Guidelines to Write a Master Dissertation

The chapter that follows the review of literature is devoted generally to the methodological framework of the study. It is the mirror of the dissertation, as it presents a full description of the context of the study and a clear image of the whole procedure undertaken to conduct the research. It is that part of your work in which you give an account of the research you have undertaken. There are some major elements that are commonly stated in such chapter. They can be summarised in the following steps:

- Start after introducing the chapter by describing the context of the study in details: remind the reader by the significance and the objectives of your study. You can also restate the research questions and the
hypotheses, either directly or indirectly.

- Describe the methodology you have followed (highlighting the research design: the approach, the methods)

- Describe the research tools, each one with clarifying the aim behind its use, not by defining what they are and how people use them to conduct their studies. ( you need to have an idea about each tool and utility to be able to select the most suitable one(s) to your research)

- The role of the researcher in such a step is to make clear the objectives from using, for example, a sociolinguistic approach and not a historical, or why quantitative method, qualitative, or both, and also why you a survey or a questionnaire and not an interview, etc.

- Describe the sample population (be explicit describing the reasons behind the choice of age and gender, for example, random choice or not, etc.)

- Describe the steps followed in building the research procedure. If, for example, a questionnaire, a survey, or an interview is used, explain on which basics the questions are built, the same when using recording or observation; the objectives and the elements of each research tool should be clear.

- Be careful to follow ethical procedures in conducting the study. If an interview is planned, for example, the participants need to be informed, at least to fix an appointment for that. If a recording or video-filming is a tool used it cannot occur without having the agreement of the participants. If and observation is planned, a checklist is required to focus on needed information etc.

- Use the language that the participants are familiar with, in order to collect valid data, and if there are some new concepts for them, explain when necessary. You plan to collect data, so you need to enable the respondents provide you explicitly with reliable data.

- It’s better to make a pilot study to test if the methods and the tools as well as the way you have followed to develop the sections through each technique are well structured and planned. This can help you also know whether there are mistakes, gaps to complete, difficulties etc.

- Remember: Be careful in choosing the method, the tools, the sample, its size and even the procedure  Relate them to the objectives of the study, to the research questions and hypotheses, in a way the data collected will respond suitably and facilitate drawing fair conclusions.

- Finally, don’t forget to conclude this chapter by summarising the major points dealt with, linking it with the following chapter.