Writing the thesis outline: Methodology

Jinhua College student, Zhejiang province, China

Since last year, the blog stats have shown that the  posts and pages which got the most traffic in Devcompage are the following:

• Thesis/research coach
• Suggested new communication thesis topics
• How to choose a development communication thesis topic
• More communication thesis topics
• Thesis topics on communication technology

I am glad that many communication students in the Philippines and elsewhere (Australia, East Africa, Central Asia, Sri Lanka, etc.) have referred to Devcompage for thesis advice.  And I would like to oblige them further by completing the series of posts on research that I had started — from design to analysis.

So far, we have tackled writing the introduction and the review of literature. The next step would be to write the conceptual and theoretical framework. Some schools, however, do not require these so let me deal first with writing the methodology chapter.

Research methodology

The methodology chapter of a communication or social science thesis often includes the following elements:

• Location of the study (study sites, reason for choice of site; at manuscript stage, include a location map)
• Research design (experiment, content analysis, one-shot survey)
• Sampling procedure (sampling method, sample size)
• Data gathering instrument (main sections of the instrument)
• Instrument pretesting (translation, where and how many pretest respondents)
• Data analysis (statistical tests to apply, how data will be analyzed)
• Data requirements matrix

Research objective	Variables	Specific question to be asked
To determine information environment of respondents.	Print readership TV viewership	Which of the following media are you exposed to: ___ 1) Newspapers ___ 2) Magazines ___ 3) Comics ___ 4) Radio ___ 5) TV ___ 6) Video ___ 7) Farmers’ meeting 2. If 1, 2 & 3 are mentioned, 2a.What newspapers do you read? ______________ 2b. How often do you read newspapers? ___1) daily ___2) every other day ___3) once a week ­­­­___4) twice a week ___5) once a month

Sample thesis methodology

Farmers’ Comprehension of Usage Instructions on Pesticide Packaging

Julieann Rae M. Aguilar

METHODOLOGY

Locale of the Study

The study was conducted in four areas of the province of Leyte, particularly in Albuera, Hilongos, Ormoc and Baybay. These places were chosen as the study sites because these are rice growing areas in the province (www.ormocnews.blogspot.com).

Research Design and Sampling Procedure

The study followed the one-shot survey research design. A sample of one hundred (100) rice farmers were randomly selected as the respondents, distributed as follows:

Town	Sample size
Ormoc Baybay Albuera	50 25 25

An arranged exposure was conducted among the 25 randomly selected respondents from each area. After the arranged exposure, an individual interview followed.

Data Collection and Instrument

Stimulus material. Six samples of pesticide packaging with usage instructions were shown to the respondents. These samples are six different kinds of pesticides that are commonly used by rice farmers. The pesticide use instructions on pesticide packaging were categorized as follows:

WORDS	VISUALS
HazardsDirections for Use – Target pests – Application – Timing –  Amount/dosage –  Frequency Precaution Storage and disposal First aid	Symbol (skull, etc.) Pictograms

The 25 respondents from each area were gathered in a hall and each of them received copies of samples at the start of the arranged exposure. Interviews were subsequently conducted by the researcher and hired interviewers.

Interview Schedule

The interview schedule was prepared in English and then translated into Cebuano. It was composed of three parts, namely: respondents’ comprehension of pesticide use instructions, respondents’ information sources on pest management, respondents’ literacy and respondents’ socio-demographics.

Questionnaire Pretesting

Prior to the field work, the interview schedule was pretested among respondents who have the same characteristics as the actual study respondents. The pretest aimed to ensure that the questions can be understood. Any portion of the interview schedule which the respondents could understand was modified.

Focus Group Discussion

In order to complement the data that were gathered from the interviews, a focus group discussion (FGD) was conducted in one of the three study areas. There were six participants in the focus group discussion. Questions raised in the discussion dealt with respondents’ comprehension of pesticide use instructions. Respondents were asked what part of the pesticide use instructions they considered to be difficult to comprehend. Respondents were asked to give their comments or suggestions on how the packaging instructions could be improved, if there is any, on the pesticide packaging in order to facilitate understanding among farmers.

Data Analysis

Data were encoded and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 15.0. Correlation measures such as the Pearson product moment correlation and Spearman’s rho were used to test the relationship between the respondents’ selected socio-demographics, number of information sources on pesticide application, literacy and their comprehension of pesticide use instructions. Frequencies, totals and percentages were used to present the results of the study.