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How to Write a Dissertation Discussion Chapter – A Quick Guide with Examples

Published by Alvin Nicolas at August 12th, 2021 , Revised On September 20, 2023

Dissertation discussion is the chapter where you explore the relevance, significance, and meanings of your findings – allowing you to showcase your talents in describing and analyzing the results of your study.

Here, you will be expected to demonstrate how your research findings answer the research questions established or test the hypothesis .

The arguments you assert in the dissertation analysis and discussions chapter lay the foundations of your conclusion . It is critically important to discuss the results in a precise manner.

To help you understand how to write a dissertation discussion chapter, here is the list of the main elements of this section so you stay on the right track when writing:

Summary: Start by providing a summary of your key research findings
Interpretations: What is the significance of your findings?
Implications: Why are your findings important to academic and scientific communities, and what purpose would they serve?
Limitations: When and where will your results have no implications?
Future Recommendations : Advice for other researchers and scientists who explore the topic further in future.

The dissertation discussion chapter should be carefully drafted to ensure that the results mentioned in your research align with your research question, aims, and objectives.

Considering the importance of this chapter for all students working on their dissertations, we have comprehensive guidelines on how to write a dissertation discussion chapter.

The discussion and conclusion chapters often overlap. Depending on your university, you may be asked to group these two sections in one chapter – Discussion and Conclusion.

In some cases, the results and discussion are put together under the Results and Discussion chapter. Here are some dissertation examples of working out the best structure for your dissertation.

Alternatively, you can look for the required dissertation structure in your handbook or consult your supervisor.

Steps of How to Write Dissertation Discussion Chapter

1. provide a summary of your findings.

Start your discussion by summarising the key findings of your research questions. Avoid repeating the information you have already stated in the previous chapters.

You will be expected to clearly express your interpretation of results to answer the research questions established initially in one or two paragraphs.

Here are some examples of how to present the summary of your findings ;

“The data suggests that”,
“The results confirm that”,
“The analysis indicates that”,
“The research shows a relationship between”, etc.

2. Interpretations of Results

Your audience will expect you to provide meanings of the results, although they might seem obvious to you. The results and their interpretations should be linked to the research questions so the reader can understand the value your research has added to the literature.

There are many ways of interpreting the data, but your chosen approach to interpreting the data will depend on the type of research involved . Some of the most common strategies employed include;

Describing how and why you ended up with unexpected findings and explaining their importance in detail
Relating your findings with previous studies conducted
Explaining your position with logical arguments when/if any alternative explanations are suggested
An in-depth discussion around whether or not the findings answered your research questions and successfully tested the hypothesis

Examples of how you can start your interpretation in the Discussion chapter are –

“Findings of this study contradict those of Allen et al. (2014) that”,
“Contrary to the hypothesized association,” “Confirming the hypothesis…”,
“The findings confirm that A is….. even though Allen et al. (2014) and Michael (2012) suggested B was …..”

3. Implications of your Study

What practical and theoretical implications will your study have for other researchers and the scientific community as a whole?

It is vital to relate your results to the knowledge in the existing literature so the readers can establish how your research will contribute to the existing data.

When thinking of the possible consequences of your findings, you should ask yourself these;

Are your findings in line with previous studies? What contribution did your research make to them?
Why are your results entirely different from other studies on the same topic?
Did your findings approve or contradict existing knowledge?
What are the practical implications of your study?

Remember that as the researcher, you should aim to let your readers know why your study will contribute to the existing literature. Possible ways of starting this particular section are;

“The findings show that A….. whereas Lee (2017) and John (2013) suggested that B”, “The results of this study completely contradict the claims made in theories”,
“These results are not in line with the theoretical perspectives”,
“The statistical analysis provides a new understanding of the relationship between A and B”,
“Future studies should take into consideration the findings of this study because”

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4. Recognise the Limitations of your Research

Almost every academic research has some limitations. Acknowledging them will only add to your credibility as a scientific researcher.

In addition to the possible human errors, it’s important to take into account other factors that might have influenced the results of your study, including but not limited to unexpected research obstacles, specific methodological choices , and the overall research design.

Avoid mentioning any limitations that may not be relevant to your research aim, but clearly state the limitations that may have affected your results.

For example, if you used a sample size that included a tiny population, you may not generalise your results.

Similarly, obstacles faced in collecting data from the participants can influence the findings of your study. Make a note of all such research limitations , but explain to the reader why your results are still authentic.

The small sample size limited the generalisability of the results.
The authenticity of the findings may have been influenced by….
The obstacles in collecting data resulted in…
It is beyond the framework of this research…

5. Provide Recommendations for Future Research

The limitations of your research work directly result in future recommendations. However, it should be noted that your recommendations for future research work should include the areas that your own work could not report so other researchers can build on them.

Sometimes the recommendations are a part of the conclusion chapter . Some examples;

More research is needed to be performed….

The Purpose of Dissertation Discussion Chapter

Remember that the discussion section of a dissertation is the heart of your research because a) it will indicate your stance on the topic of research, and b) it answers the research questions initially established in the Introduction chapter .

Every piece of information you present here will add value to the existing literature within your field of study. How you structured your findings in the preceding chapter will help you determine the best structure for your dissertation discussion section.

For example, it might be logical to structure your analysis/discussions by theme if you chose the pattern in your findings section.

But generally, discussion based on research questions is the more widely used structure in academia because this pattern clearly indicates how you have addressed the aim of your research.

Most UK universities require the supervisor or committee members to comment on the extent to which each research question has been answered. You will be doing them a great favour if you structure your discussion so that each research question is laid out separately.

Irrespective of whether you are writing an essay, dissertation, or chapter of a dissertation , all pieces of writing should start with an introduction .

Once your readers have read through your study results, you might want to highlight the contents of the subsequent discussion as an introduction paragraph (summary of your results – as explained above).

Likewise, the discussion chapter is expected to end with a concluding paragraph – allowing you the opportunity to summarise your interpretations.

The dissertation analysis & discussion chapter is usually very long, so it will make sense to emphasise the critical points in a concluding paragraph so the reader can grasp the essential information. This will also help to make sure the reader understands your analysis.

Also Read: Research Discussion Of Findings

Useful Tips

Presentation of graphs, tables, and figures.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, students spent days creating graphs and charts for their statistical analysis work . Thanks to technology, you can produce even more accurate graphs and figures today in a shorter period.

Using Microsoft Word, STATA, SPSS, Microsoft Excel and other statistical analysis software, we can now draw beautiful-looking figures, tables , and graphs with just a few clicks and make them appear in our document at the desired place. But there are downsides to being too dependent on technology.

Many students make the common mistake of using colours to represent variables when really they have to print their dissertation paper final copy in black and white.

Any colours on graphs and figures will eventually be viewed in the grayscale presentation. Recognizing different shades of grey on the same chart or graph can sometimes be a little confusing.

For example, green and purple appear as pretty much the same shade of grey on a line chat, meaning your chart will become unreadable to the marker.

Another trap you may fall into is the unintentional stuffing of the dissertation chapter with graphs and figures. Even though it is essential to show numbers and statistics, you don’t want to overwhelm your readers with too many.

It may not be necessary to have a graph/table under each sub-heading. Only you can best judge whether or not you need to have a graph/table under a particular sub-heading as the writer.

Image result for excel graphs and charts

Relating to Previous Chapters

As a student, it can be challenging to develop your own analysis and discussion of results. One of the excellent discussion chapter requirements is to showcase your ability to relate previous research to your research results.

Avoid repeating the same information over and over. Many students fall into this trap which negatively affects the mark of their overall dissertation paper .

Concise and to-the-point information will help you effectively convey your point to the readers.

Although you must demonstrate how your findings relate to previous research, it is equally important to ensure you are not simply rewriting what has already been said in the introduction and literature review chapters.

The best strategy is to use examples from previous sections to postulate an argument.

Hyperlinks are recommended to take the reader from one section to another. This is especially important for submitting electronic documents as .word or .pdf files. Hyperlinking is tedious and time-consuming, so you should allow for this in your dissertation timeline to avoid rushing in the closing stages.

Also read: How to Write the Abstract for the Dissertation.

Using Subsections and Subheadings

You might want to reflect on the structure of the discussion in your organizstion of the dissertation discussion chapter, and for that, you will need to create sub-sections.

It is essential to keep subsections to the point and as short as possible. Use a layer of subheadings if possible.

For example

Subsection 4.1 of Chapter 4- Discussion can be further divided into sections 4.1.1 and 4.2.2. After three numerical layers (4.1.1, 4.2.2, and 4.2.3), any subheadings need not appear in the contents table.

The titles of all subsections will appear on your table of contents so choose the wordings carefully. A title too long or too short might confuse the reader. A one or two-word subheading will not give the reader enough information to understand the section.

Likewise, using a research question or long sentences in the subheading is not recommended. It might help to examine how other researchers and writers create these subheadings.

Critical Thinking

Your critical thinking skills are the crux of your dissertation discussion chapter. You will do yourself a great disservice if you fail to put the critical thinking element into the equation.

After all, this exercise aims to showcase clarity in your thoughts and arguments. Markers of the dissertation give more importance to the analysis and discussion chapter. But you could be marked negatively if this particular chapter lacks critical thinking.

Many students struggle to distinguish between fundamental descriptive analysis and critical thinking with their opinions on the research topic.

Critical thinking is a skill developed over time, and it might be daunting for you to come to terms with the idea of critical thinking and its use in your analysis. But even if you are no expert, you must try your best.

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Duplication of Content

Another critical error students make reaffirming the point the graph/chart was supposed to make. Writing out the same information as presented in the graph defeats the whole purpose of having them in the first place.

You will be expected to form your opinions and arguments based on the findings (as presented by the graphs), so keep an eye on this mistake. Finally, avoid simply inserting a graph without any explanation whatsoever.

It should be noted that there is no correct or incorrect number of charts/figures one can use in the dissertation findings and discussion chapter. A balance must be struck.

Avoid Over Interpretation

This is a major no-no when writing a dissertation discussion. Do not make an argument that isn’t backed by your collected data.

The results and interpretations that cannot be supported should not be mentioned. Your research will be deemed unauthentic and will also be questioned by your supervisor if you do so. Results should be interpreted without any bias.

How to Write the Findings of a Dissertation.

Do not Speculate

Speculation in the discussion chapter of your dissertation is discouraged. Your dissertation’s discussion is based on your collected data and how it relates to your research questions. Thus, speculating here will undoubtedly undermine your research’s credibility.

Also, try not to generalise your findings. If your research is based on a specific population, do not state that the same findings might apply in every case. As indicated previously, it is essential to acknowledge the limitations of your research.

On the other hand, if you think your discussion needs to address other populations as well, start your sentence like this ‘We speculate that..’ or ‘It is speculated that..’ This will keep you from getting into any trouble.

What are the elements of the Dissertation Discussion?

The list of the main elements of the discussion chapter are:

Implications : Why are your findings important to academic and scientific communities, and what purpose would they serve?
Future Recommendations: Advice for other researchers and scientists who explore the topic further in future.

What are the steps of writing a Dissertation Discussion Chapter?

Write a summary of the findings
Provide a summary of your findings
Interpretations of Results
Recognise the Limitations of your research
Provide Recommendations for Future Research.

Can we use graphs and charts in the Dissertation Discussion Chapter?

Yes, using graphs to aid your statistical results and enhance presentation is essential, but do not overwhelm it with a lot of graphs in multiple colours.

What makes an effective discussion?

When you’re ready to write your discussion, you’ve already introduced the purpose of your study and provided an in-depth description of the methodology. The discussion informs readers about the larger implications of your study based on the results. Highlighting these implications while not overstating the findings can be challenging, especially when you’re submitting to a journal that selects articles based on novelty or potential impact. Regardless of what journal you are submitting to, the discussion section always serves the same purpose: concluding what your study results actually mean.

A successful discussion section puts your findings in context. It should include:

the results of your research,
a discussion of related research, and
a comparison between your results and initial hypothesis.

Tip: Not all journals share the same naming conventions.

You can apply the advice in this article to the conclusion, results or discussion sections of your manuscript.

Our Early Career Researcher community tells us that the conclusion is often considered the most difficult aspect of a manuscript to write. To help, this guide provides questions to ask yourself, a basic structure to model your discussion off of and examples from published manuscripts.

Questions to ask yourself:

Was my hypothesis correct?
If my hypothesis is partially correct or entirely different, what can be learned from the results?
How do the conclusions reshape or add onto the existing knowledge in the field? What does previous research say about the topic?
Why are the results important or relevant to your audience? Do they add further evidence to a scientific consensus or disprove prior studies?
How can future research build on these observations? What are the key experiments that must be done?
What is the “take-home” message you want your reader to leave with?

How to structure a discussion

Trying to fit a complete discussion into a single paragraph can add unnecessary stress to the writing process. If possible, you’ll want to give yourself two or three paragraphs to give the reader a comprehensive understanding of your study as a whole. Here’s one way to structure an effective discussion:

Writing Tips

While the above sections can help you brainstorm and structure your discussion, there are many common mistakes that writers revert to when having difficulties with their paper. Writing a discussion can be a delicate balance between summarizing your results, providing proper context for your research and avoiding introducing new information. Remember that your paper should be both confident and honest about the results!

Read the journal’s guidelines on the discussion and conclusion sections. If possible, learn about the guidelines before writing the discussion to ensure you’re writing to meet their expectations.
Begin with a clear statement of the principal findings. This will reinforce the main take-away for the reader and set up the rest of the discussion.
Explain why the outcomes of your study are important to the reader. Discuss the implications of your findings realistically based on previous literature, highlighting both the strengths and limitations of the research.
State whether the results prove or disprove your hypothesis. If your hypothesis was disproved, what might be the reasons?
Introduce new or expanded ways to think about the research question. Indicate what next steps can be taken to further pursue any unresolved questions.
If dealing with a contemporary or ongoing problem, such as climate change, discuss possible consequences if the problem is avoided.
Be concise. Adding unnecessary detail can distract from the main findings.

