Is the methodology chapter of your dissertation your least favorite? In my experience, many students feel this way. They spend a disproportionate amount of time on their introduction and literature chapters, but things go awry in the methodology chapter. Either they present the minimum detail or copy copious pages from methodology texts on the methods …
In preparation for our upcoming webinar on Avoiding the Traps of Questionnaire Design and Analysis in Your Dissertation at 6 pm (GMT+2:00) on 19th September, I’m writing about an issue of reliability that is often problematic for students. An old bathroom scale explains the concept of reliability of the measurement instrument in your dissertation. Here …
Avoiding the Traps of Questionnaire Design and Analysis in Your Dissertation Read More »
The reliability and dependability of a beloved other is a privilege. In a dissertation, these qualities are required. Quantitative dissertations require you to describe reliability and qualitative dissertations require you to speak of dependability. There are two types of reliability. The first type is the reliability of the overall study; the other type is the …
Reliability and Dependability in Your Dissertation Read More »
In a previous post, I spoke about what a statistically significant result means and doesn’t mean. A significant result may mean very little, not necessarily anything to inspire you to throw a party or make a supportive parent proud. A significant result does not tell you how strong – or meaningful – your result is. …
How Strong are Your Statistical Results? The Concept of Effect Size Read More »
This week, I reviewed a dissertation that was well researched, well conceptualised, and well designed but did not answer its main research question. The student had described its design, delimitations, and sampling method incorrectly which made the conclusions incorrect. Luckily it was fixable. Let me tell you about the study, with its details all changed …
Does Your Dissertation Answer Your Research Question? Read More »
If you use an old bathroom scale to weigh yourself and step on and off it a few times, you’ll probably get different readings, even within seconds. These measurements of your weight (more correctly, your mass, but I’ll stay with weight) vary randomly. But they shouldn’t. Unfortunately, old bathroom scales produce weights that are not …
Lessons from an old bathroom scale on measurement reliability Read More »
Effect size: How strong are your statistical results, even your significant ones? In a previous post, I spoke about what a significant result means and doesn’t mean. A significant result may mean very little, not necessarily anything to inspire you to throw a party or make a supportive parent proud. What it doesn’t tell …
Effect size: How strong are your statistical results, even your significant ones? Read More »
Sometimes, despite all your efforts, the sample size of your quantitative study turns out to be smaller than you planned. Maybe you received a low response rate to your online survey, your database search for patient records returned many unusable or missing records, or you found yourself in another scenario with a similar outcome. And …
Google Forms is very useful for conducting surveys. It’s reliable, works beautifully, and now has added formatting options. And, importantly, it’s free which makes it perfect for students conducting surveys – more appealing than its paid rivals with attractive but nonessential extras. But there’s a problem here. As the responses come in, Google Forms provides …
Does Google Forms offer too much? And if so, when does one just have to say ‘No’? Read More »
Are the results of your study non-significant? If you’ve experienced disappointing non-significant results in your research, you may wish to refer to the excellent statistics note by Altman and Bland (BMJ, 1995; 311: 485) that considers that absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence. In their note, these authors explain that …