GUIDE IN WRITING CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
(include an intro for your Chapter III)

RESEARCH DESIGN

• Identify the research design you will use in your study.

• Explain why and how that particular design will operate in your study.
• You need to argue for the appropriateness of the research design to answer the research
questions.
• Remember that in writing the research design, the procedural part of the design, its
appropriateness to the study, and some of its advantages should be given attention and should
be well discussed.
• You may refer to our discussion about research design and chose which one is appropriate for
your study.

Example:
This study made use of a qualitative research design that deals with the pragmatic analysis of
the data. Since this study is mainly qualitative in nature, it used an in-depth literary discourse analysis
to fully gain a clear understanding of the pragmatic functions of the discourse markers used in the 10
recent one-act plays from Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature.
The 10 one-act plays which won in the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature were
analyzed. The pragmatic functions of these one-act plays were identified using the model of Andersen
(2001).
In the pragmatic analysis of the DMs, the researcher used the framework of Andersen (2001).
Since this is pragmatic in nature, the researcher not only analyzed the DMs found in the dialogue where
the DMs occurred, but also the narration and the previous utterances of the characters. This is because
even though there is a claim that discourse markers always rely on underlying propositional meaning,
it does not imply that they must occur in utterances where a proposition is stated explicitly (Andersen,
2001). Hence, there is a need to look for the context of the utterances. However, although there is
notion that as far as pragmatics is concerned, the meaning of whatever uttered depends on how it is
interpreted by the listener. As what Yule (2006) stated, it is a study of contextual meaning
communicated by a speaker or writer, and interpreted by a listener. In written text, however, it operates
differently. Mey (1999) mentioned that it is only through an active cooperative effort, shared between
reader and author, that the interplay of voices can be successfully created and recreated. Reading is a
cooperative act; the pragmatics of literary texts spell out the conditions for this collaborative effort,
without which the text would not properly exist as text. Only through a pragmatic act of reading can the
text be realized; without such an act, and its corresponding actor, the reader, the “letters of literature”
will forever be dead. Hence, in the pragmatic analysis, there is a need to take into consideration the
intended meaning of the writer than the subjective view of the researcher.
Source:
Oliveros, C. (2019). Discourse Markers in Palanca One-Act Plays: A Pragmatic Analysis [Unpublished
Master’s Thesis]. Graduate School, Sacred Heart College, Lucena City.

PARTICIPANTS

• Discuss here your participants, their background, and some fundamental information about
them.

1
DATA GATHERING PROCEDURES

• Discuss how the data will be collected in a step-by-step manner.

• Discuss here the data collection technique that you will use in your study. In qualitative
research, some data collection techniques are the following:

✓ One-on-one interviews
✓ Open-ended surveys and questionnaires
✓ Focus groups
✓ Observation

Example:

In conducting the study, a pragmatic analysis was employed. A corpus with the following
procedures were observed in the study. The Figure 4 below shows the summary of procedures applied
in this specific study.

Figure 4. The summary of procedures in gathering data.

Figure 4 demonstrates the flow of the conduct of the study. It is divided into six steps.

The first step focused on the collection and selection of the Palanca one-act plays. The
researcher personally went to the Palanca Library located in Makati, Quezon City to gather the 10 One-
Act Plays needed in the study. All the recent first place winners were chosen by the researcher, but
since there were years when there were no declared first place winners, the researcher excluded the
years without first place winners and took instead the years before.

The analysis of the corpus was the next step. The researcher highlighted and encoded all the
DMs in the corpus, together with the dialogues where these DMs occurred.

Then, the analysis of the Palanca one-act plays was the next step. In the analysis the
researcher looked for the discourse markers in all the 10 one-act plays. It was followed by the pragmatic
analysis of the Discourse Markers. The researcher used the model of Andersen (2001) on identifying
the pragmatic functions of the DMs under the subjective and interactional functions. In the process of
the analysis, the researcher, look and analyzed the previous utterances and the narration to understand
the context.

The next step was the interpretation of the findings and results. Upon the identification of the
pragmatic functions of the DMs in the Palanca one-act plays, the last step was ratifying the results and
findings by the Specialist Informants. There were three (3) Specialist Informants who ratified and
validated the results and findings of the study.

The last step done by the researcher was a construct map based on the results and findings of
this study. This construct map may serve as a guide for writers, students, and researchers in
understanding the importance of DMs and in analyzing the DMs in Palanca one-act plays.

Source:
Oliveros, C. (2019). Discourse Markers in Palanca One-Act Plays: A Pragmatic Analysis [Unpublished
Master’s Thesis]. Graduate School, Sacred Heart College, Lucena City.

2
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

• set of principles that guide your research designs and practices

• Include the following components in this part:
✓ Voluntary participation. Mention that your participants gave their voluntary
participation as participants of your study.
✓ Informed consent. State the process that you have done to ensure that consent was
given by the participants.
✓ Anonymity. Describe the process that you have done to protect the anonymity of
your participants.

Example:

The researchers made sure to adhere to the ethical considerations to avoid further problems in
the conduct of the study.

Since the participants of the study are teenagers who are 10-19 years old, the researchers
made sure that the respondents were given permission by their parents or guardians that they are
allowed to participate in the study. The researchers also sought written consent which permits the
respondents to take part in the said study.

The researchers provided a right to conduct the study or investigations to answer the questions.

Before the interview, the researchers sought permission from the participants if the interview
can be recorded. However, when the participants refused to record the interview, it won’t be recorded.

Given the sensitivity of the topic, the researchers assured the respondents the confidentiality
and anonymity of the responses and personal information that they will be given.

Source:

Oliveros, C., Sandoval, N., & Rosete, J. (2021). Teenage Pregnancy in Selected Island Schools:
Basis for the Development of a Prevention Program.