Don’t

Rewrite your abstract. Statements with “we investigated” or “we studied” generally do not belong in the discussion.
Include new arguments or evidence not previously discussed. Necessary information and evidence should be introduced in the main body of the paper.
Apologize. Even if your research contains significant limitations, don’t undermine your authority by including statements that doubt your methodology or execution.
Shy away from speaking on limitations or negative results. Including limitations and negative results will give readers a complete understanding of the presented research. Potential limitations include sources of potential bias, threats to internal or external validity, barriers to implementing an intervention and other issues inherent to the study design.
Overstate the importance of your findings. Making grand statements about how a study will fully resolve large questions can lead readers to doubt the success of the research.

Snippets of Effective Discussions:

Consumer-based actions to reduce plastic pollution in rivers: A multi-criteria decision analysis approach

Identifying reliable indicators of fitness in polar bears

How to Write a Great Title
How to Write an Abstract
How to Write Your Methods
How to Report Statistics
How to Edit Your Work

The contents of the Peer Review Center are also available as a live, interactive training session, complete with slides, talking points, and activities. …

The contents of the Writing Center are also available as a live, interactive training session, complete with slides, talking points, and activities. …

There’s a lot to consider when deciding where to submit your work. Learn how to choose a journal that will help your study reach its audience, while reflecting your values as a researcher…

How Do I Write the Discussion Chapter?

Reflecting on and Comparing Your Data, Recognising the Strengths and Limitations

First Online: 19 October 2023

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Bartek Buczkowski ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4146-3664 4

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The Discussion chapter brings an opportunity to write an academic argument that contains a detailed critical evaluation and analysis of your research findings. This chapter addresses the purpose and critical nature of the discussion, contains a guide to selecting key results to discuss, and details how best to structure the discussion with subsections and paragraphs. We also present a list of points to do and avoid when writing the discussion together with a Discussion chapter checklist.

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Reeves, S., Buczkowski, B. (2023). How Do I Write the Discussion Chapter?. In: Mastering Your Dissertation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41911-9_9

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How To Write Dissertation Discussion Chapter For Academic Success

By Laura Brown on 18th August 2023

The dissertation discussion chapter serves as the intellectual heart of your dissertation, providing a platform to interpret findings, evaluate their significance, and draw conclusions. In order to understand how to write the discussion section of a dissertation, you need to stay connected throughout the blog.

Begin by succinctly restating your objectives and summarising key results.
Then, analyse these results in the context of existing literature, highlighting similarities, contradictions, and gaps.
Further, address any limitations and their impact on results, showcasing your critical thinking.
Next, engage in an insightful interpretation of findings, explaining their implications and contributions to the field.
Finally, conclude by aligning your conclusions with research objectives, emphasising their importance and potential avenues for future exploration.

In your dissertation, the discussion chapter holds a key role. It’s where you take your findings and make sense of them. Think of it as the part where you connect the dots. This blog from Crowd Writer will guide you on writing a dissertation discussion chapter step by step.

First, have a look at some important aspects.

Why is It Important: The discussion chapter helps you explain what your findings mean. It’s like telling a good story about your results.

Putting It Together: Imagine you’re building a puzzle. You arrange your findings in an organised way. Start with the important pieces.

Key Findings: Here, you talk about what you discovered. Don’t just repeat; explain.

What It All Means: Dive into the meaning behind your findings. Why are they important? How do they fit in with other research?

Answering Questions: Remember the questions you asked at the beginning? Now’s the time to answer them using your results.

Talking to Other Studies: See how your findings compare with other research. Are they similar or different?

Limits and Next Steps: Be honest about any problems in your study. Also, suggest what others can research in the future.

Remember, stay objective and follow your university’s rules. Let’s dive into the details on how to write a thesis discussion!

How To Write Dissertation Discussion Chapter For Academic Success

1. Understand the Purpose of the Discussion Chapter

While writing the discussion section of a dissertation, you unravel the significance of your findings. To achieve this, it’s crucial to establish a strong link between your objectives and the results you’ve obtained. By doing so, you provide readers with a clear pathway to understand how your study contributes to the broader academic discourse.

Interpretation holds immense power in the dissertation discussion section. Merely presenting results is insufficient; you must delve deeper into their implications. Contextualising your findings within existing literature showcases your good understanding of the field’s nuances and highlights the uniqueness of your dissertation. By interpreting the data, you transform raw numbers into meaningful insights, demonstrating your analytical prowess.

2. Organise Your Discussion

Effective organisation is the backbone of a well-structured discussion chapter. Begin by organising your thoughts coherently, ensuring a logical flow from one point to another. This structure guides readers smoothly through your argument, making it easier for them to grasp the significance of your findings.

You need to conduct a transition from specific details to broader insights.
Start by elaborating on individual findings, discussing their significance, and showing how they relate to your objectives.
Gradually widen your scope to discuss the broader implications and potential applications of your results.

This gradual transition allows your discussion to naturally build, providing readers with a comprehensive understanding of your study’s impact.

Once you have organised it perfectly and are aware of how long is a dissertation , this is the right time for us to answer you on how to start a discussion in a dissertation. Let’s get started!

3. Summarise Your Key Findings

Summarising findings demands conciseness without sacrificing clarity. Your goal is to encapsulate the essence of your study’s results in a succinct manner. Avoid the temptation to merely restate what has been presented in the results section. Instead, focus on capturing the main outcomes and patterns that contribute to your objectives. Let’s have a quick look at how you can do this.

Summarise each major finding in a clear and succinct statement, focusing on the main outcome or result.
Use subheadings or bullet points to categorise and present different sets of findings, making it easier for readers to follow.
Emphasise the significance of each finding by discussing its relevance to your objectives and the broader field.
Include key quantitative or qualitative data that support your findings using charts, graphs, or examples.
If you have hypotheses, briefly mention whether each finding supports or contradicts them, providing a clear link between the hypothesis and the outcome.

4. Interpret and Analyse

The next step in our journey on how to write a discussion for dissertation is conducting a thorough analysis. Critical analysis in the context of your question is paramount for deriving meaningful insights from your results .

Delve into the “why” and “how” behind your findings, exploring the underlying mechanisms that drove the observed outcomes. Connect the dots between your data and your research question, explaining how each finding contributes to the overall understanding of the topic.

Furthermore, it’s crucial to discuss the significance of each individual finding within the broader context of existing literature. Highlight where your results align with previous studies and where they deviate.

This juxtaposition aids in validating your conclusions and demonstrates your awareness of the landscape. By situating your findings within the existing body of knowledge, you reinforce your study’s importance and contribute to the ongoing scholarly conversation.

5. Address Research Questions and Hypotheses

Returning to your questions and hypotheses is a pivotal step in the discussion of dissertation. Guide your readers through the process of relating your findings back to these initial guiding points. Clearly state whether your results support or reject your hypotheses , providing a direct answer to the questions you posed at the outset of your research.

It’s essential to substantiate your conclusions with evidence from your results. Explain how each finding corresponds to specific questions or hypotheses, and elucidate the reasoning behind your conclusions. This systematic approach reinforces the rigour of your study and enables readers to follow your logical thought process in a good way.

6. Compare with Existing Literature

Now, moving towards another step on how to write a discussion in a dissertation, comparing your findings to the existing literature is an indispensable practice that underscores the significance of your research. This step involves not only highlighting similarities between your results and prior studies but also identifying differences and contradictions . Such comparisons enrich your discussion by providing a comprehensive view of your study’s place within the academic landscape.

By emphasising similarities, you reinforce the consistency of your findings and corroborate the validity of your results. Discussing differences and contradictions, on the other hand, offers insights into the complexity of the topic and potential areas for further exploration. This nuanced examination showcases your ability to critically engage with existing knowledge and contributes to the evolution of the field.

Highlights of the Section

Contextual Alignment: Ensure that the literature you compare aligns contextually with your topic, objectives, and methodology. Draw meaningful connections between your findings and the existing body of research.
Highlighting Differences and Commonalities: Discuss both the differences and commonalities between your findings and the literature. Identify where your results agree, diverge, or extend the existing knowledge base.

7. Discuss Limitations

Transparency in discussing limitations is crucial for maintaining the integrity of your dissertation. Guide your readers on how to openly address potential weaknesses in your study. Acknowledge any factors that might have influenced your results, such as sample size, methodology, or data collection procedures . By doing so, you demonstrate a mature understanding of the process and its complexities.

When discussing limitations in dissertation discussion, adopt an analytical stance. Rather than presenting limitations as obstacles, use them as opportunities for growth. Explain how these limitations might have impacted your findings and suggest ways to mitigate their effects in future research. This practice not only enhances the credibility of your study but also contributes to the advancement of the field. In any case, if you find it difficult, contact our dissertation writing services UK for dissertation discussion examples or any other assistance, and we will help you out.

Transparency: Be transparent and honest about the limitations of your study. Acknowledge any potential weaknesses or shortcomings in your design, methodology, data collection, or analysis.
Impact on Findings: Explain how each limitation might have influenced your findings. Discuss whether these limitations might have affected the validity, reliability, or generalizability of your results.
Mitigation Strategies: Alongside presenting the limitations, discuss any strategies you employed to mitigate or address these limitations. This showcases your proactive approach to minimising the impact of constraints on the validity and robustness of your study.

8. Propose Future Research Directions

Suggesting future directions underscores the forward-looking nature of your study. Explain the significance of this practice in contributing to the ongoing scholarly discourse. Guide readers on how to identify gaps in current literature, drawing attention to areas that were not fully explored or could benefit from further investigation .

When understanding how to write a dissertation discussion chapter and proposing future directions, be specific and grounded. Identify key questions that emerged from your findings or that remain unanswered. Highlight potential avenues for further study, considering how these inquiries could expand upon or refine your own research. By providing a roadmap for future researchers, you contribute to the cumulative growth of knowledge in your field.

9. Connect with the Research Introduction

Bridging the gap between your discussion and the dissertation introduction is essential for creating a cohesive narrative. So, link your dissertation discussion back to the introduction of your work. Demonstrate how your findings align with the initial goals you set. This connection emphasises the consistency of your journey and reinforces the relevance of your study.

Highlight the contributions your findings make to the overarching goals introduced in the beginning. Show how your study adds depth, clarity, or new insights to the initial problem. This connection provides a satisfying sense of closure and showcases the fulfilment of the objectives you established.

10. Keep the Tone Objective

By now, you must have had an idea what to include in the discussion section of the dissertation. Along with adding the important parts, maintaining an objective and neutral tone in the dissertation discussion chapter is paramount for scholarly rigour . Emphasise the importance of adhering to this tone. Discourage the inclusion of personal opinions or emotions in this section, as they can undermine the credibility of your work and divert focus from the empirical findings.

Guide writers to present good and authentic facts, interpretations, and conclusions in an unbiased manner. Focus on evidence-based discussions, relying on the data and findings to support your claims. By adopting an objective tone, you ensure that your dissertation discussion is grounded in sound practices and contributes meaningfully to the academic discourse.

Let’s understand this with an example.

Objective Tone Example

Our study’s findings indicate a statistically significant correlation (p

Non-Objective Tone Example

Our study proves without a doubt that X causes Y – our original hypothesis was spot on! This discovery is groundbreaking and mind-bogglingly significant. Our research is amazing, and we worked incredibly hard. Everyone should pay attention to it because it’s the best thing ever!

As you can see, the first example maintains a neutral and objective tone, presenting the facts and findings without personal opinions or emotional language. The second example, on the other hand, introduces personal emotions, opinions, and exaggerated claims, which can compromise the credibility and scholarly rigour of the work.

As you finalise your dissertation discussion chapter, here are some essential tips on how to ensure its quality.

The coherence of your organisation ensures a logical progression of ideas.
Critically review your analysis, confirming that each finding is interpreted in the context of your question.
Scrutinise your limitations and future directions for clarity and relevance.
Seek consistency in tone and terminology, and verify that your conclusions align with the presented evidence.
Consider seeking feedback from peers or mentors, as external perspectives can reveal areas for improvement that you might have overlooked.

By following these final steps, you’ll solidify your discussion chapter as a valuable contribution to your paper.

Conclusion: How to Write Dissertation Discussion

This article contains the crucial aspects of crafting an effective discussion section of dissertation. We’ve explored the purpose of writing dissertation discussion in connecting objectives and results, emphasising the power of interpretation. We have also highlighted the importance of organising your discussion coherently, moving from specific findings to broader insights. We’ve discussed the art of summarising key findings concisely while avoiding repetition.

Furthermore, in this blog post, we have guided you through interpreting and analysing your results, addressing questions and hypotheses, alongside comparing them with existing literature. You’ve learned to openly discuss limitations, propose future directions, and connect your dissertation discussion back to the introduction.

We wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours and academic success as well. Never hesitate to contact us back in case of any confusion.

Laura Brown, a senior content writer who writes actionable blogs at Crowd Writer.

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Research Tips and Infromation

How to Write a Discussion Section of your Dissertation or Thesis?

Introduction

Summarize the key findings, interpretation and explanation of findings, compare with existing literature, addressing limitations, exploring unexpected or contradictory findings, discussing implications and significance.

The discussion and analysis section of a PhD or a Post Graduate dissertation plays a crucial role in presenting and interpreting the research findings. It serves as the platform where you delve into the meaning, implications, and significance of your results, ultimately contributing to the advancement of knowledge in your field of study. Let’s explore why this section is of paramount importance.

When conducting research, the primary objective is to generate new insights, contribute to existing knowledge, and address gaps in the field. The discussion and analysis section serves as the space where you make sense of your findings and contextualize them.

Usually the discussion section follows the results section of the dissertation section. If you are not familiar with writing the section , then visit my post on ” Writing results section for your dissertation “

If you are in paucity of time, not confident of your writing skills and in a hurry to complete the writing task then you can think of hiring a research consultant that solves all your problems. Please visit my article on Hiring a Research consultant for your PhD tasks for further details.

