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Category Archives: methods chapter
what is an audit trail and why do you need one?
The term audit trail is shorthand. i use it to describe “evidential” material that you provide for a reader. I am a bit suspicious of the overuse of the word evidence, and I prefer “audit” because it describes what actually … Continue reading
a festive gift from patter – a checklist for revising methods chapters
PhDers sometimes find writing the thesis methods chapter a pretty tedious business. But the methods chapter is a key part of the examination process – it shows that the researcher knows how to research. You see, examiners make their decision … Continue reading
tiny texts – small is powerful
I work a lot with tiny texts. Abstracts. Storyboards. Story threads. Lines of argument. Tiny texts are my academic writing tool of choice. If I had to abandon all the other writing strategies I have in my repertoire, this is … Continue reading
Posted in abstracts, academic writing, methods, methods chapter, research methods, thesis, Tiny Text
Tagged abstratc, argument, methods chapter, Pat Thomson, thesis, Tiny Text
8 Comments
three things examiners look for in methods chapters
Once upon a time, when I worked in schools, early childhood teachers routinely issued young children with a ‘pen license’. A pen license was much sought after as it meant that a child could ‘advance’ to using a pen instead of … Continue reading
Posted in data, data analysis, examiner, methods, methods chapter, research methods, thesis, Uncategorized
Tagged examiner, methods chapter, Pat Thomson, research
7 Comments
thesis know-how – don’t write an essay
Examiners do not want to read a thesis that contains a lot of mini-essays. To understand the problem with the thesis-as-essay, imagine the examiner reading a methods chapter. It starts off badly. While not in these words, the writer basically says … Continue reading
Posted in essay, examiner, expert, literature review, methods chapter, thesis
Tagged essay, examiner, literature review, Pat Thomson, thesis
9 Comments
the audit trail – a common omission from methods chapters
It’s really important to put an ‘audit trail’ into your methods chapter. Audit trail? Well, it doesn’t actually matter what you call it, it’s the section in the chapter where you give the examiner the nuts and bolts information about … Continue reading
Posted in evidence, examination criteria, examiner, methodology, methods chapter
Tagged audit trail, methods chapter, Pat Thomson
15 Comments
getting tense about tense
In a recent comment to this blog someone asked me if I had any tips on managing tense. They found themselves, they said, wandering around in time as they wrote, meandering from present to past and back again, undertaking an … Continue reading
Posted in academic writing, grammar, literature review, methodology, methods chapter, tense, thesis
Tagged academic writing, methodology, Paltridge and Starfield, Pat Thomson, tense
9 Comments
methodology isn’t methods.. or… what goes in a methods chapter
Since I’ve been posting about methods and methodology, I’ve been asked several times to discuss the difference between methodology and methods and how these appear in a methods chapter. This post is by way of an answer. Not all dissertations … Continue reading
Posted in epistemology, methodology, methods chapter, ontology, research design, research methods, thesis
Tagged methodology, methods, methods chapter, Pst Thomson, research design
37 Comments
making the familiar strange – what’s that about?
I’m doing a set of posts about writing the methods chapter/the thesis sections which address methods and methodological concerns. When writing about their research process, doctoral researchers sometimes refer to the need to deal with things that up till then … Continue reading
Posted in methods chapter, reflexivity
Tagged making the familiar strange, Pat Thomson, reflexivity, Renato Rosaldo, the everyday
4 Comments
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