How to write the methodology chapter

By Dr. Rafiq Muhammad, MD, PhD · Updated June 2026

The methodology chapter has two jobs, and students usually only do one. The easy job is describing what you did. The job that earns the marks is justifying it — explaining why this design, this sample, this analysis, over the alternatives. A methodology chapter that reads like a recipe gets picked apart; one that reads like a defensible chain of reasoning from question to method survives the viva.

Methods vs methodology

The distinction is the whole game. Methods are the techniques — interviews, a survey, regression. Methodology is the reasoning that justifies them, tied back to your research question and approach. Your chapter does both, but the justification is what lifts it from a procedure into a scholarly argument. Every “we did X” should be followed, somewhere, by “because X best answers the question, where Y would have fallen short.”

What to include

• Approach / philosophy — qualitative, quantitative, or mixed, and why.
• Research design — the design type and why it fits.
• Setting & participants — who, where, and your sampling strategy.
• Data collection — the methods and instruments, with enough detail to reproduce.
• Data analysis — your plan (e.g. which test, or thematic analysis).
• Ethics — approval, consent, and data handling.
• Rigor — validity and reliability, or trustworthiness.

Get the detail level right — and the tense

The test for detail is simple: could a competent stranger reproduce your study from this chapter? If not, add detail; if you’re narrating trivia, cut it. Write mostly in the past tense (“participants were recruited,” “data were analysed”) since the study is done, switching to present only for statements that stay true. And keep the bulky instruments, full schedules, and approvals in the appendices, not the chapter body.