In the discussion and analysis section of your dissertation, it is crucial to provide a concise summary of the main findings that emerged from your research. These findings directly address the research questions or hypotheses you formulated at the beginning of your study. Let’s explore a few examples:

Example 1: Research in Machine Learning

Research Question: How does the use of deep learning algorithms impact the accuracy of image recognition systems?

Key Findings: The study revealed that employing deep learning algorithms significantly improved the accuracy of image recognition systems. The experimental results demonstrated an average increase in accuracy of 15% compared to traditional machine learning approaches. Furthermore, it was observed that the performance improvement was particularly notable in complex and ambiguous image recognition tasks.

Example 2: Research in Natural Language Processing

Research Question: To what extent does sentiment analysis using neural networks capture the nuances of emotions in social media data?

Key Findings: The analysis demonstrated that sentiment analysis models based on neural networks exhibited a higher accuracy in capturing nuanced emotions in social media data compared to traditional rule-based methods. The study found that the neural network model achieved an overall accuracy of 85%, whereas the rule-based approach achieved only 70%. Moreover, the neural network model showcased better performance in identifying subtle emotions such as irony and sarcasm, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of sentiment analysis.

Example 3: Research in Cybersecurity

Research Question: What are the vulnerabilities and potential attack vectors in IoT (Internet of Things) systems?

Key Findings: The investigation identified several vulnerabilities and potential attack vectors in IoT systems. The study revealed that insecure default configurations and weak authentication mechanisms were the most common vulnerabilities exploited by attackers. Furthermore, the research unveiled novel attack vectors targeting IoT devices’ communication protocols, highlighting the need for robust encryption and secure communication channels to mitigate these risks.

Remember to present your key findings in a clear and concise manner, mentioning the specific research questions or hypotheses that your study aimed to address. This allows readers to understand the main outcomes of your research and their relevance to the overarching research goals in your field.

In the discussion and analysis section of your dissertation, it is essential to interpret and explain the patterns, trends, and relationships that emerged from your data analysis. This involves using supporting evidence, such as statistical analysis or visual representations , to illustrate and strengthen your arguments. Additionally, it’s important to explain the significance and implications of your findings in relation to your research questions or hypotheses. Let’s explore some examples:

Example 1: Research in Data Mining

Findings: The analysis of large-scale customer transaction data revealed a strong association between customer purchasing behavior and their demographic characteristics.

Interpretation and Explanation: Statistical analysis demonstrated a significant correlation (p < 0.01) between customers’ age groups and their preferences for specific product categories. Younger customers showed a higher propensity for purchasing technology-related products, while older customers exhibited a preference for home and lifestyle products. These findings suggest that targeted marketing campaigns tailored to different age groups can enhance customer engagement and improve sales performance.

Example 2: Research in Network Security

Findings: The evaluation of network traffic data indicated a sudden increase in malicious activities during off-peak hours.

Interpretation and Explanation: Visual representations of network traffic patterns illustrated a substantial surge in the volume of suspicious packets and intrusion attempts between midnight and early morning hours. This finding suggests that attackers exploit the lower network traffic during off-peak hours to launch targeted attacks, making them more difficult to detect. To mitigate such risks, network administrators should enhance monitoring and employ automated threat detection systems capable of identifying anomalous behavior patterns.

Example 3: Research in Artificial Intelligence

Findings: The evaluation of various machine learning algorithms demonstrated superior performance of a novel deep reinforcement learning approach in game playing tasks.

Interpretation and Explanation: Comparative analysis using benchmark datasets revealed that the proposed deep reinforcement learning algorithm achieved an average win rate of 90% across different game environments. This outperformed traditional machine learning algorithms, including decision trees and support vector machines, which achieved win rates of 70% and 80%, respectively. These findings indicate that deep reinforcement learning holds great potential for advancing game playing AI systems, enabling them to make more optimal decisions and enhance player experience.

By discussing the patterns, trends, and relationships identified through data analysis and providing supporting evidence, such as statistical analysis or visual representations, you strengthen the validity of your arguments. Furthermore, explaining the significance and implications of your findings in relation to your research questions or hypotheses showcases the practical implications of your research.

In the discussion and analysis section of your dissertation , it is crucial to compare your findings with previous studies in your field. This involves discussing the similarities, differences, and contradictions between your research and the existing literature. Additionally, you should highlight the contributions and novelty of your research and identify areas where your results align with established theories or challenge existing knowledge. Let’s explore some examples:

Example 1: Research in Natural Language Processing

Findings: The developed natural language processing model achieved a higher accuracy in sentiment analysis compared to previous studies.

Comparison with Existing Literature: Our findings align with Smith et al. (2018) and Johnson et al. (2020), who also demonstrated the effectiveness of machine learning techniques in sentiment analysis. However, our research advances the field by incorporating contextual embeddings and attention mechanisms, resulting in an additional 5% improvement in accuracy. This highlights the contribution of our novel model architecture in enhancing sentiment analysis tasks.

Example 2: Research in Computer Vision

Findings: The proposed object detection algorithm outperformed existing methods in terms of both accuracy and computational efficiency.

Comparison with Existing Literature: Our results are consistent with the findings of Chen et al. (2019) and Wang et al. (2020), who also emphasized the importance of utilizing deep learning frameworks for object detection. However, our research extends the current knowledge by introducing a novel anchor-free approach that eliminates the need for predefined anchor boxes, resulting in a more accurate and efficient object detection system. This novel approach challenges the conventional anchor-based methods and offers potential improvements in real-time object detection applications.

Example 3: Research in Cloud Computing Security

Findings: The proposed encryption technique demonstrated enhanced security and reduced computation overhead in cloud storage systems.

Comparison with Existing Literature: Our research builds upon the encryption schemes proposed by Li et al. (2017) and Zhang et al. (2019). However, our technique introduces a dynamic key management mechanism that strengthens data confidentiality and allows efficient data access. This advancement addresses the limitations of the existing methods and contributes to the field by providing a more secure and scalable solution for protecting sensitive data in cloud storage systems.

By comparing your findings with previous studies, you showcase your understanding of the existing literature and demonstrate how your research adds value to the field of study. Identifying areas of alignment with established theories helps validate your work, while highlighting areas where your results challenge existing knowledge highlights the novelty and potential impact of your research.

In the discussion and analysis section of your dissertation, it is important to acknowledge the limitations of your study. This includes factors such as sample size, data collection methods, or other constraints that may have influenced your results. Reflecting on these limitations helps provide a transparent assessment of your research. Additionally, suggesting avenues for future research to address these limitations contributes to the advancement of the field. Let’s explore some examples:

Limitation: The study utilized a relatively small dataset consisting of 100 samples from a single organization.

Reflection: The small sample size may have limited the generalizability of the findings. The dataset’s limited diversity and narrow scope could impact the applicability of the results to broader contexts. It is important to recognize that different organizations may exhibit variations in their data patterns and characteristics.

Future Research: To address this limitation, future research could involve collecting data from multiple organizations across different industries. This would enhance the representativeness of the findings and provide a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomena under investigation.

Example 2: Research in Artificial Intelligence

Limitation: The study focused solely on image recognition tasks and did not consider other domains such as natural language processing or speech recognition.

Reflection: While the findings are valuable for image recognition, the limited scope restricts the generalizability of the results to broader AI applications. Different domains may have unique challenges and requirements that need to be considered.

Future Research: To overcome this limitation, future research could explore the application of the proposed algorithm in other domains such as text classification or voice-based applications. This would provide insights into the algorithm’s effectiveness across diverse AI applications and contribute to its broader adoption.

Example 3: Research in Human-Computer Interaction

Limitation: The study relied on self-reported measures to assess user satisfaction and perceived usability.

Reflection: Self-report measures are subject to biases and may not always capture the true user experience accurately. Participants’ responses may be influenced by various factors, such as social desirability or personal expectations.

Future Research: To address this limitation, future research could incorporate objective measures, such as eye-tracking data or physiological responses, alongside self-report measures. Combining multiple assessment methods would provide a more comprehensive understanding of user experience and yield more reliable and valid results.

By acknowledging the limitations of your study, reflecting on their potential impact, and suggesting avenues for future research, you demonstrate a critical and reflective approach to your work.

In the discussion and analysis section of your dissertation, it is important to address any unexpected or contradictory results that emerged during your research. This involves discussing these findings and offering possible explanations or alternative interpretations based on available evidence. However, it is crucial to be cautious and avoid excessive speculation without supporting evidence. Let’s explore some examples:

Unexpected Finding: The deep learning model exhibited lower accuracy on a specific subset of the dataset, contrary to initial expectations.

Exploration: Upon further analysis, it was discovered that the misclassification predominantly occurred for a particular class of samples with unique characteristics. One possible explanation for this unexpected finding is the class imbalance issue, where the dataset has significantly fewer samples for that particular class. This imbalance may have resulted in insufficient training data, hindering the model’s ability to accurately classify those samples.

Alternative Interpretation: Another alternative explanation could be the presence of inherent noise or ambiguity within the data subset. It is possible that the features extracted from these samples were inherently more challenging to differentiate, leading to lower accuracy. This highlights the need for further investigation and refinement of the model architecture to improve its performance on this specific subset.

Contradictory Finding: The sentiment analysis model performed exceptionally well on a benchmark dataset but showed reduced accuracy on real-world social media data.

Exploration: The contradiction between the model’s performance on benchmark datasets and real-world social media data warrants further investigation. One possible reason for this disparity could be the linguistic complexities and informal language prevalent in social media posts. The model may struggle to accurately interpret slang, sarcasm, or context-specific expressions, leading to decreased accuracy in sentiment analysis.

Alternative Interpretation: Another alternative explanation could be the presence of bias in the training data. The benchmark datasets might not adequately represent the diverse range of language patterns and sentiments found in real-world social media data. This bias could result in a performance gap between controlled datasets and more dynamic and unpredictable real-world data.

In both examples, it is important to acknowledge unexpected or contradictory findings and explore potential explanations based on available evidence. However, it is crucial to exercise caution and avoid excessive speculation without supporting evidence. Further analysis, experimentation, or data collection may be necessary to validate and provide more concrete explanations for unexpected or contradictory findings.

By discussing unexpected or contradictory findings and providing possible explanations or alternative interpretations, you demonstrate a scientific and inquisitive approach to your research. This also allows other researchers to critically evaluate the results and contribute to the ongoing discourse.

In the discussion and analysis section of your dissertation, it is important to explain the broader implications of your findings for your field of study and beyond. This involves discussing how your research contributes to theory, practice, or policy and highlighting potential practical applications and recommendations that arise from your analysis. Let’s explore some examples:

Example 1: Research in Artificial Intelligence Ethics

Implications: The findings of the study shed light on the ethical considerations and challenges associated with the increasing use of AI technologies in decision-making systems. The research highlights the need for transparent and explainable AI models to ensure accountability and prevent biased outcomes. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration between computer scientists, ethicists, and policymakers to develop guidelines and regulations that promote responsible AI development and deployment.

Contribution: This research contributes to the growing field of AI ethics by providing empirical evidence and insights into the ethical implications of AI technologies. It informs the development of ethical frameworks, guidelines, and policies that address the societal impact of AI and fosters the responsible use of AI in various domains such as healthcare, finance, and criminal justice.

Practical Applications and Recommendations: The findings underscore the importance of implementing explainable AI models in critical decision-making systems, such as loan approvals, hiring processes, and autonomous vehicles. Policymakers and organizations should establish regulatory frameworks that ensure transparency, fairness, and accountability in AI systems. Additionally, interdisciplinary collaboration should be encouraged to foster ongoing dialogue and exchange of knowledge among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in the field of AI ethics.

Example 2: Research in Cloud Computing

Implications: The study identifies the potential risks and vulnerabilities in cloud computing systems, emphasizing the need for robust security measures to protect sensitive data. The research findings underscore the significance of ensuring data integrity, confidentiality, and availability in cloud storage and processing environments. Furthermore, the study highlights the importance of continuous monitoring and proactive detection of security breaches to prevent data breaches and unauthorized access.

Contribution: This research contributes to the field of cloud computing security by providing a comprehensive analysis of potential risks and vulnerabilities. It offers insights into the development of improved security measures and protocols for safeguarding data in cloud environments. The findings contribute to the ongoing efforts to enhance the security and reliability of cloud computing systems for individuals, organizations, and governments.

Practical Applications and Recommendations: The research findings have practical implications for cloud service providers, enterprises, and individuals utilizing cloud computing services. The study recommends implementing robust encryption techniques, multi-factor authentication, and intrusion detection systems to strengthen the security posture of cloud systems. Additionally, organizations should establish incident response plans and conduct regular security audits to identify and mitigate potential vulnerabilities in their cloud infrastructure.

By discussing the implications and significance of your findings, you highlight the broader impact of your research in the domain and beyond. Explaining how your research contributes to theory, practice, or policy demonstrates its practical relevance and potential for positive change. Additionally, discussing potential practical applications and offering recommendations based on your analysis provides actionable insights that can inform decision-making and guide future research and implementation efforts.

This blog post has provided an outline for writing the discussion and analysis section of a PhD or Post Graduate dissertation. We have discussed several key points that should be addressed in this section and provided examples from different domains to illustrate their application.

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What’s Included: Discussion Template

This template covers all the core components required in the discussion/analysis chapter of a typical dissertation or thesis, including:

The opening/overview section
Overview of key findings
Interpretation of the findings
Concluding summary

The purpose of each section is explained in plain language, followed by an overview of the key elements that you need to cover. The template also includes practical examples to help you understand exactly what’s required, along with links to additional free resources (articles, videos, etc.) to help you along your research journey.

The cleanly formatted Google Doc can be downloaded as a fully editable MS Word Document (DOCX format), so you can use it as-is or convert it to LaTeX.

PS – if you’d like a high-level template for the entire thesis, you can we’ve got that too .

FAQ: Thesis Discussion Template

What types of dissertations/theses can this template be used for.

The discussion chapter template follows the standard format for academic research projects, which means it will be suitable for the majority of dissertations, theses and research projects (especially those within the sciences).

