Scope and Limitations of the Study: How to Write It

TL;DR: Scope states what your study covers (variables, respondents, setting, time period); delimitation states what you deliberately excluded and why, both within your control; limitation states what you couldn't control that may affect your results, such as sample size or reliance on self-reported data. Philippine undergraduate formats usually combine the first two into one 3-5 paragraph Chapter 1 section headed Scope and Delimitation of the Study, using patterns like "This study focused on..." and "This study did not cover...," with limitations kept honest and specific rather than vague or apologetic. State limitations plainly; they build credibility, they don't undermine it.

Every Philippine thesis and undergraduate research paper needs a section that draws a clear boundary around the study. In most local thesis manuals that section is headed Scope and Delimitation of the Study, which is the exact phrase on the template your adviser handed you, and limitations are either folded into it or kept as a short separate paragraph. Students routinely conflate scope, delimitation, and limitation into one confused paragraph, then get sent back by their panel to separate them. This guide walks through what belongs in each, where the section sits in Chapter 1, what a panel challenges when you defend it, the sentence patterns advisers actually expect, and three illustrative worked examples. For the broader chapter map this section sits inside, see our thesis chapters guide; for the section that usually comes right before it, see how to write the statement of the problem.

What Do Scope, Delimitation, and Limitation Actually Mean?

Scope is the boundary of what your study covers: which variables, which respondents, which location, and which time period. Delimitation is the boundary you set on purpose, the things you could have studied but chose to exclude, along with your reason for excluding them. Limitation is the boundary set on you by circumstances outside your control, something that may affect your results but that you did not choose.

Philippine thesis manuals define the pair almost identically. The APNTS Thesis Handbook states that "the scope is expected to indicate a reasonable area of study that is large enough to be significant but narrow enough to permit careful treatment," and lists "the nature of the research subjects, their number, the research methods used with them, timeframe of the study, geographical location, and the characteristics of the population" as the factors to consider in delimiting it. Silliman University's graduate thesis format compresses the whole section into one line: it "indicates focus and limits of the study."

The clearest way to keep these apart: delimitations are choices you made; limitations are constraints you didn't choose. A small sample size because you deliberately narrowed your study to one school is a delimitation. A small sample size because half your target respondents refused to answer the survey is a limitation.

Disclaimer: section names and exact placement (Chapter 1 vs. Chapter 5) vary by school and program. Confirm the format your department's research manual requires.

Scope and Delimitation: Where the Section Sits and What It Has to Do

If your template says Scope and Delimitation of the Study, this is the section it means. In the common Philippine undergraduate Chapter 1 order it comes near the end: introduction, background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives, hypothesis where the design calls for one, significance of the study, then scope and delimitation, then definition of terms. Graduate programmes sometimes split the two halves under separate headers, and some manuals attach a limitations paragraph here while others send limitations to Chapter 5 with the recommendations.

Whatever the placement, the section has to do two jobs in one place. The scope half tells the reader what the study covers. The delimitation half tells the reader what you deliberately left out and why. A section that only does the first is incomplete, and it is the most common reason a draft comes back with the heading circled.

Senior high school researchers meet the same requirement under a different label. DepEd's curriculum guide for Practical Research 1 lists "indicates scope and delimitation of research" as its own learning competency, and the Practical Research 2 guide lists "indicates scope and delimitation of study" the same way. In both guides the competency is separate from writing the research title and from stating the research questions, which is why teachers grade the section on its own instead of reading it as part of the introduction.

Treat that curriculum reference as the origin of the requirement rather than a description of the current subject list, because the subject list changed. DepEd Order No. 017, s. 2026, the Strengthened Senior High School Curriculum, amends the senior high school annex of DepEd Order No. 021, s. 2019, and under it there is no Applied Track and no subject named Practical Research 1 or Practical Research 2. Annex A instead lists Research 1 and Research 2 as Academic Track electives in the Field Experience cluster, 80 hours each, with Research 1 as the prerequisite for Research 2. The order phases the new structure in from Grade 11 in SY 2026-2027, and provides that Grade 12 learners not enrolled in pilot schools continue on the 2016 senior high school curriculum for that year, so both sets of subject names are live at the same time depending on your grade level and school. Our Practical Research 1 guide works through which one applies to you. The writing task is the same either way: you are asked to indicate the scope and the delimitation of your study.

