Speaker 1: So in this short video I will explain what to write in your limitations section and what to avoid, what never to put in that section. So firstly I've seen plenty of poorly written limitations sections and many students ask me about this this particular section. They always seem frustrated and confused and I completely understand because I was in the exact same spot a couple of years ago. So of course it's very difficult to even write that section for two main reasons I believe. So the first reason is simply because we don't like to talk about our weaknesses or limitations. We don't want to draw the examiners or whoever's reading our thesis or dissertation to draw their attention to the weakness of our study. So it just it doesn't feel natural. Of course we want them to see the strengths and the strong points rather than the weaknesses. And the second reason is even more obvious I believe. So usually by the time that we get to writing that section, which is usually towards the end of our writing journey, we simply can't be bothered to add yet another section, let alone a section that, like I just said, talks about our own limitations and weaknesses. However it is extremely important to really pay attention to this section. This section is very important and here I'll explain why. So the main purpose of this section is not really for you to tell the reader, the examiner, to tell about the limitations that otherwise they would not know about. Of course they know about your limitations. They knew your limitations and the limitations of your study the moment they read your methodology chapter. So of course they are usually quite experienced, knowledgeable, so like I said they know about every single limitation of your study. So why do you have to write this section? Of course this is mainly to show your knowledge and to show them, demonstrate that you can be critical about your study, that you don't think that this study was perfect and with no limitations. So that's the main point. You have to be critical and you have to demonstrate some additional knowledge. And it's also a good thing because, as I will explain in a minute, it will give you these additional opportunities to showcase what else you know, to showcase additional knowledge, to show that you have considered additional research designs and methods, so you're not just focused on whatever you used in your study, but you have also done much more reading. So this is a good chance for you and, like I said, the main reason for this section to be there, so that these examiners can assess this additional knowledge. So first I want to talk about what to put in that section. I know it can be hard. Sometimes we can't even imagine what the limitations are, because of course we tried hard to develop a good study and now here we are expected to talk about the limitations. So sometimes it can be extremely difficult. Sometimes there are quite obvious things that straight away you know could be improved, so you know that you could improve, you could increase the number of participants or the number of methods. So sometimes you just know. You know when you plan the study and you know when you conduct the study that there is this one thing or two or three things that could be improved. So of course in these cases it's quite obvious what to put there, but what if you really don't know what to write there? The advice that I always give my students is not to think of this limitations section as something that really focuses on the weaknesses of your study. So not really... you don't really have to think of it that way. So don't think that I have to demonstrate or discuss you know the weak points of my study, something that was wrong. So it's definitely not the right way of thinking. Instead think how could your study be improved. So even if the study was good, think of possible ways to improve it. So what could future studies do for example? It's usually a nice transition to that section as well, because after that section if you... when you start talking about limitations in the following section you may talk about suggestions for further future research. But think about it this way. So think about what could further research or future researchers do to improve your study. And there is of course always a way to improve this study. So if you had one method of data collection, say that the limitation was that you only had one method of data collection, and it would be beneficial if more methods could be considered. If you had 20 participants in your study, say that the limitation was a limited sample size and the study could be improved by increasing the sample size. If you had one group of participants, so for example you interviewed teachers, say that the study could have been improved if another group was added. So let's say a group of students was also interviewed so that you could get a balanced view on whatever the topic of your study. If each participant was interviewed once, you may say that the limitation was that it was that each participant was interviewed once and the study could be improved by making it a longitudinal study, so interviewing each person for example twice over a certain period of time. Like I said, there is always something that you could improve. Usually it's about more methods, more participants, triangulation of methods, increasing validity of the study this way. Even if you had a lot of qualitative data, you can say you could add a quantitative tool, so again to introduce a triangulation of methods, to investigate generalizability or trustworthiness of transferability of your findings. So there are always ways to improve this study. So now not only is it beneficial to think of the limitations this way simply because you can write about something, because like I said sometimes it's just not obvious how to improve this study, but secondly the good thing about it is it shows your supervisors or the examiners that you are an ambitious person. Simple as that. So you know here you are having this well-planned and conducted study and yet you are talking about the limitations, yet you are saying the sample size could be bigger, yet you are saying you could have more methods, so it just shows you are ambitious. And also as I said before this is a chance for you to highlight, to showcase your additional knowledge, so don't just throw random ideas but also support them with the literature. So if you had a qualitative study say that you could conduct, you could add a questionnaire, develop a questionnaire based on the qualitative phase, so you could conduct an exploratory study and then give the reference in brackets. So you're showing, this is your additional chance to show that you have done a lot of reading beyond what you actually have at the moment in your study. Okay so now what never to put in your limitation section. The first thing that you should never say in your limitations is that there were no limitations. So just like I said for many reasons it shows that you can't be really critical of your study and most importantly it probably shows that your knowledge is very very limited, because if you think that this study is a perfect study and there is absolutely no, there are no limitations then obviously you're lacking some some knowledge. So don't ever say that. The second thing that I want you to remember never to say in the limitation section, never say that the time was your limitation. So limited time was a barrier to your study. Never say that. My supervisors when I was studying told me not to ever do that and I want you to remember the same, because time is never your limitation. You are developing and designing a study so that to fit it into the time frame that you have available. So if you're doing a three-year PhD study, if you're, if you have three months as a master student doesn't matter, but you are planning the study and it is your responsibility to plan the study so that you can fit into that time frame. So it's not a good excuse. Don't ever say that you had no time. And the third thing that you should avoid, that you should never put in your limitation section is don't try to downgrade the importance or the seriousness of the limitations you are discussing. So I'll explain what I mean. So I've seen it plenty of times. So the students say for example things like the limitation was this but it's just in theory because in practice it's not really a limitation or the limitation was this but because I did this that way it's not a limitation. So they're trying to, they think the purpose is to, I believe, to explain how you overcame the limitations or because of what I said at the beginning they don't want to talk about the weaknesses of their study. They are trying to downgrade like I said this, this seriousness of that limitation. So they keep explaining what they did about it and trying to convince the reader that because of what they did it's not really a limitation. Don't do that. Like I said it's, there is nothing, nothing wrong with talking about your limitations. Quite the opposite. It's a very good thing. So you should try to think of as many possible ways to improve the study as I said a few minutes ago as possible and you should really spend some time thinking about it and don't be shy to talk about all the limitations that come to your mind. I hope you enjoyed this video and learned something new. Don't forget that if you are struggling with your chapter, with your dissertation, paper or whatever I do offer face-to-face sessions through Skype or Zoom in which I can support you more, I can help you more, I can provide feedback on what you have written and many many other services. So I'll put the link in the description to this video. Meanwhile if you liked the video please like the video and consider subscribing to this channel if you're new here. Thank you.