Why is it so hard to write the methodology section of a PhD thesis?

I have worked with many students, particularly humanities and social science scholars, who have found writing the methodology chapter a hugely agonizing experience. I recall my own experience as a mature-aged student, acutely aware of my ignorance and uncertainty: I read and wrote blindly for weeks and weeks before showing anything to my supervisor. Like me, for many, the task of coming to understand methodology begins with reading. In the main, research methodology textbooks are big and dense, and it isn’t uncommon for students to disappear, like Alice, into Research Methodology Wonderland only to reappear months later, dazed and confused.

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