! It's an article on how to write your methods chapter.

If there was one chapter that brings tears of boredom to PhD students' eyes, it's the methods chapter. If you're one of the few who loves methods, we salute you.

The reality is that most students relate to their methods section in the same way they do an annoying colleague. The less time they spend interacting with it, the better, and the quicker they get it over with, the quicker they can move on to more exciting things.

This article is a short guide, primarily because the methods chapter (whilst boring) is relatively straightforward.

With that in mind, this article will answer the following questions:

1. What is the job of a methodology chapter?
2. What are the differences between methods discussions in different disciplines?
3. How do I write a PhD thesis methods chapter/section?

Let's begin.

What is the purpose of a methodology chapter?

The job of a methods chapter is to use summary and factual recount to explain how you answered your research questions and to explain how this relates to the methods used by other scholars in similar contexts and similar studies.

One of the core themes that we always like to remind you of is that every piece of the PhD puzzle fits together and forms a logical flow. Ensuring this flow is particularly important in the methods chapter, which occupies a unique position in the thesis, midway between the planning and execution stages.

Whether or not you need a dedicated methods chapter depends on how much you have to talk about. If you are using a common, well-constructed methodology with a long history in your discipline and there is an obvious link between it and the rest of your thesis, you could probably get away with having your method discussion in the introduction. If you need to spend more time outlining what methods you're using, and why, you may need an entire chapter.

Whichever approach you choose, once the reader has finished, they should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What did you did do to achieve the research aims?

2. Why did you choose this particular approach? How does it relate to your epistemological and ontological positions?

3. What tools did you use to collect data? Why these tools? What implications does this choice have?

4. When did you collect data, and from whom? Are there ethical considerations to take into account?

5. What tools have you used to analyse data? Why these tools? What are the implications?

6. Is the timetable that was followed clear?

7. Have you understood the difference between methods and methodology?

8. Is it concise and related wholly to methods?

What are the differences between methods chapters in different disciplines?

Depending on what discipline you are in, your method chapters may look different.

In the social sciences, the emphasis is generally on:

1. The fit between the methods and research questions

2. How the data was collected

3. How the data was analysed

4. Why a particular sampling approach was taken

5. How representative that sample is

In the natural sciences, the emphasis is generally on:

1. The fit between the methods and research questions

2. The rationale for choosing particular materials, methods, experiments and techniques

3. Sufficient detail so that others can accurately replicate your study