Scope vs. Delimitation vs. Limitation, at a Glance

What Belongs in Your Scope Statement

Cover five things in your scope, sometimes summarized as the 5Ws and 1H (why, what, who, where, when, how): your general research objective, the specific subject matter and variables you studied, your respondents or population, your locale, and your time period. Write it as a positive statement of coverage, not a list of exclusions; save the exclusions for the delimitation half. Advisers expect this written out explicitly rather than implied, which is why "it is stated in my research questions" is not an accepted answer when the section is missing.

Standard sentence pattern: "This study focused on [main variable(s)] among [respondents] in [setting], covering the period [time frame]."

What Belongs in Your Delimitations

State, plainly and with a reason, what you chose not to study even though it was related to your topic. Common delimitations in Philippine student research include a single school or municipality instead of a wider area, one year level or department instead of the whole institution, a fixed set of variables instead of every possible related factor, and a defined data-collection period instead of an open-ended one.

Standard sentence patterns: "This study did not cover..." / "The researcher decided to exclude..." / "This study was limited to [narrower group], and did not include [broader group], due to [reason: time, access, scope of the research question]."

A delimitation needs a reason attached to it. "This study did not include Grade 11 students" is incomplete; "This study did not include Grade 11 students because the intervention being evaluated was only implemented at the Grade 12 level" gives the panel something to evaluate.

What Belongs in Your Limitations (Without Undermining Your Study)

List constraints that are real, specific, and outside your control, then say plainly how you managed or accounted for each one. Do not pad this section with vague disclaimers ("results may not apply to everyone") that don't name an actual constraint, and do not list so many limitations that the paragraph starts to read as an apology for the whole study. The University of Southern California's research writing guide frames the same discipline for any field, not just Philippine theses: limitations "describe the constraints placed on your ability to generalize from the results of your analysis," and deserve "a critical, overall appraisal and interpretation of their impact" rather than a bare list of excuses.

Common honest limitations in Philippine student research: a sample confined to volunteers or those available during the data-collection window, reliance on self-reported survey data rather than observed behavior, a single research site that may not represent other sites, or a data-collection period short enough that seasonal or cyclical effects couldn't be captured.

Standard sentence pattern: "A limitation of this study is [specific constraint], which may affect [specific aspect of the findings]. [One sentence on how this was mitigated or should be read.]"

What a Panel Usually Challenges in This Section

Defence questions on scope and delimitation are predictable enough to prepare for. These come up repeatedly in Philippine panels:

• "Why only this school, this section, this barangay?" The panel is checking whether your narrow site is a design decision with a reason behind it or an accident of convenience. The answer should already be in your delimitation, word for word.
• "Your title claims more than your scope covers." If the title says "in Cebu City" and the scope covers three schools, the panel will make you change one of the two. Reconcile your research title with your scope before the defence, not during it.
• "That is not a limitation, that is your own decision." The most common correction of all. If you chose it, it is a delimitation and it needs a reason attached. If it happened to you, it is a limitation and it needs a stated effect on the findings.
• "How far can these findings be generalized?" A single site, a purposive sample, or a short data-collection window all constrain this, and having written the constraint down already is what keeps the question from becoming a problem.
• "You named a limitation but never said what it does to your results." A constraint listed without a consequence reads as a checklist item. Every limitation should end with how it changes the way the results are read.
• "Your scope and your methodology do not match." If the scope says one year level and your respondents section or sampling frame says something wider, the panel will treat the scope as the error. Check the two against each other line by line.

Worked Example 1: A Descriptive Study on Public Market Waste Segregation

Illustrative example. The study described below was constructed for this guide and is not a real published study.

Topic: waste segregation compliance among stallholders in a public market

Scope: "This study focused on the waste segregation practices of food stallholders at the Poblacion Public Market in a fourth-class municipality in Batangas, covering the wet, dry, and recyclable-waste categories mandated under the municipality's solid waste management ordinance, based on data gathered over a six-week period in the second quarter of 2026."

Delimitation: "This study did not cover stallholders selling non-food items, since the local ordinance's segregation requirements apply specifically to food-related waste. It was likewise limited to a single public market rather than all public markets in the municipality, given the time available for direct observation."

