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Typically, you’ll order your acknowledgements from most formal to most personal. So, you’ll usually start by thanking your research supervisor and/or committee.
The purpose of this section is to introduce your reader to the chapter and help orient them in terms of what to expect. This is usually quite short, consisting of just a couple of paragraphs.
Depending on the nature of your project, it’s common to cover the following in this section:
Keep this section concise. There’s no need to go into detail – save your word count for the body section (up next), as that is where you’ll earn marks.
From here, you’ll move into the body section of your methodology chapter, where you’ll outline your methodological approach in detail.
Generally, it’s a good idea to structure your body discussion in an “inverted pyramid style”, starting with the most high-level, conceptual and strategic choices and working your way down to the more practical, tactical choices. For example, you could follow a structure that looks something like the following:
However, this is not set in stone. Depending on your degree programme and level of study, some of these will be less relevant than others and some may not be required at all. So, pay close attention to your institution’s guidance documents and requirements, and if possible, try to review past dissertations/theses from your specific program to get a feel for the norms.
In this template, we’ll present a structure that covers five important methodological matters (as outlined above). This structure is loosely based on Saunders’ “research onion”, which we explain in the video below.