How to write a research methodology for an undergraduate dissertation

Introduction

The marking criteria for the dissertation is likely to carry different weightings for the grading of this chapter in your dissertation thesis, to that of your research proposal (See Feather, 2010, on How to Write an Undergraduate Marketing Dissertation Proposal). For example, here at The Business School at the University of Huddersfield, there is more weighting given to the methodology in the proposal, than in the main disseration. The reasoning behind this, is that, if you can get it right for the proposal, it should be straight forward when it comes to the research methodology chapter in the thesis, as you may be just changing it a little depending upon what has impacted on your research whilst you were undertaking the primary data collection, and writing up the various chapters of your thesis. Therefore, you may be in a position where you are simply tightening up your writing in line with your supervisor’s comments, the feedback you received on this section in your proposal, and changing the pre-tense to the past-tense.

Having said this, in all my years of experience supervising and grading students’ work, this chapter appears to be the weak link in the chain of writing for the undergraduate dissertation. Mainly, because it may be the first time that students have been introduced to such concepts of phenomenology, interpretivism, epistimology, feminism, action reseach, positivsim and so on. These are very scary words to some students (Quinlan, 2011), but you should not be put off by these words, as it is these words, and the knowledge acquired by reading, understanding and applying these words that will make your work stand out, and possibly gain you those extra marks you feel you may need in order to meet your desired objective. That is, in obtaining a good grade for your dissertation that counts towards your degree classification. Some dissertations (at some institutions), are 40 credit modules, and therefore, are equivalent to two 20 credit modules. So it is important that you get this part right, as it is your plan of action, or, how you intend to undertake (pre-tense for the proposal), or have taken (past-tense for the dissertation), for your chosen research subject.