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Methods, Methodology and Skills

While burning the midnight oil during literature review, most researchers do not realize that the
methods and methodology section forms the spine of their research. Researchers use a systematic
foundation to conduct research by implementing methods. Methods are strategies, tools, and
techniques, which are often confused with methodology that consists of a systematic and
theoretical analysis of the research methods. The difference between methods and methodology
needs to be well understood while documenting your research.

What is Methods and Methodology?

Researchers implement systematic methods to conduct a research. They define the research topic
to establish a deeper and clearer understanding in the methods section. Furthermore, methods
consist of all techniques, strategies, and tools employed by a researcher to complete the
experiment and find solution to the research problem.

However, methodology is a systematic and theoretical approach to collect and evaluate data
throughout the research process. It allows researchers to validate a study’s rigor to acquire new
information. The purpose of research methodology is to prove the credibility, validity, and
reliability of a chosen research method.

Objective of Methods and Methodology

While the methods section is just a research tool or a component of research, methodology is the
justification for using a particular research method.

The objective of research methods is to provide thorough information of research design,

participants, equipment, materials, variables, and procedures. It must allow other researchers to
reproduce similar results based on the documented methods. Whereas, the objective of research
methodology is to determine the accuracy and efficiency of the methods opted by the researchers
for a particular experiment.

How to Write Methods and Methodology Section of a Research Paper?

Most researchers are commonly asked to re-write the methods and methodology section as there
exists an ambiguity in the understanding of these elements. One should understand that
incorrectness in these sections may lead to repercussions which are uncalled for. A clear
knowledge of methods and methodologies employed in research will also make your process of
reviewing and understanding other literature easier. A robust method and methodology section is
a point of validation for authentic research.

Methods
While writing the methods section you must remember the following:

 Authors must duly cite all sources that helped them in selecting the methods for the
research study. Furthermore, it should also include parameters of past studies must to
indicate relevance with the current study.
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 It is mandatory to cite the sources of all participants of the study. The details of
participants such as geographical location, age, sex, their initial conditions, etc. must be
mentioned in the methods section.
 The methods section must also include the inclusion and exclusion criteria of subjects.
 Description of division of chosen group and their characteristics is also an element of the
methods section.
 The methods section must also include the study design. Necessary preparations,
software used, and instruments must be explained here.
 Finally, it must include statistical analyses. For example: type of data, their
measurements, and statistical tests.

Methodology
A well-written methodology section must include the following:

 An introduction and explanation of reasons for the systematic methodological

approach (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed method) used throughout the research
process.
 The methodology section must indicate the applicability, validity, and credibility of all
methods applied in the research.
 It must clearly describe specific data collation methods and provide detailed explanation
of data analysis.
 Lastly, the methodology section must justify rationale for chosen research methods and
procedures.

What are the Key Differences between Methods and Methodology?

These key points clearly establishes the difference between often mistaken methods and
methodology section:

Methods Methodology

The objective of methodology is to determine

The objective of methods is to find solution to
appropriateness of the methods applied with a view
the research problem.
to ascertain solution.

Methods are just behavior or tools used to Methodology is analysis of all the methods and
select a research technique. procedures of the investigation.

Methods are applied during the later stage of Methodologies are applied during the initial stage of
the research study. the research process.

It comprises different investigation techniques It is a systematic strategy to find solution to the

of the study. research problem.

Methodology encompasses several techniques used

Methods encompasses of carrying out
while conducting these experiments, surveys, tests,
experiments, conducting surveys, tests, etc.
etc.
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To summarize, we shall say that a technique is far more specific than a method and a method is
far more specific than the methodology. It’s beyond listing steps of experiment or audit trails that
you follow to find solution to your research problem. With one methodology, you can apply
several methods to support or reject the research hypothesis. In conclusion, we can say that both
methods and methodologies are an important part of research and are related to each other’s
existence.

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Research Methods

Before discussing research methods, we need to distinguish them

from methodologies and research skills. Methodologies, linked to literary theories, are tools and
lines of investigation: sets of practices and propositions about texts and the world. Researchers
using Marxist literary criticism will adopt methodologies that look to material forces like labor,
ownership, and technology to understand literature and its relationship to the world. They will
also seek to understand authors not as inspired geniuses but as people whose lives and work are
shaped by social forces.

Example: Critical Race Theory Methodologies

Critical Race Theory may use a variety of methodologies, including

 Interest convergence: investigating whether marginalized groups only achieve progress

when dominant groups benefit as well

 Intersectional theory: investigating how multiple factors of advantage and disadvantage

around race, gender, ethnicity, religion, etc. operate together in complex ways

 Radical critique of the law: investigating how the law has historically been used to
marginalize particular groups, such as black people, while recognizing that legal efforts
are important to achieve emancipation and civil rights

 Social constructivism: investigating how race is socially constructed (rather than

biologically grounded)

 Standpoint epistemology: investigating how knowledge relates to social position

 Structural determinism: investigating how structures of thought and of organizations

determine social outcomes

To identify appropriate methodologies, you will need to research your chosen theory and gather
what methodologies are associated with it. For the most part, we can’t assume that there are “one
size fits all” methodologies.

Research skills are about how you handle materials such as library search engines, citation
management programs, special collections materials, and so on.
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Research methods are about where and how you get answers to your research questions. Are you
conducting interviews? Visiting archives? Doing close readings? Reviewing scholarship? You
will need to choose which methods are most appropriate to use in your research and you need to
gain some knowledge about how to use these methods. In other words, you need to do some
research into research methods!

Your choice of research method depends on the kind of questions you are asking. For example, if
you want to understand how an author progressed through several drafts to arrive at a final
manuscript, you may need to do archival research. If you want to understand why a particular
literary work became a bestseller, you may need to do audience research. If you want to know
why a contemporary author wrote a particular work, you may need to do interviews. Usually
literary research involves a combination of methods such as archival research, discourse analysis,
and qualitative research methods.

