Discussion and Conclusion
- Research Writing
- Discussion and Conclusion
- How a discussion and conclusions chapter should be set in the dissertation / or thesis?
- What are different Section Headings to write a conclusion and the discussion chapter
- What is a synopsis? and How to write a synopsis?
- How to choose your Examiners or supervisors for your PhD Research
- What is an Abstract?
- How to write the Method section of your manuscript for the Journal?
- How to write a well-thought conclusion section of your manuscript for the journal?
- Top tips to be considered to accelerate your manuscript publication process
- How Editing should be carried out?
- A final check to catch remaining errors is done in proofreading service. You should identify indisputable errors using standard proofreaders marks
- Research / Data collection / Fieldwork
- What are the different marketing scales commonly used?
How to write the Method section of your manuscript for the Journal?
Papers reporting studies using established procedures do not go at length into the data collection and analysis procedures but otherwise, this section is crucial for readers to assess the validity and reliability of the data, on which the findings are based. Hence, transparency in describing procedures involving subjective decisions is required. From their genre analysis of 50 medical research articles, Li and Ge (2009) found that a much larger space is devoted to the description of data analysis procedure in the 2000-2004 period compared to the 1985-1989 period. See Table 4 for the recommended structure of the method section of journal papers reporting empirical studies.
Table 4. Structure of Method Section
| M1 | Describing data collection procedures | |
| M1s1
|
Describing sample
|
Four primary schools in a large district … The schools varied in geolocation within the district, size (300 to 500 students), and mean family income (… to …). Because the purpose of the study was to examine …, the schools were selected …
Fifty teachers in the four schools participated in the study. All the teachers were …, their average age was … |
| M1s2 | Recounting steps in data collection | We contacted … Letters were put … |
| M1s3 | Justifying data collection procedures
|
399 parents participated in the study. The number represented approximately 30% of children served by the district… |
| M2 | Delineating procedures for measuring variables | |
| M2s1 | Presenting an overview of the design | |
| M2s2 | Explaining methods of measuring variables
|
The Parent Questionnaire asked participants to give … (a type of info)
… Likert-scale … sample items … |
| M2s3 | Justifying methods of measuring variables
|
We developed the 12-item Parent Perceptions of Parent Efficacy Scale based on … Similar estimation procedures have been used successfully in other studies (e.g. …) |
| M3 | Elucidating data analysis procedures | |
| M3s1 | Relating data analysis procedures | Items were scored on a scale ranging from … to … Negatively worded items were subsequently rescored so that … total scale scores ranged from … |
| M3s2 | Justifying data analysis procedures | The scale’s grounding in related literature, and its earlier successful use after substantial pretesting for clarity and content, support the validity of the scale. Alpha reliability of … |
| M3s3 | Previewing results | Correlations between parent efficacy and three indicators of parent involvement were statistically significant … |
(Structure from Lim, 2006; Examples from Hoover-Dempsey, Bassler, & Brissie, 1992)
Effective Results Section of your manuscript for the Journal?
The results section of a research article offers empirical evidence to address the research question underpinning the study. It is not a comprehensive reporting of all results from the data analysis, rather it is a selective description of results to lead readers to the main findings of the study. There is some inter-disciplinary variation, for example, the results sections of sociology papers employ the report genre whereas the organic chemistry papers employ the explanation cognitive genre (Bruce, 2009). Table 5 shows the obligatory and optional elements in the results section of research articles.
Table 5. Structure of Results Section
| M1 | Preparatory information | The results of this experiment will be presented in both a quantitative and qualitative form. We will first examine the tables for the four … plus a table which indicates … |
| M2 | Reporting results | The results indicate that if a subject has … then it is likely that … will also be high in … |
| M3 | Commenting on results | |
| M3s1 | Interpreting results | The results suggest, first, that some significant changes take place between .., and, second, that … |
| M3s2 | Comparing results with literature | These findings support the previous survey results of … and the ethnographic data of … |
| M3s3 | Accounting for results | Such differences may also be promoted by the educational systems of both cultures, and by … this can be a reason why … |
| M3s4 | Evaluating results | Of course, the results are rather speculative and based on a small sample … |
| M4 | Summarising results (Optional) | To sum up, it becomes clear that keeping a heritage language alive across generations is not a simple matter of mothers taking a position on language use and holding it …
Our aim has been to explore, within the limits of the data available, a … In summary, the research presented in this paper offers a … |
| M5 | Evaluating the study | |
| M5s1 | Indicating limitations | |
| M5s2 | Indicating significance | Uncommon in the Results section |
| M6 | Deductions from the research/
Recommending further research |
(Structure and Examples from Yang & Allison, 2003)