Keep in mind that the exact requirements for the discussion chapter/section will vary between universities and degree programs. For example, your university may require that the discussion chapter and conclusion chapter are merged into one, or that the results and discussion are covered together (this is often the case with qualitative research). So, be sure to double-check your university’s requirements before you finalise your structure.

Is this template for an undergrad, Master or PhD-level thesis?

This template can be used for a dissertation, thesis or research project at any level of study. Doctoral-level projects typically require the discussion chapter to be more extensive/comprehensive, but the structure will typically remain the same. Again, be sure to check your university’s requirements and norms in terms of document structure.

How long should the discussion chapter be?

This can vary a fair deal, depending on the level of study (undergrad, Master or Doctoral), the field of research, as well as your university’s specific requirements. Therefore, it’s best to check with your university or review past dissertations from your program to get an accurate estimate.

Can I share this template with my friends/colleagues?

Yes, you’re welcome to share this template in its original format (no editing allowed). If you want to post about it on your blog or social media, please reference this page as your source.

What format is the template (DOC, PDF, PPT, etc.)?

The dissertation discussion chapter template is provided as a Google Doc. You can download it in MS Word format or make a copy to your Google Drive. You’re also welcome to convert it to whatever format works best for you, such as LaTeX or PDF.

Do you have templates for the other chapters?

Yes, we do. We are constantly developing our collection of free resources to help students complete their dissertations and theses. You can view all of our template resources here .

Can Grad Coach help me with my discussion/analysis?

Yes, we can provide coaching-based assistance with your discussion chapter (or any other chapter). If you’re interested, get in touch to discuss our private coaching services .

Writing the Dissertation - Guides for Success: The Results and Discussion

Writing the Dissertation Homepage
Overview and Planning
The Literature Review
The Methodology
The Results and Discussion
The Conclusion
The Abstract
The Difference
What to Avoid

Overview of writing the results and discussion

The results and discussion follow on from the methods or methodology chapter of the dissertation. This creates a natural transition from how you designed your study, to what your study reveals, highlighting your own contribution to the research area.

Disciplinary differences

Please note: this guide is not specific to any one discipline. The results and discussion can vary depending on the nature of the research and the expectations of the school or department, so please adapt the following advice to meet the demands of your project and department. Consult your supervisor for further guidance; you can also peruse our Writing Across Subjects guide .

Guide contents

As part of the Writing the Dissertation series, this guide covers the most common conventions of the results and discussion chapters, giving you the necessary knowledge, tips and guidance needed to impress your markers! The sections are organised as follows:

The Difference - Breaks down the distinctions between the results and discussion chapters.
Results - Provides a walk-through of common characteristics of the results chapter.
Discussion - Provides a walk-through of how to approach writing your discussion chapter, including structure.
What to Avoid - Covers a few frequent mistakes you'll want to...avoid!
FAQs - Guidance on first- vs. third-person, limitations and more.
Checklist - Includes a summary of key points and a self-evaluation checklist.

Training and tools

The Academic Skills team has recorded a Writing the Dissertation workshop series to help you with each section of a standard dissertation, including a video on writing the results and discussion (embedded below).
The dissertation planner tool can help you think through the timeline for planning, research, drafting and editing.
iSolutions offers training and a Word template to help you digitally format and structure your dissertation.

Introduction

The results of your study are often followed by a separate chapter of discussion. This is certainly the case with scientific writing. Some dissertations, however, might incorporate both the results and discussion in one chapter. This depends on the nature of your dissertation and the conventions within your school or department. Always follow the guidelines given to you and ask your supervisor for further guidance.

As part of the Writing the Dissertation series, this guide covers the essentials of writing your results and discussion, giving you the necesary knowledge, tips and guidance needed to leave a positive impression on your markers! This guide covers the results and discussion as separate – although interrelated – chapters, as you'll see in the next two tabs. However, you can easily adapt the guidance to suit one single chapter – keep an eye out for some hints on how to do this throughout the guide.

Results or discussion - what's the difference?

To understand what the results and discussion sections are about, we need to clearly define the difference between the two.

The results should provide a clear account of the findings . This is written in a dry and direct manner, simply highlighting the findings as they appear once processed. It’s expected to have tables and graphics, where relevant, to contextualise and illustrate the data.

Rather than simply stating the findings of the study, the discussion interprets the findings to offer a more nuanced understanding of the research. The discussion is similar to the second half of the conclusion because it’s where you consider and formulate a response to the question, ‘what do we now know that we didn’t before?’ (see our Writing the Conclusion guide for more). The discussion achieves this by answering the research questions and responding to any hypotheses proposed. With this in mind, the discussion should be the most insightful chapter or section of your dissertation because it provides the most original insight.

Across the next two tabs of this guide, we will look at the results and discussion chapters separately in more detail.

Writing the results

The results chapter should provide a direct and factual account of the data collected without any interpretation or interrogation of the findings. As this might suggest, the results chapter can be slightly monotonous, particularly for quantitative data. Nevertheless, it’s crucial that you present your results in a clear and direct manner as it provides the necessary detail for your subsequent discussion.

Note: If you’re writing your results and discussion as one chapter, then you can either:

1) write them as distinctly separate sections in the same chapter, with the discussion following on from the results, or...

2) integrate the two throughout by presenting a subset of the results and then discussing that subset in further detail.

Next, we'll explore some of the most important factors to consider when writing your results chapter.

How you structure your results chapter depends on the design and purpose of your study. Here are some possible options for structuring your results chapter (adapted from Glatthorn and Joyner, 2005):

Chronological – depending on the nature of the study, it might be important to present your results in order of how you collected the data, such as a pretest-posttest design.
Research method – if you’ve used a mixed-methods approach, you could isolate each research method and instrument employed in the study.
Research question and/or hypotheses – you could structure your results around your research questions and/or hypotheses, providing you have more than one. However, keep in mind that the results on their own don’t necessarily answer the questions or respond to the hypotheses in a definitive manner. You need to interpret the findings in the discussion chapter to gain a more rounded understanding.
Variable – you could isolate each variable in your study (where relevant) and specify how and whether the results changed.

Tables and figures

For your results, you are expected to convert your data into tables and figures, particularly when dealing with quantitative data. Making use of tables and figures is a way of contextualising your results within the study. It also helps to visually reinforce your written account of the data. However, make sure you’re only using tables and figures to supplement , rather than replace, your written account of the results (see the 'What to avoid' tab for more on this).

Figures and tables need to be numbered in order of when they appear in the dissertation, and they should be capitalised. You also need to make direct reference to them in the text, which you can do (with some variation) in one of the following ways:

Figure 1 shows…

The results of the test (see Figure 1) demonstrate…

The actual figures and tables themselves also need to be accompanied by a caption that briefly outlines what is displayed. For example:

Table 1. Variables of the regression model

Table captions normally appear above the table, whilst figures or other such graphical forms appear below, although it’s worth confirming this with your supervisor as the formatting can change depending on the school or discipline. The style guide used for writing in your subject area (e.g., Harvard, MLA, APA, OSCOLA) often dictates correct formatting of tables, graphs and figures, so have a look at your style guide for additional support.

Using quotations

If your qualitative data comes from interviews and focus groups, your data will largely consist of quotations from participants. When presenting this data, you should identify and group the most common and interesting responses and then quote two or three relevant examples to illustrate this point. Here’s a brief example from a qualitative study on the habits of online food shoppers:

Regardless of whether or not participants regularly engage in online food shopping, all but two respondents commented, in some form, on the convenience of online food shopping:

"It’s about convenience for me. I’m at work all week and the weekend doesn’t allow much time for food shopping, so knowing it can be ordered and then delivered in 24 hours is great for me” (Participant A).

"It fits around my schedule, which is important for me and my family” (Participant D).

"In the past, I’ve always gone food shopping after work, which has always been a hassle. Online food shopping, however, frees up some of my time” (Participant E).

As shown in this example, each quotation is attributed to a particular participant, although their anonymity is protected. The details used to identify participants can depend on the relevance of certain factors to the research. For instance, age or gender could be included.

Writing the discussion

The discussion chapter is where “you critically examine your own results in the light of the previous state of the subject as outlined in the background, and make judgments as to what has been learnt in your work” (Evans et al., 2014: 12). Whilst the results chapter is strictly factual, reporting on the data on a surface level, the discussion is rooted in analysis and interpretation , allowing you and your reader to delve beneath the surface.

Next, we will review some of the most important factors to consider when writing your discussion chapter.

Like the results, there is no single way to structure your discussion chapter. As always, it depends on the nature of your dissertation and whether you’re dealing with qualitative, quantitative or mixed-methods research. It’s good to be consistent with the results chapter, so you could structure your discussion chapter, where possible, in the same way as your results.

When it comes to structure, it’s particularly important that you guide your reader through the various points, subtopics or themes of your discussion. You should do this by structuring sections of your discussion, which might incorporate three or four paragraphs around the same theme or issue, in a three-part way that mirrors the typical three-part essay structure of introduction, main body and conclusion.

Cycle of introduction (topic sentence), to main body (analysis), to conclusion (takeaways). Graphic at right shows cycle repeating 3, 5, and 4 times for subtopics A, B, and C.

Figure 1: The three-part cycle that embodies a typical essay structure and reflects how you structure themes or subtopics in your discussion.

This is your topic sentence where you clearly state the focus of this paragraph/section. It’s often a fairly short, declarative statement in order to grab the reader’s attention, and it should be clearly related to your research purpose, such as responding to a research question.

This constitutes your analysis where you explore the theme or focus, outlined in the topic sentence, in further detail by interrogating why this particular theme or finding emerged and the significance of this data. This is also where you bring in the relevant secondary literature.

This is the evaluative stage of the cycle where you explicitly return back to the topic sentence and tell the reader what this means in terms of answering the relevant research question and establishing new knowledge. It could be a single sentence, or a short paragraph, and it doesn’t strictly need to appear at the end of every section or theme. Instead, some prefer to bring the main themes together towards the end of the discussion in a single paragraph or two. Either way, it’s imperative that you evaluate the significance of your discussion and tell the reader what this means.

A note on the three-part structure

This is often how you’re taught to construct a paragraph, but the themes and ideas you engage with at dissertation level are going to extend beyond the confines of a short paragraph. Therefore, this is a structure to guide how you write about particular themes or patterns in your discussion. Think of this structure like a cycle that you can engage in its smallest form to shape a paragraph; in a slightly larger form to shape a subsection of a chapter; and in its largest form to shape the entire chapter. You can 'level up' the same basic structure to accommodate a deeper breadth of thinking and critical engagement.

Using secondary literature

Your discussion chapter should return to the relevant literature (previously identified in your literature review ) in order to contextualise and deepen your reader’s understanding of the findings. This might help to strengthen your findings, or you might find contradictory evidence that serves to counter your results. In the case of the latter, it’s important that you consider why this might be and the implications for this. It’s through your incorporation of secondary literature that you can consider the question, ‘What do we now know that we didn’t before?’

Limitations

You may have included a limitations section in your methodology chapter (see our Writing the Methodology guide ), but it’s also common to have one in your discussion chapter. The difference here is that your limitations are directly associated with your results and the capacity to interpret and analyse those results.

Think of it this way: the limitations in your methodology refer to the issues identified before conducting the research, whilst the limitations in your discussion refer to the issues that emerged after conducting the research. For example, you might only be able to identify a limitation about the external validity or generalisability of your research once you have processed and analysed the data. Try not to overstress the limitations of your work – doing so can undermine the work you’ve done – and try to contextualise them, perhaps by relating them to certain limitations of other studies.

Recommendations

It’s often good to follow your limitations with some recommendations for future research. This creates a neat linearity from what didn’t work, or what could be improved, to how other researchers could address these issues in the future. This helps to reposition your limitations in a positive way by offering an action-oriented response. Try to limit the amount of recommendations you discuss – too many can bring the end of your discussion to a rather negative end as you’re ultimately focusing on what should be done, rather than what you have done. You also don’t need to repeat the recommendations in your conclusion if you’ve included them here.

What to avoid

This portion of the guide will cover some common missteps you should try to avoid in writing your results and discussion.

Over-reliance on tables and figures

It’s very common to produce visual representations of data, such as graphs and tables, and to use these representations in your results chapter. However, the use of these figures should not entirely replace your written account of the data. You don’t need to specify every detail in the data set, but you should provide some written account of what the data shows, drawing your reader’s attention to the most important elements of the data. The figures should support your account and help to contextualise your results. Simply stating, ‘look at Table 1’, without any further detail is not sufficient. Writers often try to do this as a way of saving words, but your markers will know!

Ignoring unexpected or contradictory data

Research can be a complex process with ups and downs, surprises and anomalies. Don’t be tempted to ignore any data that doesn’t meet your expectations, or that perhaps you’re struggling to explain. Failing to report on data for these, and other such reasons, is a problem because it undermines your credibility as a researcher, which inevitably undermines your research in the process. You have to do your best to provide some reason to such data. For instance, there might be some methodological reason behind a particular trend in the data.

Including raw data

You don’t need to include any raw data in your results chapter – raw data meaning unprocessed data that hasn’t undergone any calculations or other such refinement. This can overwhelm your reader and obscure the clarity of the research. You can include raw data in an appendix, providing you feel it’s necessary.

Presenting new results in the discussion

You shouldn’t be stating original findings for the first time in the discussion chapter. The findings of your study should first appear in your results before elaborating on them in the discussion.

Overstressing the significance of your research

It’s important that you clarify what your research demonstrates so you can highlight your own contribution to the research field. However, don’t overstress or inflate the significance of your results. It’s always difficult to provide definitive answers in academic research, especially with qualitative data. You should be confident and authoritative where possible, but don’t claim to reach the absolute truth when perhaps other conclusions could be reached. Where necessary, you should use hedging (see definition) to slightly soften the tone and register of your language.

Definition: Hedging refers to 'the act of expressing your attitude or ideas in tentative or cautious ways' (Singh and Lukkarila, 2017: 101). It’s mostly achieved through a number of verbs or adverbs, such as ‘suggest’ or ‘seemingly.’

Q: What’s the difference between the results and discussion?

