Chapter 6 continues the description of the Methods Section begun in Chapter 5 and focuses on:

1. Data-collection procedures

2. Data-analysis procedures

3. Data interpretation and expected outcomes

4. Potential problems and proposed solutions

5. Shared methods

6. Ending

In Chapter 5, Figure 5-1 gives the generic content and organization of a Methods Section. For convenience, this figure is reproduced and renumbered in Chapter 6 as Figure 6-1. Also for convenience, Case 5-9, showing a heading outline of a Methods Section, is also reproduced in this chapter as Case 6-1. Chapter 6 gives generic heading outlines in Tables 6-1 and 6-2. The term subsection will continue to be used in Chapter 6 to refer to a Methods subsection or sub-subsection, unless phrased otherwise for clarity.

Data-collection and data-analysis subsections and procedures

Proposed procedures are the actions and tasks that you intend to execute in order to acquire data that you will then analyze, interpret, and ultimately disseminate in professional journals and at professional meetings.

In the narrative, the specific actions that you and members of your research team intend to perform in order to achieve your proposed research objective and aims are variously termed procedures, protocols, tasks, methods, experiments, and methodological activities. These terms are not synonymous even though they are often used synonymously.