The discussion chapter is where you delve
into the meaning, importance and relevance
of your results.
It should focus on explaining and evaluating
what you found, showing how it relates to
your literature review and research questions,
and making an argument in support of your
overall conclusion.
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There are many different ways to write the
discussion section, but you can focus it around
four key elements.
Let's dive into them!
Now, to start your discussion chapter, you
should state your research problem again and
concisely summarize your major findings in
a paragraph.
So something like “The results indicate
that…”
Then you can move onto the focus.
First, give your interpretations.
In other words, what do the results mean?
It’s important to spell out their significance
for the reader and show exactly how they answer
your research questions.
Here are some typical approaches to interpreting
the data:
Identifying correlations, patterns, and relationships
among the data
Discussing whether the results met your expectations
or supported your hypotheses
It might sound like this: “In line with
the hypothesis…”
Here’s just one example I’m giving you,
but there are more in our knowledge base article,
check them out here!
Second, discuss the implications.
So what has your research contributed and
why should the readers care?
You should also show how your findings fit
with existing knowledge, and what consequences
they have for theory or practice.
Here are some questions you can ask yourself:
Do your results agree with previous research?
If so, what do they add to it?
Are your findings very different from other
studies?
If so, why might this be?
Do the results support or challenge existing
theories?
Are there any practical implications?
Here’s how you can discuss the implications:
“the experiment provides a new insight into
the relationship between…”
Third, acknowledge the limitations
Even the best research has some limitations,
and acknowledging these is important to demonstrate
your credibility.
Limitations aren’t about listing your errors,
they provide an accurate picture of what can
and cannot be concluded from your study.
Limitations might be due to your overall research
design, your methods or samples, or unanticipated
obstacles that emerged during the research
process.
After noting the limitations, you can reiterate
why the results are nonetheless valid for
the purpose of answering your research questions.
For example, “It is beyond the scope of
this study to address the question of…”
Finally, state your recommendations
Based on the discussion of your results, you
can make recommendations for practical implementation
or further research.
Suggestions for further research can lead
directly from the limitations.
Don’t just state that more studies should
be done – give concrete ideas for how future
work can build on areas that your own research
was unable to address.
Like the example here.
Further research is required to establish
whether X is a factor in…
We also have a checklist to help you write
the discussion section easily, just click
the link here!
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