A: The results chapter is a factual account of the data collected, whilst the discussion considers the implications of these findings by relating them to relevant literature and answering your research question(s). See the tab 'The Differences' in this guide for more detail.

Q: Should the discussion include recommendations for future research?

A: Your dissertation should include some recommendations for future research, but it can vary where it appears. Recommendations are often featured towards the end of the discussion chapter, but they also regularly appear in the conclusion chapter (see our Writing the Conclusion guide for more). It simply depends on your dissertation and the conventions of your school or department. It’s worth consulting any specific guidance that you’ve been given, or asking your supervisor directly.

Q: Should the discussion include the limitations of the study?

A: Like the answer above, you should engage with the limitations of your study, but it might appear in the discussion of some dissertations, or the conclusion of others. Consider the narrative flow and whether it makes sense to include the limitations in your discussion chapter, or your conclusion. You should also consult any discipline-specific guidance you’ve been given, or ask your supervisor for more. Be mindful that this is slightly different to the limitations outlined in the methodology or methods chapter (see our Writing the Methodology guide vs. the 'Discussion' tab of this guide).

Q: Should the results and discussion be in the first-person or third?

A: It’s important to be consistent , so you should use whatever you’ve been using throughout your dissertation. Third-person is more commonly accepted, but certain disciplines are happy with the use of first-person. Just remember that the first-person pronoun can be a distracting, but powerful device, so use it sparingly. Consult your lecturer for discipline-specific guidance.

Q: Is there a difference between the discussion and the conclusion of a dissertation?

A: Yes, there is a difference. The discussion chapter is a detailed consideration of how your findings answer your research questions. This includes the use of secondary literature to help contextualise your discussion. Rather than considering the findings in detail, the conclusion briefly summarises and synthesises the main findings of your study before bringing the dissertation to a close. Both are similar, particularly in the way they ‘broaden out’ to consider the wider implications of the research. They are, however, their own distinct chapters, unless otherwise stated by your supervisor.

The results and discussion chapters (or chapter) constitute a large part of your dissertation as it’s here where your original contribution is foregrounded and discussed in detail. Remember, the results chapter simply reports on the data collected, whilst the discussion is where you consider your research questions and/or hypothesis in more detail by interpreting and interrogating the data. You can integrate both into a single chapter and weave the interpretation of your findings throughout the chapter, although it’s common for both the results and discussion to appear as separate chapters. Consult your supervisor for further guidance.

Here’s a final checklist for writing your results and discussion. Remember that not all of these points will be relevant for you, so make sure you cover whatever’s appropriate for your dissertation. The asterisk (*) indicates any content that might not be relevant for your dissertation. To download a copy of the checklist to save and edit, please use the Word document, below.

Results and discussion self-evaluation checklist

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How to Write a Dissertation Discussion Chapter: Guide & Examples

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Dissertation discussion section is a chapter that interprets the results obtained from research and offers an in-depth analysis of findings. In this section, students need to analyze the outcomes, evaluate their significance, and compare them to previous research. The discussion section may also explore the limitations of the study and suggest further research perspectives.

If you are stuck with your thesis or dissertation discussion chapter, you are in the right place to complete this section successfully. This article will outline our best solutions and methods on how to write the discussion of a dissertation or thesis. We also will share advanced dissertation discussion examples to help you finalize your PhD work. Feel like academic writing gives you hassles? Remember that you can always rely on academic experts qualified in your field to get professional dissertation help online .

What Is a Dissertation Discussion?

First and foremost, students need to have a clear understanding of what dissertation discussion is. This is not the same as your results section , where you share data from your research. You are going deeper into the explanation of the existing data in your thesis or dissertation discussion section. In other words, you illustrate practical implications of your research and how the data can be used, researched further, or limited. What will make your discussion section of a dissertation excellent:

clear structure
practical implication
elaboration on future work on this topic.

This section should go after research methodology and before the dissertation conclusion . It should be directly relevant to questions posed in your introduction. The biggest mistake you can make is to rewrite your result chapter with other words and add some limitations and recommendation paragraphs. However, this is an entirely different type of writing you need to complete.

Purpose of a Dissertation Discussion Chapter

A dissertation discussion section is critical to explaining students’ findings and the application of data to real-life cases. As we mentioned before, this section will often be read right after the dissertation methods . It evaluates and elaborates on findings and helps to understand the importance of your performed thesis research. A dissertation discussion opens a new perspective on further research on the same field or topic. It also outlines critical data to consider in subsequent studies. In a nutshell, this is the section where you explain your work to a broad audience.

Structure of a Dissertation Discussion Section

Let’s start your writing journey of this research part with a clear delineation of what it should include and then briefly discuss each component. Here are some basic things you need to consider for an excellent discussion chapter of dissertation :

Brief summary It does not mean copying an introduction section. However, the first few paragraphs will make an overview of your findings and topic.
Interpretations This is a critical component of your work — elaborate on your results and explain possible ways of using them.
Implication Research work is not just 100+ pages of text. Students should explain and illustrate how it could be used for solving practical problems.
Constraints This is where you outline your limitations. For instance, your research was done only on students, and it may have different results with elderly people.
Recommendations You can also define possible ways of future research on the exact topic when writing a discussion for your thesis or dissertation. Tell readers, for example, that it would be helpful to run similar research in other specific circumstances.

How to Write a Dissertation Discussion Chapter?

One of the most commonly asked questions for our experts is how to write the discussion section of a dissertation or thesis. We understand why it can be complicated to get a clear answer. Students often think that this section is similar to the result chapter and just retells it in other words. But it is not so. Let’s go through all steps to writing a discussion in a dissertation, and share our best examples from academic papers.

1. Remind Your Research Questions & Objectives

Writing the discussion chapter of a dissertation is not a big deal if you understand its aim and each component in a text structure. First of all, you need to evaluate how your results help to answer research questions you defined in the beginning. It is not about repeating the result, you did it in previous paragraphs. However, dissertation or thesis discussion should underline how your findings help to answer the research problem. Start writing from a brief intro by recalling research questions or hypotheses . Then, show how your results answer them or support a hypothesis in your work.

2. Sum Up Key Findings

Next part of your discussion for dissertation is to provide a short summary of previous data. But do not respite the same summary paragraphs from results or introduction of a dissertation . Here researchers should be more thoughtful and go deeper into the work’s aims. Try to explain in a few sentences what you get from running research. For instance, starters usually write the statement that “our data proves that…” or “survey results illustrate a clear correlation between a and b that is critical for proving our working hypothesis…”. A discussion chapter of your dissertation is not just a fixation on results but a more profound summary connected to research goals and purpose. Here is an example: Summary of Findings Example

3. Interpret the Results

The most critical part of a discussion section is to explain and enact the results you’ve got. It is the most significant part of any text. Students should be clear about what to include in these paragraphs. Here is some advice to make this elaboration structured:

Identify correlations or patterns in the data for dissertation discussion.
Underline how results can answer research questions or prove your hypothesis.
Emphasize how your findings are connected to the previous topic studies.
Point out essential statements you can use in future research.
Evaluate the significance of your results and any unexpected data you have.
What others can learn from your research and how this work contributes to the field.
Consider any possible additional or unique explanation of your findings.
Go deeper with options of how results can be applied in practice.

Writing a dissertation discussion chapter can be tough, but here is a great sample to learn from. Example of Interpretations in Disssertation Discussion

4. Discuss How Your Findings Relate to the Literature

Here we came to the implications of your findings for the dissertation discussion. In other words, this is a few sentences on how your work is connected to other studies on the same research topic or what literature gap you are going to fill with the data and research you launched. Remember to mention how your study address the limitations you have discovered while writing a literature review . First, outline how your hypothesis relates to theories or previous works in the field. Maybe, you challenged some theories or tried to define your own. Be specific in this section. Second, define a practical implementation of your work. Maybe, it can support recommendations or change legislation. Discussion chapter of a thesis is a place where you explain your work, make it valuable, and incorporate additional meaning for some specific data. Example of Implications in Disssertation Discussion

5. Mention Possible Limitations

It is pretty tricky to conduct research without limitations. You will always have some, which does not mean that your work is not good. When you write a discussion chapter in a thesis or dissertation, focus on what may influence your results and how changing independent variables can affect your data collection methods and final outcomes. Here are some points to consider when you structure your dissertation discussion limitation part:

If results can change in case you change the reference group?
What will happen with data if it changes circumstances?
What could influence results?

Critical thinking and analysis can help you to outline possible limitations. It can be the age of the reference group, change of questionnaire in a survey, or specific use of data extraction equipment. Be transparent about what could affect your results. Example of Complications

6. Provide Recommendations for Further Research

Writing a dissertation discussion also makes a connection to possible future research. So, other scientists may complete that. While elaborating on possible implementations of your study, you may also estimate future approaches in topic research. Here are some points to consider while your discussion in thesis writing:

Outline questions related to your topic that you did not answer in defined study or did not outline as research questions. There are other possible gaps to research.
Suggest future research based on limitations. For example, if you define surveyed people’s age as a limitation, recommend running another survey for older or younger recipients.

Example of Recommendations

7. Conclude Your Thesis/ Dissertation Discussion

You are almost done, the last step is to provide a brief summary of a section. It is not the same as a conclusion for whole research. However, you need to briefly outline key points from the dissertation discussion. To finalize writing the discussion section of a dissertation, go through the text and check if there is no unimportant information. Do not overload the text with relevant data you did not present in the result section. Be specific in your summary paragraphs. It is a holistic view of everything you pointed out. Provide a few sentences to systemize all you outlined in the text. Example of a Concluding Summary in a Dissertation Discussion Section

Dissertation Discussion Example

If we need to share one piece of practical advice, it would be to use thesis or dissertation discussion examples when writing your own copy. StudyCrumb provides the best samples from real students' work to help you understand the stylistic and possible structure of this part. It does not mean you need to copy and paste them into your work. However, you can use a dissertation discussion example for inspiration and brainstorming ideas for breaking writing blocks. Here’s a doctoral thesis discussion chapter example.

Dissertation Discussion Writing Tips

Before reading this blog, you should already know how to write a thesis discussion. However, we would share some essential tips you need to have in mind while working on the document.

Be consistent Your dissertation discussion chapter is a part of bigger research, and it should be in line with your whole work.
Understand your reader You are writing an academic text that will be analyzed by professionals and experts in the same field. Be sure that you are not trying to simplify your discussion.
Be logical Do not jump into a new line of discussion if you did not delineate it as a research question at the beginning.
Be clear Do not include any data that was not presented in the result section.
Consider word choice Use such terms as “our data indicate…” or “our data suggests…” instead of “the data proves.”
Use proper format Follow the formatting rules specified by a specific paper style (e.g., APA style format , MLA format , or Chicago format ) or provided by your instructor.

Bottom Line on Writing a Dissertation Discussion Chapter

At this stage, it should not be a question for you on how to write a discussion chapter in a PhD thesis or dissertation. Let’s make it clear. It is not a result section but still a place to elaborate on data and go deeper with explanations. Dissertation discussion section includes some intro, result interpretations, limitations, and recommendations for future research. Our team encourages you to use examples before starting your own piece of writing. It will help you to realize the purpose and structure of this chapter and inspire better texts! If you have other questions regarding the PhD writing process, check our blog for more insights. From detailed instruction on how to write a dissertation or guide on formatting a dissertation appendix , we’ve got you covered.

Order dissertation discussion from our proficient writers. They will take a significant burden off of you. Instead, they will carry out high-level academic work in a short time.

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FAQ About Dissertation Discussion Chapter

1. where does a discussion section go in a dissertation.

Dissertation discussion section is used to go right after the result chapter. The logic is simple — you share your data and then go to the elaboration and explanation of it. Check the sample thesis we provide to students for details on structure.

2. How long should a dissertation discussion chapter be?

It is not a surprise that dissertation discussion chapter is extremely significant for the research. Here you will go into the details of your study and interpret results to prove or not your hypothesis. It should take almost 25% of your work.

3. What tense should I use in a dissertation discussion?

Thesis or dissertation discussion used to have some rules on using tenses. You need to use the present tense when referring to established facts and use the past tense when referring to previous studies. And check your text before submission to ensure that you did not miss something.

4. What not to include in a dissertation discussion section?

The answer is easy. Discussion section of a dissertation should not include any new findings or describe some unsupported claims. Also, do not try to feel all possible gaps with one research. It may be better to outline your ideas for future studies in recommendations.

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Dissertation

6 étapes incontournables pour réaliser une dissertation

Publié le 2 octobre 2019 par Justine Debret . Mis à jour le 31 janvier 2024.

En français, la dissertation est un exercice d’argumentation qui se construit en 6 étapes. Nous allons vous expliquer comment faire une dissertation de A à Z.

Pour faire une dissertation, c’est très simple :

Lire et analyser le sujet
Trouver la problématique
Faire le plan de la dissertation
Rédiger l’introduction
Rédiger le développement
Faire la conclusion

Pour tout comprendre sur comment faire une dissertation, nous allons utiliser un exemple concret issu des annales du Bac S de philosophie de 2019.

Table des matières

1. lire et analyser le sujet, 2. trouver la problématique, 3. faire le plan de la dissertation, 4. rédiger l’introduction, 5. rédiger le développement de la dissertation, 6. ecrire la conclusion, présentation gratuite.

Vous allez devoir produire une réflexion organisée sur un sujet spécifique qui vous est imposé.

Le sujet peut être :

une question
un thème ou concept
une citation

Si vous avez le choix entre plusieurs sujets, sélectionnez celui qui vous inspire le plus et sur lequel vous avez le plus de connaissances. Il faudra le choisir rapidement si vous devez faire une dissertation lors d’un examen de quelques heures (dans les 10 premières minutes).

Une fois le sujet choisi, vous allez devoir définir chaque terme présent dans l’intitulé, afin de mieux le comprendre.

Exemple : Reconnaître ses devoirs, est-ce renoncer à sa liberté ?

Essayez ensuite de reformuler le sujet complètement à partir de vos définitions ou de synonymes.

