What you will achieve
Develop a first draft for your Methods.
Prerequisites:
- Read 2–3 papers in your target journal to see how Methods are written in your field: Analysing papers in your field.
- Decide which results to include in your paper — each result must be described in the methods; methods should only describe results that are part of the paper.
- Gather all relevant notes (data collection protocols, lab notes, version numbers, code for data analyses, etc.).
Writing the Methods
1. Brain dumping the procedure
Make a list of the research questions (NEEDS WORK) you’re addressing you’re paper. Set a 10-minute timer for each, and use the Freewriting technique to answer this question:
How did you answer this research question?
If you have methods that apply to all questions (e.g., site, model), describe those once. Consider, depending on your topic, the following elements:
- variables
- models
- population
- location
- sample sizes
- boundary conditions
- etc.
2. Capture the rationale
For each research question, set another 10-minute timer and use the Freewriting technique to answer this question:
Why what this approach appropriate to answer the research question?
Example for step 1 + step 2
Research question 1: How does drought stress affect plant growth? Procedure:
- We studied plant growth, by …
Rationale
- We decided on three groups: a, b, and c, because …
- We used growth rate (cm/day) as to measure plant growth, because …
- We opted to limit group size to 5 plants, because …
3. Structure and write the Methods
For each research question, plan the paragraph sequence (e.g., study design → measurement → analysis), then draft the paragraphs using your procedure and rationale notes.
Example framework to plan your Methods
Research question 1: How does drought stress affect plant growth?
Paragraph 1: In this paragraph, I’m going to explain how we designed the study. To study the impact of drought stress on plant growth, we designed an experiment with three levels of drought stress: a, b, and c. We randomly assigned 5 plants to each group.
Paragraph 2: In this paragraph, I’m going to explain how we measured and analysed plant growth. To measure plant growth, we measured plants size daily over 60 days. We used a (insert statistical analyses) to …
Next steps:
- Get input from your writing team: Involving your writing team