Limitation: "A limitation of this study is its reliance on direct observation during market hours only, which may not capture segregation behavior during closing and cleanup, when waste is more likely to be consolidated. Findings should be read as describing observed daytime practice rather than total daily compliance."

Worked Example 2: An Intervention Study on a Reading Program

Illustrative example. The study described below was constructed for this guide and is not a real published study.

Topic: a supplementary reading intervention for struggling Grade 4 readers

Scope: "This study focused on the effect of a six-week supplementary phonics-based reading intervention on the oral reading fluency of Grade 4 pupils identified as frustration-level readers in one rural elementary school in Iloilo, based on pre-test and post-test oral reading scores gathered during the third quarter of school year 2025-2026."

Delimitation: "This study was limited to pupils already identified as frustration-level readers through the school's existing reading assessment; pupils at instructional or independent reading levels were excluded, since the intervention was designed specifically for struggling readers. The study also did not extend to other grade levels or to reading comprehension as a separate measure, focusing only on oral reading fluency."

Limitation: "A limitation of this study is the six-week intervention window, which is shorter than the twelve-week duration typically recommended for measuring durable gains in reading fluency; results should be read as short-term indicators rather than evidence of lasting improvement. The study was also conducted in a single school, so findings may not generalize to schools with different resource levels or class sizes."

Worked Example 3: The Combined Section, Written the Way a Manual Asks For It

Illustrative example. The study described below was constructed for this guide and is not a real published study.

Topic: senior high school learners' use of the school library during examination weeks

The first two examples separate the three parts so you can see the difference between them. This one shows the combined Scope and Delimitation of the Study section as most Philippine manuals want it submitted: scope first, delimitation second, in continuous prose under one heading.

"This study focused on the library use patterns of Grade 12 learners at [name of school], specifically the frequency of their visits, their stated purposes for visiting, and the types of resources they borrowed. It covered the two examination weeks of the first semester of school year 2026-2027, and the respondents were the Grade 12 learners enrolled in the school during that semester.

The study was delimited to Grade 12 learners because the heavier reading load being examined is concentrated in the exit-year subjects; Grade 11 learners were therefore not included. It was likewise delimited to physical visits to the library and did not cover the use of online databases from outside the library, since access records for those were not available to the researchers. Library staff were not surveyed, as the study was concerned with learner behavior rather than with service delivery."

Notice what is not in there. Nothing about response rates, instrument reliability, or anything else the researchers could not control, because none of that is a delimitation. Those belong in the limitations paragraph, which in most manuals is a separate short paragraph either right after this section or in Chapter 5.

All three examples are models to study, not papers to submit. Build your own scope, delimitation, and limitation from your own variables, respondents, and constraints; the sentence patterns above are reusable, the content is not.

Tips for Writing Your Own

• Write scope and delimitation as a pair, in that order. State what you covered first, then what you deliberately left out and why.
• Give every delimitation a reason. An exclusion without a stated reason reads as an oversight, not a deliberate design choice.
• Name limitations specifically, not generically. "Small sample size" is weak on its own; "a sample of 45 respondents from a single department, which limits generalization beyond that department" is specific enough for a panel to evaluate.
• Don't confuse a limitation with a delimitation. If you chose it, it's a delimitation. If it happened to you, it's a limitation.
• Keep the tone factual, not apologetic. State the constraint, then move on; you don't need to convince the reader your study is still valid, the honest statement of the constraint does that on its own.

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Sources

• APNTS — 2019 Thesis Handbook (Scope and Delimitations of the Study)
• Silliman University — University Graduate Programs Policies and Guidelines (2017)
• Emilio Aguinaldo College — RDO Manual on Thesis Writing
• DepEd — K to 12 Senior High School Practical Research 1 Curriculum Guide
• DepEd — K to 12 Senior High School Practical Research 2 Curriculum Guide
• DepEd Order No. 017, s. 2026 — Strengthened Senior High School Curriculum
• University of Southern California — Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Limitations of the Study
• SchoolFinderPH — Thesis Chapters Guide
• SchoolFinderPH — Statement of the Problem Guide
• SchoolFinderPH — Significance of the Study Guide
• SchoolFinderPH — Practical Research 1 Guide
• SchoolFinderPH — Research Title Guide
• SchoolFinderPH — Respondents of the Study Guide