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methods section of dissertation

hi, i was wondering how i'd write my methods section for my biomedical science undergraduate dissertation. how would i structure it? what to include etc?

Reply 1

Hey! Although I didn't study biomedical science (BSc Applied Biology, MSc Aquatic Pathobiology), I can offer some advice.

While researching it’s important to keep a note of the experiments you've done (basically the methodologies you have applied), and walk through them chronologically. Subheadings are great as they help make the section more ‘digestible’. Break your entire thesis down experiment-wise, then talk the reader through what you did. It’s important you don’t discuss why you picked a certain methodology here: that should be included in your introduction / Lit Review or mentioned in the discussion. I can't suggest an overall structure, as this is a discipline I'm not familiar with, but short and succinct sentences are generally preferred across the sciences.

A ‘good’ methods section contains enough detail that I (or someone else who might not be very familiar with the discipline I.e. biomedical science) can replicate the experiment the same way you did. To write mine, I broke all of my experiments down into their respective steps, then re-wrote them into complete sentences.

I come from a more research-orientated background, but hopefully some of this helps. If in doubt, reach out to your supervisor. It’s why they’re there 😄 Good luck!

Reply 2

Original post by Jaysondere
Hey! Although I didn't study biomedical science (BSc Applied Biology, MSc Aquatic Pathobiology), I can offer some advice.
While researching it’s important to keep a note of the experiments you've done (basically the methodologies you have applied), and walk through them chronologically. Subheadings are great as they help make the section more ‘digestible’. Break your entire thesis down experiment-wise, then talk the reader through what you did. It’s important you don’t discuss why you picked a certain methodology here: that should be included in your introduction / Lit Review or mentioned in the discussion. I can't suggest an overall structure, as this is a discipline I'm not familiar with, but short and succinct sentences are generally preferred across the sciences.
A ‘good’ methods section contains enough detail that I (or someone else who might not be very familiar with the discipline I.e. biomedical science) can replicate the experiment the same way you did. To write mine, I broke all of my experiments down into their respective steps, then re-wrote them into complete sentences.
I come from a more research-orientated background, but hopefully some of this helps. If in doubt, reach out to your supervisor. It’s why they’re there 😄 Good luck!

cool thank you very much! i have an interim report due wednesday, its formative but it would be great for feedback so im trying to draft some sort of dissertation. i just had no idea whether the methods are similar to journal articles and what to include. thank you for your help. i'll pester you more if i have any other questions (:

Reply 3

Hi there,

My best advice is to follow the general structure of the journal articles that you will have definitely read whilst deciding which methods to use. Read through a few, note down how they word things, what they emphasise and how they justify doing things and follow that as a guide line - trying to start from scratch with nothing to really follow makes it much harder! Just make sure not to copy things from those articles as it will increase your plagiarism score and we don't want that!

Good luck with your interim report!

Jorja (LJMU Student Rep)

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