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Lisez plusieurs fois la reformulation du sujet rédigée à partir de vos définitions. Au brouillon, écrivez toutes les idées qui vous viennent à l’esprit sur le sujet (exemples, auteurs, événements, …).

C’est à partir de ces connaissances et votre reformulation que vous allez pouvoir trouver votre problématique.

Petit conseil ! Utilisez cette question clé : à quel(s) problème(s) ces connaissances tentent-elles de répondre ?

Une question centrale va émerger et c’est à partir de cette dernière que votre dissertation va se construire pour créer un débat où s’affrontent des thèses divergentes.

Le plan d’une dissertation peut prendre diverses formes. L’important est qu’il réponde bien à votre problématique pour que vous évitiez le hors-sujet.

Utilisez votre brouillon initial sur lequel vous avez noté vos idées.
Classez ensuite ces idées par thématique ou argument.
Normalement, vous pourrez arriver à deux ou trois idées principales, divisées en deux ou trois sous-parties qui seront illustrées par des exemples concrets.
N’oubliez pas de rédiger une transition entre chaque grande partie (conclusion de la partie actuelle et introduction de la partie suivante).

I) Les devoirs de l’Homme, une soumission naturelle et nécessaire ?

1) Les devoirs, un concept pluriel et contextuel -> Expliquez ici quels sont les différents devoirs que nous rencontrons et en quoi il divergent en fonction des cultures et systèmes étatiques. -> L’existence de devoirs pluriels (travail, citoyenneté, devoir par rapport à la famille, devoir scolaire, droits et devoirs de l’Homme).

2) L’Homme contraint par nature ? -> Concept de contrainte imposée par la nature sur l’Homme (la nature de l’Homme). -> Hobbes et “l’Homme est un loup pour l’Homme” : il abandonne sa liberté et vit en société pour survivre car la nature de l’Homme est agressive.

3) L’Homme : un animal social contraint pour sa liberté ? -> Aristote parlait du concept d’”animal social”. -> Le devoir de morale et d’empathie chez Rousseau fait qu’un être est humain (naturellement) et sociable. -> Sartre et son concept de liberté et libre arbitre : l’Homme est libre et responsable de ses actes naturellement (c’est inné). C’est pour cela qu’il peut vivre en société.

– TRANSITION –

II) La libération de l’Homme par le devoir

1) La culture libératrice -> Le devoir nous permet de nous cultiver et donc de nous libérer de la nature qui est en nous (Kant). -> L’école et l’éducation, le vote, … sont des droits et devoirs qui nous libèrent de notre ignorance naturelle (innée) et de la contrainte du déterminisme. -> Freud et les pulsions de l’Homme qui sont contrôlées intérieurement pas le surmoi. La pression sociale et les devoirs sociaux nous permettent de nous libérer de nos pulsions et désirs en les rejetant dans le ca.

2) Le travail comme contrainte de libération quotidienne -> Le concept de travail comme contrainte/liberté (apporte l’estime de soi, mais nous contraint lourdement) avec Platon, Marx (“l’opium du peuple”) et Kant.

3) La reconnaissance comme liberté -> Kant définit l’autonomie comme la capacité à se donner ses propres règles et de les suivre. La liberté ne consiste donc pas à échapper à toute règle, à tout devoir, mais à se les donner et à y soumettre ses actes. -> Exemple du devoir de mémoire des survivants de la Seconde Guerre mondiale : processus de libération psychologique personnelle et rôle de devoir citoyen.

L’introduction d’une dissertation doit suivre une structure stricte. Elle introduit le sujet, la problématique et le plan.

Les parties d’une introduction de dissertation sont :

Une amorce ou phrase d’accroche.
L’énoncé du sujet.
La définition des termes et reformulation du sujet.
La problématique.
L’annonce du plan.

Le droit de vote est considéré par les institutions comme un devoir moral pour les citoyens, comme le rappelle l’inscription figurant sur les cartes électorales : « Voter est un droit, c’est aussi un devoir civique ».

Les devoirs explicitent un comportement à suivre ou à ne pas suivre. Ils préconisent la conformité avec une règle. Cette notion semble en contradiction avec celle de la liberté, car le devoir s’opposerait à une impulsion ou un désir qui définirait notre liberté.

Toutefois, cette conception de la liberté est naïve et limitée, car être libre ne consiste pas à faire ce que l’on veut. De même, le devoir ne se limite pas à une contrainte imposée de l’extérieur. Il peut s’agit d’une obligation qu l’on décide de s’imposer librement.

Nous questionnons donc ces concepts en essayant de répondre à la problématique suivante : peut-on vraiment dire qu’on renonce à sa liberté quand on fait le choix de se soumettre à ses devoirs, quand on exerce donc sa liberté avec son libre-arbitre ?

Notre raisonnement questionnera tout d’abord les devoirs de l’Homme comme une soumission naturelle et nécessaire (I), avant d’interroger la possible libération de l’Homme par le devoir (II).

Le développement d’une dissertation comporte toujours deux ou trois parties. Si vous faites une dissertation en deux parties, vous devrez rédiger trois sous-parties pour chacune (deux si vous faites trois grandes parties).

Chaque partie soutient une idée centrale qui répond à la problématique, alors que chaque sous-partie s’articule autour d’un argument qui soutient et illustre l’idée directrice.

Vos arguments doivent absolument être illustrés par un exemple !

Entre chaque partie, vous devez rédiger une transition qui conclut la partie précédente et annonce la partie suivante.

La conclusion d’une dissertation est une brève synthèse du développement en indiquant nettement la réponse à la question posée dans l’introduction. Il est aussi possible d’ajouter une ouverture à la fin.

Notre étude a montré qu’au-delà du poids contraignant des devoirs que l’on peut sentir au premier abord, ils n’entravent pas notre réelle liberté. Bien au contraire, nos devoirs nous libèrent de la nature humaine qui est en nous et qui nous rend esclave de nos pulsions, désirs et violence interne. Reconnaître ses devoirs et les accepter, contribue à entretenir notre puissance d’agir et donc notre liberté.

Le concept de devoir reste très lié à celui de droit dans les démocraties occidentales. Le droit de vote est-il libérateur ?

Voici une présentation que vous pouvez utiliser pour vous améliorer ou partager nos conseils méthodologiques sur la dissertation. N’hésitez pas à la partager ou à l’utiliser lors de vos cours :).

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Debret, J. (2024, 31 janvier). 6 étapes incontournables pour réaliser une dissertation. Scribbr. Consulté le 24 mai 2024, de https://www.scribbr.fr/dissertation-fr/comment-faire-une-dissertation/

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Writing a compelling integrated discussion: a guide for integrated discussions in article-based theses and dissertations

Krystina B. Lewis , Ian D. Graham , Laura Boland and Dawn Stacey

Article-based theses and dissertations are increasingly being used in nursing and the health sciences as an alternate format to the traditional five-chapter monograph. A unique chapter in the article-based thesis is the integrated discussion, which differs in breadth and depth as compared to the discussion for a traditional thesis monograph or journal article. For many students and faculty, the integrated discussion is a challenging chapter to write, with minimal or no published guidance available. In this article, we offer a four-step approach with templates for planning and writing an integrated discussion. We also share several lessons learned with examples from published theses and dissertations. Writing an integrated discussion can be facilitated and written more efficiently by developing a clear and detailed outline of the chapter and broad discussion points prior to drafting the text, to achieve a higher-level synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of the overall significance of the thesis findings.

Introduction

An increasing number of university graduate programs in nursing and the health sciences offer the option of writing an article-based thesis or dissertation as an alternate format to the traditional five-chapter monograph ( De Jong, Moser, & Hall, 2005 ; Graves et al., 2018 ; Robinson & Dracup, 2008 ; Smaldone, Heitkemper, Jackman, Joanne Woo, & Kelson, 2019 ). This format has gained traction internationally to facilitate the earlier and more frequent publication of graduate student research for the timelier advancement of knowledge and impact on clinical practice ( Evans, Amaro, Herbert, Blossom, & Roberts, 2018 ; Maynard, Vaughn, Sarteschi, & Berglund, 2012 ; Smaldone et al., 2019 ). An article-based thesis, also known as the manuscript option, thesis-by manuscript, integrated thesis, or PhD by published works, typically includes one or more articles suitable for publication in peer-reviewed journals and bounded together with an introduction chapter and integrated discussion chapter ( Baggs, 2011 ). The integrated discussion is a unique chapter in an article-based thesis. Integrated (2020) is defined as “ many different parts [that] are closely connected and work successfully together ” (“Integrated,” 2020). The general purpose of the integrated discussion chapter is to provide an overall synthesis and demonstrate high level abstraction, analysis, and interpretation of the thesis findings. It is an opportunity to showcase the thesis’ findings, the student’s reflections about the findings, and its implications ( Smith, 2015 ).

Requirements and expectations for the integrated discussion chapter vary by institution and department. Supervising faculty within individual institutions may also have differing approaches and expectations. We found no general rules or expectations in the literature for writing an integrated discussion. An inquiry of select institutional guidance documents in various international jurisdictions revealed that academic institutions provide few details about this chapter. Descriptions focus more on the overall contribution of the integrated discussion chapter to the thesis, rather than guidance on how to write it ( Table 1 ).

Examples of institutional guidelines for the integrated discussion chapter in an article-based thesis.

Writing a compelling integrated discussion can be challenging, and there is a scarcity of resources, instructions, or published guidance for students and supervising faculty on this subject. Existing guidance is focused primarily on writing discussions for a single journal article or a traditional thesis monograph. Yet, the integrated discussion chapter differs in breadth and depth. In journal articles, a discussion usually consists of a statement of the main findings, interpretation of the results in the context of the broader literature, strengths and limitations of the study, and implications for potential users of the findings (clinicians, administrators, policy makers, and others), the discipline, and future research ( Makar, Foltz, Lendner, & Vaccaro, 2018 ). The discussion section of the traditional monograph thesis has a similar format to that of a journal article as it discusses a single study but is often more detailed. In comparison, the integrated discussion chapter of the article-based thesis provides students with a space in which to weave the results and discussion points from the individual articles comprising the thesis, elaborate on the logic and linkages between them, and convincingly argue for the unified, coherent, and original nature of their findings and contributions to the field-at-large. Smith (2015) refers to this as the golden thread. Grant (2011) refers to it as the logic of connectivity . Ultimately, it is about how the student links the key ideas from the individual papers and articulates the connectedness between them, so as to make readers understand the thesis’ broader meaning which make it accessible to a larger audience ( Smith, 2015 ).

The educational value of conceptualizing and writing an integrated discussion can be best classified at the highest level of Bloom’s revised taxonomy of educational objectives, to Create — formerly known as Synthesis in Bloom’s original taxonomy — whereby parts are combined in novel ways to produce a coherent whole and to formulate new points of view ( Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001 ; Bloom, 1956 ). According to the taxonomy, the integrated discussion represents the pinnacle of cognitive tasks and processes by requiring higher-order thinking and critical reflections expected of graduate level students. Hence, the integrated discussion chapter provides the graduate student an opportunity to synthesize, integrate, and raise the discussion to a higher level of abstraction; allowing them to demonstrate the coherence between all articles reported in the thesis. It is often in the integrated discussion where thesis advisory committee members and examiners can assess the student’s depth of theoretical and applied knowledge of the subject matter, capacity for critical inquiry, and judge the overall value of the student’s conclusions and contributions to the substantive area of study ( Gould, 2016 ). Specifically in nursing, this higher-level thinking can be articulated by discussing how the knowledge generated advances nursing practice, education and research, and how it contributes to the delivery of high quality health care, and improved health and health system outcomes ( Institute of Medicine [US] Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing, 2011 ). Yet, with little guidance available on how to think about and write an integrated discussion, graduate students may miss the opportunity to engage in this higher-order thinking and critical reflections.

In this paper, we offer a practical four-step approach with templates for writing an integrated discussion for article-based theses. KBL initially developed the steps and templates as she conceptualized and wrote her integrated discussion for her PhD dissertation. The steps and templates were refined as a result of (a) her own integrated discussion writing process; (b) discussion with her thesis supervisor and thesis advisory committee members; and, (c) feedback from several graduate students who have used it successfully. As recent doctoral graduates and faculty supervisors, we are sharing this approach and our lessons learned with examples from published theses and dissertations.

Writing an integrated discussion chapter

Step 1: outlining the integrated discussion chapter.

To begin, we propose drafting an outline for the integrated discussion chapter with six major sections ( Table 2 ). First, provide an opening paragraph introducing the information to be presented in the chapter. Second, present a summary of the overall purpose of the thesis as a unified piece of work and a brief summary of each individual article prepared for publication. Each article summary should include the study aim, study design, and key results. Keep in mind that by the time supervisors, thesis advisory committee members, and examiners read the integrated discussion chapter, they have probably just finished reading the previous chapters and articles, so there is no need to repeat information in detail. Rather, the purpose of this section is to refresh the readers’ focus and to begin demonstrating how the articles logically link to each other. Third, outline the main points of the integrated discussion as clearly and concisely as possible (see Step 2 and 3 for more details). Fourth, discuss the strengths and limitations of the thesis, as a whole, if applicable. Typically, strengths and limitations are only presented at the individual article level, but if there are broader strengths or limitations that apply to the thesis, they can be discussed in this chapter. Fifth, discuss the implications of the thesis for the specific discipline (e.g., nursing, medicine, population health, epidemiology, rehabilitation) in terms of the findings’ applicability to practice, education, leadership, and/or policy. Sixth, describe implications for future research. Finally, this chapter should end with a strong, clear, and logical conclusion summarizing the entire work across all elements of the thesis. The conclusions should clearly state the original contribution(s) to the advancement of knowledge and overall significance for the field at-large.

Suggested structure for an integrated discussion.

a Approximate length based on 12-point type font, double spacing, left-justified, 1-inch margins, and format for 8 ½ × 11 paper.

Step 2. Mapping individual articles’ findings to inform the integrated discussion

The next step is to draft the main integrated discussion points. Using Template I, capture the main discussion points from each individual article ( Table 3 ). If there is only one article in the thesis, these can be generated from the literature review, guiding theoretical framework, and/or chosen methodology. This exercise is intended to facilitate the student’s thinking about how to build convincing overarching discussion points and explore the key messages they want readers to come away with after reading the thesis.

