Writing a Methods Section

The methods section of a research paper allows the reader to judge the validity of the information that you found. Therefore, it requires a clear and precise description of how you went about gathering information, whether it was a textual analysis, survey, interview, or observation, and why you chose that method. The methods section should describe what was done, including how you chose the number and type of texts, or interviewees, how you recorded the information, and how the results were analyzed.

Remember, the methods section is a description of how you went about the case study. Don't include any results or any discussion of what you found out.

Do include information on:

Participants - who (or which texts) was in your study, how many, and how were they selected.

Materials - what were you measuring (a.k.a. operational definitions) actions, attitudes, styles, situations ...

Procedure - what exactly did you do.

Get started by listing what you did, in the order you did it. Then expand on each point, using references to help explain the method or justify your decisions in designing your approach.

For example:

"Participants were a convenience sample (Experiment Resources.com) of fifteen students enrolled in FMCS2200, in accordance with ethical research guidelines. All students were in the 18 - 25 age group. Eleven were male and four were female.  ...." 


"... to measure the emphasis on stardom in X Factor three episodes were watched and each instance of a comment concerning star, stardom, celebrity, fans, or media attention was recorded, identifying whether the comment came from the participant or their family, the judges, or another source."


"Participants were given the web address of an online survey (van Selm, 2006), which asked them to select the response which most closely reflected their personal attitude."