Lesson Introduction

After implementing your action, you may now have large amount of data at hand and have no idea how you should deal with them. It is normal for a new researcher to be anxious at this point. The assigned readings of this lesson will help you to reduce the large amount of data into manageable sets of information – data analysis. Remember, data by themselves do not mean anything until you analyze them, find and interpret the meaning behind them. Therefore, it is critical to use the appropriate analytical techniques. Mertler (2006) emphasized that the data analysis techniques must be aligned with research questions and hypotheses.

 

 

Results and Discussion

The results section is where you tell the reader the basic descriptive information about what you find. For example, if you used scales to collect data, you will report the mean for each scale here. In the results section, you also tell the reader what statistics you conduct to test your hypothesis(ses) and what the results indicate. A good research paper includes not only textual explanation, but visual descriptions as well. Be sure to include graphs, raw collected data, and statistics. This is what the results section usually does. To make everything look more interesting, try to illustrate all or, at least, the most important of your findings. The results have to be described in detail, but not explained. Brevity is the key to success; therefore, concentrate on the significant issues and avoid plain talking.

 

The discussion is the most difficult to write, as it contains the most original thoughts. Discussion covers the results you came up with during your research. It is a complete appraisal of the results. Ideally, discussion should bring out various aspects of the results including all the pros and cons of the results. For any good reader, critical appraisal of a paper is part of his/her reading activity and a good discussion, along with a good 'Materials and Methods' section, helps the appraisal process. Also, warn your readers from the error that you made during your researches and offer them some ways to avoid other possible mistakes. If there are alternative ways to come up at the same results, devote some space to them too. Wrap up the discussion section with the summary of the work that you conducted.

Rules and methods to follow while writing the discussion:

Start with the major findings in your work.

Compare with other similar works, explaining the possible reasons for the differences. This will bring up the limitations of the study and suggestions for future work.

Do not gloss over the limitations of the study- this may set the tone for future work.

State the immediate clinical relevance of your findings clearly.

Discuss – “Where do we go from here and what needs to be done next”.

A discussion can have a conclusion – one line with the sum and substance of the whole paper.

Use the present tense for the discussion, especially for established facts; however, refer to specific works and references in the past tense.

 

Things to avoid while writing the discussion

 

Do not overstate the importance of the findings

Do not speculate. All that you say should be based on known facts or the findings of your work in the paper.

While comparing with others' work, avoid criticizing your colleagues.