Template I to summarize individual article discussion points to identify overarching discussion points.

a If there is only one article in the thesis, additional discussion points/contributions/implications can come from the literature review, guiding theoretical framework, and/or chosen methodology. b Whether these implications are included in the individual article or not, this explicitly offers a starting point to think of the implications arising from individual articles.

The last row in this template is reserved for listing the actual and potential disciplinary implications arising from each article, which may address any of the following domains: practice, education, leadership, policy and/or research. Depending on journal requirements, these implications may be directly discussed in the individual articles. If not, this section offers the student a starting point for thinking about the disciplinary implications arising from their thesis as a whole.

Completing Template I as individual articles are finalized, and sharing it with a faculty supervisor or thesis advisory committee can facilitate discussion about the evolving integrated discussion points. It can also facilitate requisite critical thinking and reflection necessary for linking findings across the individual articles.

Step 3. Drafting the main integrated discussion points

Consider the discussion points and disciplinary implications across all individual articles of the thesis to identify commonalities or differences;

Draft main integrated discussion points, logically connecting the individual articles;

Identify findings from, ideally, two individual articles that support (or refute) the proposed main integrated discussion points (aiming for evidence from two articles helps achieve a higher level integrated discussion); and

Identify and classify theoretical and empirical literature relevant to the main integrated discussion points. Select regional, national, and international empirical studies, theoretical works, clinical practice guidelines, technical reports, and/or policy documents; highlight what the thesis adds to the field (of knowledge) and how it will enhance understanding of the subject.

Template II to build the main integrated discussion points from the individual articles and summarize implications.

a If there is only one article in the thesis, the supporting contributions/arguments can come from the literature review, guiding theoretical framework, and/or chosen methodology. b Broader literature can include empirical studies, theoretical works, practice guidelines, technical reports, and/or policy documents. c List the disciplinary implications identified across all articles. This explicitly offers a starting point to think of the disciplinary implications arising across the individual articles’ findings and discussion points.

This exercise is intended to help organize the content of the integrated discussion early in the writing process. We recommend sharing the evolving Templates I and II with the faculty supervisor or thesis advisory committee and use it as a tool for discussion before writing the integrated discussion chapter. As supervisors (DS, IDG), we also initiate Template I in discussion with our graduate students – often using a blank piece of paper. This reflective exercise may save time in the long run, as it facilitates staying focused on the key points and avoids repeating elements of the discussions within the individual papers. The more detailed the completed templates, the more content is available to transform into text.

Step 4. Writing the integrated discussion chapter

The final step is to turn the planned outline (Step 1) and the drafted main integrated discussion points (Step 3) into narrative prose. To remain focused, start by adding subheadings from the outline and lower level subheadings for each of the main integrated discussion points. A compelling integrated discussion is often preceded by multiple revisions. It should not be written when rushing to meet the thesis submission deadline as writing this chapter requires considerable reflection and introspection. For these reasons, we remind students that the integrated discussion is the last chapter their examiners will read, and it will leave a lasting impression. Getting this chapter right allows the student to demonstrate their mastery of the totality of their thesis work and sets the stage for the examination. In our experience, when an integrated discussion is well-written, the examiners’ comments indicate that the integrated discussion chapter tied all elements of the thesis together and helped them understand the thesis in its entirety.

Lessons learned

When applying this approach for writing our own integrated discussions, or when guiding graduate students through the process, we have learned several lessons. To exemplify these lessons, we offer examples of published theses and dissertations in nursing and other health professions.

Lesson 1. Use stepwise approach with templates to plan and structure the chapter

Using the attached templates and proposed stepwise approach to structure the writing process reduces the inclination to simply repeat the discussion points found in the individual articles. The templates may also help graduate students overcome procrastination resulting from not knowing where to start with the integrated discussion. Further, Templates I and II may be used to guide discussions between graduate student and faculty supervisor, allowing for progress to be monitored prior to writing. Another advantage to doing this early is that some supervisors are less familiar with the article-based thesis format and may have little experience guiding their students in writing the integrated discussion. As such, using the template to walk through this process may be helpful for both parties.

Lesson 2. Think ahead

Avoid delaying until all the individual thesis articles are written before thinking about the integrated discussion. We recommend filling out the templates as individual articles are completed. When analyzing the results for individual articles and thinking about the discussion sections for these, we often identified relevant discussion points that were too broad for the articles. Keeping a log of discussions with faculty supervisors and thesis advisory committee members throughout the thesis writing process, and keeping record of personal reflections that were beyond the scope of individual articles, may help gather ideas early. For example, when first considering her integrated discussion, Hoefel (2019) chose the Walker and Avant (2011) theory testing approach to validate the decisional needs concept and test the main hypothesis of the Ottawa Decision Support Framework ( O’Connor et al., 1998 ). For her thesis, Hoefel (2019) wrote two articles based upon this framework. Her first was a systematic review article on decisional needs of people making health decisions and the second was a sub-analysis of a systematic review on patient decision aids. Hence, evidence from these articles contributed to the higher level discussion about validating the concepts and testing the hypotheses in the framework.

Lesson 3. Dedicate sufficient time

Dedicating sufficient time to writing the integrated discussion is important. For many students, the integrated discussion is a challenging chapter to write. It calls for a different style of writing than that which is required for individual research study articles. It requires conveying abstract and conceptual ideas to generate broader insights. Prior to developing and using these templates, our experience with many students has been that it can take many months of re-writing the integrated discussion chapter for it to adequately reflect the breadth and depth of the student’s thesis work and its vital contribution to the field. We have found that our stepwise approach involves more careful planning and conceptualizing of the integrated discussion prior to drafting the chapter, and therefore results in a more efficient writing and editing process.

Lesson 4. Consider theoretical and methodological implications

Theoretical and methodological implications may be considered as integrated discussion points. A student may choose to closely examine their selected theoretical perspective in light of their thesis findings. For example, in Lewis’ (2018) integrated discussion, she provided a discourse on the use of complementary theoretical frameworks across individual studies: the Ottawa Decision Support Framework ( O’Connor et al., 1998 ) and Normalization Process Theory ( May et al., 2009 ). This provided a link between intervention development and implementation planning, proposing a novel theory-informed approach for the development of decision support interventions ( Lewis, 2018 ). Likewise, methodological implications may be discussed in cases where a student’s thesis advances methods, or to discuss the influence of chosen methodology on key findings where similar research questions are answered using distinct study designs. Wu’s (2014) integrated discussion focused on the methods used for conducting a survey for data collection. He used a set of reminders, with the last reminder being a courier package and return envelope. He then discussed how testing this reminder strategy in his thesis study contributed to survey design methods.

Lesson 5. An integrated discussion is feasible with one article

In cases where there is only one article comprising an article-based thesis, key findings from a more detailed literature review, a theoretical framework guiding the entire research project, or chosen methodology can provide the additional linkages to build the main integrated discussion points. For instance, in her Master of Nursing thesis integrated discussion, Demery Varin (2018) compared and contrasted her secondary analysis findings on the predictors of nurses’ research use in long-term care settings (as reported in one published article) with her review of the literature on the individual and contextual factors to nurses’ research use in all settings.

Lesson 6. Integrated discussions are publishable

The integrated discussion (or elements of it) may be publishable in its own right. When written well, the integrated discussion often results in an important academic contribution to the body of knowledge. Some graduate students have used the integrated discussion as the basis for a commentary paper or an updated theoretical framework paper. In her integrated discussion chapter of her doctoral thesis, Jull (2014) described the development of a collaborative framework for community-research partnerships co-produced by First Nations, Inuit, and Metis women’s community members and researchers. This framework was based on her findings and experience conducting the studies comprising her thesis. Jull et al. (2018) subsequently published a paper based on her integrated discussion.

Lesson 7. Integrated discussions can lay the foundation for subsequent research

Many students who are completing a Master’s or PhD thesis also intend to pursue further research. A well thought out and articulated integrated discussion can inform subsequent research projects, grant proposals, or programs of research. For example, Boland (2018) drew from her PhD integrated discussion to identify evidence-practice gaps and potential solutions in pediatric shared decision-making, which she used to underpin a successful Canadian Institutes of Health Research post-doctoral fellowship and guide the establishment of her research program.

In this paper, we propose an approach to writing an integrated discussion chapter for an article-based thesis. Our advice provided in this paper is intended to position graduate students to adequately plan and produce a unified, coherent, and higher-level synthesis of the articles comprising their thesis. Challenges in writing an integrated discussion include avoiding repetition of discussion points already included within the individual articles comprising the thesis and achieving a higher-level discussion to integrate findings across the individual articles. Writing an integrated discussion can be facilitated by developing a clear and detailed outline of the chapter and, in particular, by identifying broader, more overarching points of discussion, than those presented within the individual articles. We encourage graduate students, faculty supervisors and thesis advisory committees to use the templates provided and share their experiences.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the graduate students who have used this approach, reported that it was useful, and offered feedback to improve it. The authors also wish to thank the reviewers. Their critical read and constructive comments strengthened this manuscript.

Research funding: The authors received no financial support for the authorship and publication of this manuscript. IDG is a recipient of a CIHR Foundation Grant (FDN# 143237). DS holds a University Research Chair in Knowledge Translation to Patients at the University of Ottawa.

Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

Competing interest: Authors state no conflict of interest.

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How to Write a Thesis or Dissertation Conclusion

How to Write a Dissertation Conclusion | Checklist and Examples

Published on 9 September 2022 by Tegan George and Shona McCombes. Revised on 10 October 2022.

The conclusion is the very last part of your thesis or dissertation . It should be concise and engaging, leaving your reader with a clear understanding of your main findings, as well as the answer to your research question .

In it, you should:

Clearly state the answer to your main research question
Summarise and reflect on your research process
Make recommendations for future work on your topic
Show what new knowledge you have contributed to your field
Wrap up your thesis or dissertation

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Discussion vs. conclusion, how long should your conclusion be, step 1: answer your research question, step 2: summarise and reflect on your research, step 3: make future recommendations, step 4: emphasise your contributions to your field, step 5: wrap up your thesis or dissertation, full conclusion example, conclusion checklist, frequently asked questions about conclusion sections.

While your conclusion contains similar elements to your discussion section , they are not the same thing.

Your conclusion should be shorter and more general than your discussion. Instead of repeating literature from your literature review , discussing specific research results , or interpreting your data in detail, concentrate on making broad statements that sum up the most important insights of your research.

As a rule of thumb, your conclusion should not introduce new data, interpretations, or arguments.

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Depending on whether you are writing a thesis or dissertation, your length will vary. Generally, a conclusion should make up around 5–7% of your overall word count.

An empirical scientific study will often have a short conclusion, concisely stating the main findings and recommendations for future research. A humanities topic or systematic review , on the other hand, might require more space to conclude its analysis, tying all the previous sections together in an overall argument.

Your conclusion should begin with the main question that your thesis or dissertation aimed to address. This is your final chance to show that you’ve done what you set out to do, so make sure to formulate a clear, concise answer.

Don’t repeat a list of all the results that you already discussed
Do synthesise them into a final takeaway that the reader will remember.

An empirical thesis or dissertation conclusion may begin like this:

A case study –based thesis or dissertation conclusion may begin like this:

In the second example, the research aim is not directly restated, but rather added implicitly to the statement. To avoid repeating yourself, it is helpful to reformulate your aims and questions into an overall statement of what you did and how you did it.

Your conclusion is an opportunity to remind your reader why you took the approach you did, what you expected to find, and how well the results matched your expectations.

To avoid repetition , consider writing more reflectively here, rather than just writing a summary of each preceding section. Consider mentioning the effectiveness of your methodology , or perhaps any new questions or unexpected insights that arose in the process.

You can also mention any limitations of your research, but only if you haven’t already included these in the discussion. Don’t dwell on them at length, though – focus on the positives of your work.

While x limits the generalisability of the results, this approach provides new insight into y .
This research clearly illustrates x , but it also raises the question of y .

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You may already have made a few recommendations for future research in your discussion section, but the conclusion is a good place to elaborate and look ahead, considering the implications of your findings in both theoretical and practical terms.

Based on these conclusions, practitioners should consider …
To better understand the implications of these results, future studies could address …
Further research is needed to determine the causes of/effects of/relationship between …

When making recommendations for further research, be sure not to undermine your own work. Relatedly, while future studies might confirm, build on, or enrich your conclusions, they shouldn’t be required for your argument to feel complete. Your work should stand alone on its own merits.

Just as you should avoid too much self-criticism, you should also avoid exaggerating the applicability of your research. If you’re making recommendations for policy, business, or other practical implementations, it’s generally best to frame them as ‘shoulds’ rather than ‘musts’. All in all, the purpose of academic research is to inform, explain, and explore – not to demand.

Make sure your reader is left with a strong impression of what your research has contributed to the state of your field.

Some strategies to achieve this include:

Returning to your problem statement to explain how your research helps solve the problem
Referring back to the literature review and showing how you have addressed a gap in knowledge
Discussing how your findings confirm or challenge an existing theory or assumption

Again, avoid simply repeating what you’ve already covered in the discussion in your conclusion. Instead, pick out the most important points and sum them up succinctly, situating your project in a broader context.

The end is near! Once you’ve finished writing your conclusion, it’s time to wrap up your thesis or dissertation with a few final steps:

It’s a good idea to write your abstract next, while the research is still fresh in your mind.
Next, make sure your reference list is complete and correctly formatted. To speed up the process, you can use our free APA citation generator .
Once you’ve added any appendices , you can create a table of contents and title page .
Finally, read through the whole document again to make sure your thesis is clearly written and free from language errors. You can proofread it yourself , ask a friend, or consider Scribbr’s proofreading and editing service .

Here is an example of how you can write your conclusion section. Notice how it includes everything mentioned above:

V. Conclusion

The current research aimed to identify acoustic speech characteristics which mark the beginning of an exacerbation in COPD patients.

