Writing a Methods Section of a Research Paper

Writing a Methods Section of a Research PaperIf you're trying to learn how to write a methods section of a research paper, the first thing you need to know is that there are many different approaches you can take. You'll find some approaches better than others, and it's important that you read about those other approaches so that you can make an informed decision on which one to use.Before you can get into writing an effective sections of a research paper, you need to understand what it is you want to accomplish. Obviously, the main purpose of the methods section is to describe what you did and why you did it. It should be clear what you did in your results and why you did it.Your methods section should follow the 'vertical' structure that most academic papers have. This means that you will start at the top and work your way down. So for example, if you want to write a paper about a study that was done by randomly selecting people from the telephone book and asking them questions abo ut their health and background, you would start with an outline of the steps you took, and then you would follow through with the details of each step.The second thing you need to know about how to write a methods section of a research paper is that it needs to be organized. Too many papers seem to end up with text spilling over from the discussion of the methods themselves, and then they never go any further. As you may know, research papers tend to be written as 'this happened, then this happened, then that happened'. That's not what you want to do with your methods section.The best way to organize a methods section is to use bullet points. Bullet points are more organized and easier to read than wordy prose, so that's the next step.The third thing to know about how to write a methods section of a research paper is that it's vital that you make sure your methods section makes sense. This means that the different steps you've taken must all make sense in relation to each other, and each has to make sense within the context of the study itself. Also, there must be an explanation for why you did each step, what the benefits were, and what the drawbacks were.It's also essential that you use the right terminology for the study that you're talking about (i.e. your study of studies of people in the telephone book) and the data collection that you're using (i.e. your study of surveys).These are just some of the things that you need to know about how to write a methods section of a research paper. Once you've read about them, you'll be able to use these guidelines to organize and structure your research paper properly.