Why do you need a methodology?

If you are doing research then you have a methodology even if you do not state it. The question is more about why you should write up your methodology in your research proposal and why you should write about it in any subsequent report once the research is completed.

In writing a research proposal you need a methodology to explain where you are coming from and why you want to do the research in a particular way. An assessing committee, a referee, a funding agency will all want to be assured that your research question is a good question that needs asking, that your approach will answer your question or address your hypothesis and that your approach will deliver the outcomes you seek.

Explaining your methodology helps others know why you want to do your research in a particular way. It helps others know that you know what you are doing. It gives confidence to funding agencies that you are not going to waste their money. If your methodology is new, innovative or just plain different then you have to write more of a justification so that others will understand what you are trying to do and why it is important to do it this new way. Kaupapa Māori research has needed explanation because it has been new and different and others who are assessing the proposal need to be informed so that they can make a decision.

In writing about your research when you have completed the project you need an explanation of your methodology so that others can understand the significance of what you have done and make sense of how it all worked. The methodology piece says why you did what you did. It also enables you to write about what you did not do and why, and about the weaknesses or limitations of your project as well as its strengths. Every research has a limitation of some sort and it is perfectly acceptable to identify the weaknesses of your own study.