The central questions for this research were as follows: 1. Which acoustic measures extracted from read speech differ between COPD speakers in stable condition and healthy speakers? 2. In what ways does the speech of COPD patients during an exacerbation differ from speech of COPD patients during stable periods?

All recordings were aligned using a script. Subsequently, they were manually annotated to indicate respiratory actions such as inhaling and exhaling. The recordings of 9 stable COPD patients reading aloud were then compared with the recordings of 5 healthy control subjects reading aloud. The results showed a significant effect of condition on the number of in- and exhalations per syllable, the number of non-linguistic in- and exhalations per syllable, and the ratio of voiced and silence intervals. The number of in- and exhalations per syllable and the number of non-linguistic in- and exhalations per syllable were higher for COPD patients than for healthy controls, which confirmed both hypotheses.

However, the higher ratio of voiced and silence intervals for COPD patients compared to healthy controls was not in line with the hypotheses. This unpredicted result might have been caused by the different reading materials or recording procedures for both groups, or by a difference in reading skills. Moreover, there was a trend regarding the effect of condition on the number of syllables per breath group. The number of syllables per breath group was higher for healthy controls than for COPD patients, which was in line with the hypothesis. There was no effect of condition on pitch, intensity, center of gravity, pitch variability, speaking rate, or articulation rate.

This research has shown that the speech of COPD patients in exacerbation differs from the speech of COPD patients in stable condition. This might have potential for the detection of exacerbations. However, sustained vowels rarely occur in spontaneous speech. Therefore, the last two outcome measures might have greater potential for the detection of beginning exacerbations, but further research on the different outcome measures and their potential for the detection of exacerbations is needed due to the limitations of the current study.

Checklist: Conclusion

I have clearly and concisely answered the main research question .

I have summarized my overall argument or key takeaways.

I have mentioned any important limitations of the research.

I have given relevant recommendations .

I have clearly explained what my research has contributed to my field.

I have not introduced any new data or arguments.

You've written a great conclusion! Use the other checklists to further improve your dissertation.

In a thesis or dissertation, the discussion is an in-depth exploration of the results, going into detail about the meaning of your findings and citing relevant sources to put them in context.

The conclusion is more shorter and more general: it concisely answers your main research question and makes recommendations based on your overall findings.

While it may be tempting to present new arguments or evidence in your thesis or disseration conclusion , especially if you have a particularly striking argument you’d like to finish your analysis with, you shouldn’t. Theses and dissertations follow a more formal structure than this.

All your findings and arguments should be presented in the body of the text (more specifically in the discussion section and results section .) The conclusion is meant to summarize and reflect on the evidence and arguments you have already presented, not introduce new ones.

For a stronger dissertation conclusion , avoid including:

Generic concluding phrases (e.g. “In conclusion…”)
Weak statements that undermine your argument (e.g. “There are good points on both sides of this issue.”)

Your conclusion should leave the reader with a strong, decisive impression of your work.

The conclusion of your thesis or dissertation shouldn’t take up more than 5-7% of your overall word count.

The conclusion of your thesis or dissertation should include the following:

A restatement of your research question
A summary of your key arguments and/or results
A short discussion of the implications of your research

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The USNC/TAM 5MT Virtual Thesis Competition and Awards Ceremony

The U.S. National Committee for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (USNC/TAM), on behalf of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine invites recent graduates who obtained their PhD degree in the United States, and defended their dissertation between July 20, 2023 and July 19, 2024, to virtually present a concise summary of their PhD thesis to a mechanics audience. The competition will allow new scholars to showcase their research and findings to a broader audience. The subject must be in a mechanics related area, including theoretical, experimental, and computational methods. Mechanics, including computational mechanics, is a science that combines mathematics, physics, and engineering to provide mathematical statements to describe the behavior of fluids, materials and structures. To determine eligibility to THE USNC/TAM 5MT, the applicants must fill in this application form starting on Friday, July 19, 2024 (at 12 AM ET) and ending on Friday, August 9, 2024 (at 12 AM ET). Once notified, to be accepted in the competition, eligible applicants must submit a recorded video presentation that is no longer than five minutes. Additional instructions will be provided in the notification email. Notified applicants are invited to upload a video of their presentation using the link included in their eligibility email starting Monday, July 26, 2024 (at 12 AM ET). Submissions will no longer be accepted after Friday, August 16, 2024 (at 12 AM ET), or after 100 video submissions have been received, whichever comes first. Finalists will be invited to present during a livestreamed webinar for the following prizes:* - First place: $2,000 - Second place: $1,500 - Third place: $1,000 - People's Choice: $500 *As stipulated by the IRS, 30% of the prize amount will be withheld by the Academies if the awardee is not a U.S. citizen or U.S. resident. 2024 – COMPETITION TIMELINE (all times are ET) Friday, July 19, 12 AM: Application submissions OPEN. Friday, July 26, 12 AM: Video submissions OPEN (to notified applicants). Friday, August 9, 12 AM: Application submissions CLOSE. Friday, August 16, 12 AM: Video submissions CLOSE. Friday, September 6, 12 AM: Top 10 finalists notified. THE USNC/TAM 5MT Virtual Thesis Competition and Awards Ceremony: Friday, September 20, 3-5 PM

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Dissertation Discussion Chapter: How To Write It In 6 Steps (With Examples)
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How to Write a Dissertation Discussion
How To Write Dissertation Discussion Section
Write a Dissertation Discussion Chapter in Twelve Easy Steps
Write a Dissertation Discussion Chapter

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DISSERTATION ET CONTRACTION DE TEXTE
DISSERTATION ET CONTRACTION DE TEXTE
Analyser un sujet et déterminer le problème en dissertation de Français
Corrigé dissertation philosophie
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Ta dissertation doit être progressive

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How to Write a Discussion Section
Table of contents. What not to include in your discussion section. Step 1: Summarize your key findings. Step 2: Give your interpretations. Step 3: Discuss the implications. Step 4: Acknowledge the limitations. Step 5: Share your recommendations. Discussion section example. Other interesting articles.
How to Write a Dissertation Discussion Chapter
Here are some examples of how to present the summary of your findings; "The data suggests that", "The results confirm that", "The analysis indicates that", "The research shows a relationship between", etc. 2. Interpretations of Results. Your audience will expect you to provide meanings of the results, although they might seem ...
How To Write A Dissertation Discussion Chapter
Step 1: Restate your research problem and research questions. The first step in writing up your discussion chapter is to remind your reader of your research problem, as well as your research aim (s) and research questions. If you have hypotheses, you can also briefly mention these.
How to Write Discussions and Conclusions
Begin with a clear statement of the principal findings. This will reinforce the main take-away for the reader and set up the rest of the discussion. Explain why the outcomes of your study are important to the reader. Discuss the implications of your findings realistically based on previous literature, highlighting both the strengths and ...
How Do I Write the Discussion Chapter?
The Discussion chapter brings an opportunity to write an academic argument that contains a detailed critical evaluation and analysis of your research findings. This chapter addresses the purpose and critical nature of the discussion, contains a guide to selecting key results to discuss, and details how best to structure the discussion with ...
A 10-Step Guide On How To Write Dissertation Discussion
The dissertation discussion chapter serves as the intellectual heart of your dissertation, providing a platform to interpret findings, evaluate their significance, and draw conclusions. ... This supports existing research by Smith et al. (2018) and Johnson & Lee (2020). The effect size is relatively small, suggesting a limited practical impact ...
How to Write a Discussion Section of your Dissertation?
The discussion and analysis section of dissertation or thesis helps to understand the meaning, implications, and significance of your results,. ... Our results are consistent with the findings of Chen et al. (2019) and Wang et al. (2020), who also emphasized the importance of utilizing deep learning frameworks for object detection. However, our ...
Thesis Discussion Chapter Template (Word Doc + PDF)
This template covers all the core components required in the discussion/analysis chapter of a typical dissertation or thesis, including: The purpose of each section is explained in plain language, followed by an overview of the key elements that you need to cover. The template also includes practical examples to help you understand exactly what ...
Dissertation Discussion Chapter: How To Write It In 6 Steps (With
Learn exactly how to write a clear and compelling discussion chapter or section for your dissertation, thesis or research project. We explain how to craft th...
Writing a discussion section
Your discussion section is where you get to discuss your contribution to the existing body of knowledge. You get to explain why your research is important and what it means in the context of what we already know. It's also a place for you to make theoretical contributions and to provide specific recommendations for future research, and for ...
The Results and Discussion
This 'Writing the Dissertation' guide leads students through the results and discussion chapters of a typical dissertation. It explains the difference between the two and gives advice on using external literature, critically engaging with findings, figuri ... (Evans et al., 2014: 12). Whilst the results chapter is strictly factual, ...
How to write your PhD thesis discussion and conclusion chapters
So, in a nutshell, the discussion and conclusion chapters of your PhD dissertation are all about making sense of your research and thinking about what it means for the big picture. The discussion chapter digs into the details of your findings and how you got them. The conclusion chapter zooms out to look at the broader implications and what ...
How to Write a Thesis or Dissertation Discussion & Examples
Let's go through all steps to writing a discussion in a dissertation, and share our best examples from academic papers. 1. Remind Your Research Questions & Objectives. Writing the discussion chapter of a dissertation is not a big deal if you understand its aim and each component in a text structure.
What goes in the discussion chapter of a dissertation?
A master's dissertation is typically 12,000-50,000 words; A PhD thesis is typically book-length: 70,000-100,000 words; However, none of these are strict guidelines - your word count may be lower or higher than the numbers stated here. Always check the guidelines provided by your university to determine how long your own dissertation ...
(PDF) Writing a compelling integrated discussion: a guide for
Lewis et al.: Writing a compelling integrated discussion 5 guidelines, technical reports, and/or policy documents; highlight what the thesis adds to the ﬁ eld (of knowledge) and how it will ...
6 étapes incontournables pour réaliser une dissertation
Lire et analyser le sujet. Trouver la problématique. Faire le plan de la dissertation. Rédiger l'introduction. Rédiger le développement. Faire la conclusion. Pour tout comprendre sur comment faire une dissertation, nous allons utiliser un exemple concret issu des annales du Bac S de philosophie de 2019.
What Is a Dissertation?
A dissertation is a long-form piece of academic writing based on original research conducted by you. It is usually submitted as the final step in order to finish a PhD program. Your dissertation is probably the longest piece of writing you've ever completed. It requires solid research, writing, and analysis skills, and it can be intimidating ...
Writing a compelling integrated discussion: a guide for integrated
Article-based theses and dissertations are increasingly being used in nursing and the health sciences as an alternate format to the traditional five-chapter monograph. A unique chapter in the article-based thesis is the integrated discussion, which differs in breadth and depth as compared to the discussion for a traditional thesis monograph or journal article. For many students and faculty ...
How to Write a Discussion Section
Table of contents. What not to include in your discussion section. Step 1: Summarise your key findings. Step 2: Give your interpretations. Step 3: Discuss the implications. Step 4: Acknowledge the limitations. Step 5: Share your recommendations. Discussion section example.
How to Write a Dissertation Conclusion
Step 3: Make future recommendations. You may already have made a few recommendations for future research in your discussion section, but the conclusion is a good place to elaborate and look ahead, considering the implications of your findings in both theoretical and practical terms. Example: Recommendation sentence.
Dissertation Et Discussion
Dissertation Et Discussion, Free Samples Essay Opinion Paper, Airbnb Business Plan, Grade Level Essay Check, School Uniform Argumentative Essay Introduction, Un Roi Sans Divertissement Resume, Patient Homework Nursing Management Business and Economics History +104 ...
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The USNC/TAM 5MT Virtual Thesis Competition and Awards Ceremony
The U.S. National Committee for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (USNC/TAM), on behalf of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine invites recent graduates who obtained their PhD degree in the United States, and defended their dissertation between July 20, 2023 and July 19, 2024, to virtually present a concise summary of their PhD thesis to a mechanics audience.

How to Write a Dissertation Discussion Chapter – A Quick Guide with Examples

Steps of How to Write Dissertation Discussion Chapter

2. Interpretations of Results

3. Implications of your Study

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4. Recognise the Limitations of your Research

5. Provide Recommendations for Future Research

The Purpose of Dissertation Discussion Chapter

Useful Tips

Relating to Previous Chapters

Using Subsections and Subheadings

Critical Thinking

Duplication of Content

Avoid Over Interpretation

Do not Speculate

What are the elements of the Dissertation Discussion?

What are the steps of writing a Dissertation Discussion Chapter?

Can we use graphs and charts in the Dissertation Discussion Chapter?

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What makes an effective discussion?

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How To Write Dissertation Discussion Chapter For Academic Success

1. Understand the Purpose of the Discussion Chapter

2. Organise Your Discussion

3. Summarise Your Key Findings

4. Interpret and Analyse

5. Address Research Questions and Hypotheses

6. Compare with Existing Literature

Highlights of the Section

7. Discuss Limitations

8. Propose Future Research Directions

9. Connect with the Research Introduction

10. Keep the Tone Objective

Conclusion: How to Write Dissertation Discussion

How to Write a Discussion Section of your Dissertation or Thesis?

Introduction

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What’s Included: Discussion Template

FAQ: Thesis Discussion Template

Is this template for an undergrad, Master or PhD-level thesis?

How long should the discussion chapter be?

Can I share this template with my friends/colleagues?

What format is the template (DOC, PDF, PPT, etc.)?

Do you have templates for the other chapters?

Can Grad Coach help me with my discussion/analysis?

Writing the Dissertation - Guides for Success: The Results and Discussion

Overview of writing the results and discussion

Disciplinary differences

Guide contents

Training and tools

Introduction

Results or discussion - what's the difference?

Writing the results

Tables and figures

Using quotations

Writing the discussion

A note on the three-part structure

Using secondary literature

Limitations

Recommendations

What to avoid

Over-reliance on tables and figures

Ignoring unexpected or contradictory data

Including raw data

Presenting new results in the discussion

Overstressing the significance of your research

Q: What’s the difference between the results and discussion?