Methodology

Methodologies & Critical Analysis

40% Is Methodology and Critical Analysis, is being critical with reasoned thinking.

Every Research Project needs a Methodology.

Evidence that you have reflected critically on various research methods. It’s more than a research plan, you need to think critically on it. Why is that path the most appropriate? 

Every Methodology is Unique.

Palsgrave Study Skills  - Methodology Online

What kind of Methods are you going to use? Qualitative or Quantitive? What do you think your methods will enable you to discover?

What might they prevent you from discovering?

What sort of problems do you envisage in setting up these methods?

What are their benefits?

What will you need to do to ensure they gather useful data?

You May Include (Probably should include)

• Literature Reviews
• Questionnaires (Large numbers of people answering questions)
• Interviews (Be care might be Bias?) 
• Sketchbooks, Critical Diaries, Reflective Logs

Outline your Methodology at the Start, in the introduction of the dissertation. What are you not focusing on? Why? Justify.

Define the Audience. 

Regarding the question of the dissertation, what do you want to say? What’s the point of the project?

Have a central argument, stop it going wooly!

Find evidence to back up the argument, and that contradicts it, triangulation.

Do you need more evidence? Where else do I need to look for more evidence? Is it clear and logical?

Use multiple ideas at one subject. Use a mixture of citation styles, ranging from block quotes, paraphrased sections and interwoven small quotes. Evaluate every source, always critical.

My Methodology:

So I basically see this as my essay plan, so I'm not going to go down the questionnaire route, this is because Matte Painting is so niche I think it would be difficult to ask a large enough group of people to get a reasonable an unbiased response. Instead I am going to interview current Matte Painters in industry to see how they feel about traditional Matte Painting, how much work is available to them with it being so niche, the use of the technical aspects of painting by asking about there background how they got to where they are today, and so on.

I have already started reading books, my bibliography is currently quite extensive but there's only five or so I have read cover to cover, as Matte Painting is so niche the rest I have just pulled chapters and quotes from the relevant sections. I have also used the web so far but I really need to get onto the journal aspect of things. See the proposal post for my bibliography, if it has Matte Painting in the title I have read it cover to cover, also it it has special effects it usually has a large section on Matte Painting.

Alot of the special effects books cover the history of Matte Painting, so this will be a smallish chapter in my dissertation and then I really want to look up technical aspects of painting, but I still need to look up books for this, and then a section on the interviews, Then I need to write a bit of theory about why Matte Painting is so successful in films and then I want to go into my practical investigation. In which I still have no idea what I'm doing for.