There's no madness in my method: Explaining how your coaching research findings are built on firm foundations

When writing about research, explaining the method can appear as an afterthought or even madness: wasting precious words that could be better used in discussing the findings. Yet, a section explicitly explaining and justifying the method is crucial to any research report or academic paper, in coaching or other disciplines. In fact, we would argue that a well-articulated method section is particularly important in coaching research, as the setting up of studies can be complex, highlighting a necessity to be very clear about data collection techniques and analysis procedures used. We offer here the analogy of your research as a building with firm foundations – for a building to be safe, it needs to be built on firm foundations. Similarly, you need to show that your research is well founded. A clear concise explanation of your research method provides the foundation allowing your readers to know your research findings can be trusted.