Supervision

I notice that the two terms methods and methodology are often mixed up. It is actually quite simple to remember the difference if you consider the etymology. The “-logy” part suggests that “methodology” concerns the knowledge of methods. Here is a quick run-down of how to differentiate between them in academic writing. A methods section in a paper In a conference paper or journal article, you typically want to describe the method you used. What data collection approach did you employ? What equipment did you use? What did you ask your participants to do? A methods section in a paper describes such things with a level of detail necessary for others to understand what you did. ...

I am supervising several PhD fellows at the moment and have found that I repeat myself in the one-to-one meetings. So I will write blog posts summarizing general advice I give everyone. This post deals with what a PhD dissertation should look like. The classic Ph.D. dissertation Dear PhD fellow (in Norway, PhD fellows are employees, not students): All dissertations are different, yours included. You can write it however you want as long as it is good! It will be evaluated by people like me—experts in the field—often with long experience in supervising and reviewing dissertations. There is no right or wrong; go for something “safe” unless you feel incredibly confident. Your dissertation is not the place to experiment with weird things. ...