Scope and Delimitation

Let's review
A Russian proverb states that “If you chase two rabbits, you will catch
neither one”. This is one of the mistakes researchers do which later lead to
confusion or even waste of time in determining the focus of their study.
Researchers sometimes would want to cover lots of things in their research making
the coverage of the research too wide to comprehend. That’s why, in the previous
lessons, you’ve learned how to choose your topic and how to create a research
problem for you to be able to have a focus on what you are looking for.

In this module, you will be learning the scope and delimitation of a

research study. With the knowledge gained on this, you will be able to determine
the focus of your study and accept its weaknesses later on. Be reminded that not
every research is perfect. It has its own acceptable limitation.

Before we start, let's have a review.

What's New
Read the given example of scope and delimitation below. Identify what
was included in the study and evaluate if the presented parts are correct.

The study only focused in knowing the level of proficiency in

Science among the Grade 11 students of Baguio City National High School
as well as the factors that affect it. The study considered the personal
information of the students which include their sex (Male or Female) and
strand (STEM, ABM, GAS, I.C.T., H.E., and Automotive).
The researcher assessed the level of proficiency of 180 respondents
enrolled in the school year 2019-2020. Each of the respondents was given a
test paper to answer. The students selected came from 11 sections of Grade
11 to prevent bias and get objective results.
(Excerpt from Academic Proficiency in Science by Mildred Pa-ac,
2019)
Lesson: Scope and Delimitation

Identifying the coverage and limitation of a study is important in research.

Doing this would help in narrowing down the focus of the study and would prevent
the researcher from including things that are not relevant or even confusion on
what to cover because of many possible areas to investigate.
Some studies use scope and limitation while other studies use scope and
delimitation to present the parameters or boundaries of a research study. Are the
two the same?
Let’s define the terms scope, limitation and delimitation.
Identify if the given phrase refers to delimitation, limitation, or both

Parameter of the study BOTH

Potential weakness of a study DELIMITATION
Time frame DELIMITATION
Lack of available data LIMITATION
Variables included included/not included in the study DELIMITATION
Constraints that can’t be avoided LIMITATION
measure used to collect data DELIMITATION
Boundaries of the study CIELO
These are beyond the capacity of the researcher LIMITATION
population DELIMITATION