Literary research methods tend to differ from research methods in the hard sciences (such as
physics and chemistry). Science research must present results that are reproducible, while literary
research rarely does (though it must still present evidence for its claims). Literary research often
deals with questions of meaning, social conventions, representations of lived experience, and
aesthetic effects; these are questions that reward dialogue and different perspectives rather than
one great experiment that settles the issue. In literary research, we might get many valuable
answers even though they are quite different from one another. Also in literary research, we
usually have some room to speculate about answers, but our claims have to be plausible
(believable) and our argument comprehensive (meaning we don’t overlook evidence that would
alter our argument significantly if it were known).

A literary researcher might select the following:

Theory: Critical Race Theory

Methodology: Social Constructivism

Method: Scholarly

Skills: Search engines, citation management

Research Goals

Wendy Belcher, in Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks, identifies two main approaches to
understanding literary works: looking at a text by itself (associated with New Criticism) and
looking at texts as they connect to society (associated with Cultural Studies). The goal of New
Criticism is to bring the reader further into the text. The goal of Cultural Studies is to bring the
reader into the network of discourses that surround and pass through the text. Other approaches,
such as Ecocriticism, relate literary texts to the Sciences (as well as to the Humanities).

The New Critics, starting in the 1940s, focused on meaning within the text itself, using a method
they called “close reading.” The text itself becomes evidence for a particular reading. Using this
approach, you should summarize the literary work briefly and quote particularly meaningful
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passages, being sure to introduce quotes and then interpret them (never let them stand alone).
Make connections within the work; ask “why” and “how” the various parts of the text relate to
each other.

Cultural Studies critics see all texts as connected to society; the critic therefore has to connect a
text to at least one political or social issue. How and why does the text reproduce particular
knowledge systems (known as discourses) and how do these knowledge systems relate to issues
of power within the society? Who speaks and when? Answering these questions helps your
reader understand the text in context. Cultural contexts can include the treatment of gender
(Feminist, Queer), class (Marxist), nationality, race, religion, or any other area of human society.

Other approaches, such as psychoanalytic literary criticism, look at literary texts to better
understand human psychology. A psychoanalytic reading can focus on a character, the author,
the reader, or on society in general. Ecocriticism look at human understandings of nature in
literary texts.

Research Method Types

We select our research methods based on the kinds of things we want to know. For example, we
may be studying the relationship between literature and society, between author and text, or the
status of a work in the literary canon. We may want to know about a work’s form, genre, or
thematics. We may want to know about the audience’s reading and reception, or about methods
for teaching literature in schools.

Below are a few research methods and their descriptions. You may need to consult with your
instructor about which ones are most appropriate for your project. The first list covers methods
most students use in their work. The second list covers methods more commonly used by
advanced researchers. Even if you will not be using methods from this second list in your
research project, you may read about these research methods in the scholarship you find.

Most commonly used undergraduate research methods:

1. Scholarship Methods: Studies the body of scholarship written about a particular author,
literary work, historical period, literary movement, genre, theme, theory, or method.

2. Textual Analysis Methods: Used for close readings of literary texts, these methods also
rely on literary theory and background information to support the reading.

3. Biographical Methods: Used to study the life of the author to better understand their
work and times, these methods involve reading biographies and autobiographies about
the author, and may also include research into private papers, correspondence, and
interviews.

4. Discourse Analysis Methods: Studies language patterns to reveal ideology and social
relations of power. This research involves the study of institutions, social groups, and
social movements to understand how people in various settings use language to represent
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the world to themselves and others. Literary works may present complex mixtures of
discourses which the characters (and readers) have to navigate.

5. Creative Writing Methods: A literary re-working of another literary text, creative

writing research is used to better understand a literary work by investigating its language,
formal structures, composition methods, themes, and so on. For instance, a creative
research project may retell a story from a minor character’s perspective to reveal an
alternative reading of events. To qualify as research, a creative research project is usually
combined with a piece of theoretical writing that explains and justifies the work.

Methods used more often by advanced researchers:

1. Archival Methods: Usually involves trips to special collections where original papers
are kept. In these archives are many unpublished materials such as diaries, letters,
photographs, ledgers, and so on. These materials can offer us invaluable insight into the
life of an author, the development of a literary work, or the society in which the author
lived. There are at least three major archives of James Baldwin’s papers: The
Smithsonian, Yale, and The New York Public Library. Descriptions of such materials are
often available online, but the materials themselves are typically stored in boxes at the
archive.

2. Computational Methods: Used for statistical analysis of texts such as studies of the
popularity and meaning of particular words in literature over time.

3. Ethnographic Methods: Studies groups of people and their interactions with literary
works, for instance in educational institutions, in reading groups (such as book clubs),
and in fan networks. This approach may involve interviews and visits to places (including
online communities) where people interact with literary works. Note: before you begin
such work, you must have Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval “to protect the
rights and welfare of human participants involved in research.”

4. Visual Methods: Studies the visual qualities of literary works. Some literary works, such
as illuminated manuscripts, children’s literature, and graphic novels, present a complex
interplay of text and image. Even works without illustrations can be studied for their use
of typography, layout, and other visual features.

Regardless of the method(s) you choose, you will need to learn how to apply them to your work
and how to carry them out successfully. For example, you should know that many archives do
not allow you to bring pens (you can use pencils) and you may not be allowed to bring bags into
the archives. You will need to keep a record of which documents you consult and their location
(box number, etc.) in the archives. If you are unsure how to use a particular method, please
consult a book about it. Also, ask for the advice of trained researchers such as your instructor or a
research librarian.