Crafting an Effective Dissertation Discussion Section: Strategies and Techniques

The dissertation discussion section is an important part of a dissertation. This is a particular section where you explain your results. Besides, you explore the meaning, significance, and applicability of the results. Some dissertation requirements allow the combination of the results and discussion sections. Still, in most cases, there should be separate results and discussion sections. Thus, once writing a discussion section, be careful to explain every detail. It is important to show the importance of your findings. Besides, you explain how the research results answer your thesis statement.

Based on findings, the writer prepares the arguments. Moreover, your discoveries, results of your research work can be used as supporting evidence for your arguments. You must be very attentive to the arguments you provide. They must be relevant and strong. The discussion section is aimed at explaining the results. Therefore, you need to learn how to explain every data properly. Besides, all the explanations must be related to the main thesis statement.

Best Ways to Write the Discussion Section

The order of the explanations should be logical. It is important to focus on the most crucial findings. Pay less attention to not-so-important details. There is no need to explain the research methods. The dissertation methodology section is aimed at revealing and describing the used methods. You should always pay attention to the dissertation requirements. They help to learn how to write and organize the dissertation discussion section accurately.

There are numerous ways to write your discussion section. You can choose the most fitting one once learning the key points of your discussions. There are four basic elements you should focus on when preparing your dissertation discussion section:

1. Interpretations. You should be well aware of the meaning of your discoveries. Besides, you must explain to your readers what your results mean in detail.
2. Implications. You should also explain the importance of your research results.
3. Limitations. You must also outline the key concepts that your results could not explain.
4. Recommendations. Here, you need to provide some effective practical actions to solve the issue. Also, the description of various scientific approaches to use can be included.

In certain types of dissertations, students place discussions and concussions into a single chapter. Still, with separate sections, you can explain your results better. In case you struggle with the proper structure of your paper, contact your tutor or check examples online. Once you have a list of requirements provided by your supervisor, you can learn more about your dissertation structure. Make sure to check the requirements in advance.

Interpretations – Summarize Your Findings

The first step to follow when you prepare a dissertation discussion section is to summarize your findings. With the previously revealed results, you can start explaining them. The dissertation results section before the discussions includes only the discoveries. The results can be revealed in tables, graphs, charts, etc. No explanation is included in the results section. The dissertation discussion section explains the results in detail. It is preferable to summarize the most important findings. The major results must get your full attention. Surely, the summary of the results is never the simple repeating of the reported data. You must explain the research results. Your explanation should answer the main research question. The summary of the findings should take no more than a single paragraph.

You can use the following phrases to start your explanations with:

• This study reveals the direct correlation between…
• The research results indicate that…
• The analysis supports the working theory that…
• The data put forward that…

In many cases, the meaning of findings can be way too obvious for you. Still, you should always remember your target audience. Your readers should get a full explanation of the significance of your research work. The detailed and logical results’ explanation assures it.

Interpretations – Correlations and Patterns

When you summarize what you found, it is important to interpret the reported data properly. The way you interpret data greatly depends on the type of your research. Still, there are some basic interpretation approaches you can use for this section:

• Find correlations and patterns among the findings;
• Check whether the results support your hypotheses;
• Check whether the results meet your expectations;
• Contextualize your results within the preceding research;
• Explain and evaluate the unexpected results;
• Come up with possible alternative explanations.

Organize your discussions properly once using the abovementioned basic approaches. It will help to follow the proper structure of your dissertation discussion section. It is always preferable to start with interpretations of the most significant results.

Implications – Discuss the Significance

When you explain the significance of your findings in the section, it is good to pay attention to the research work on the familiar topic. You should check how your results  can help to solve the analyzed issue. Besides, make sure to show the scholar the significance of your results. Define how your findings can help to contribute to the dissertation topic research and solutions’ conclusions. Your results may add some insights to existing knowledge. When preparing interpretations, pay attention to a few key points. Check whether your discoveries agree with the previous research on the topic. Reveal how different your work is from other familiar studies. Show whether the results support the existing theories. Define how practical your implications are. In this section of your discussions, you must show your audience what your research results contributed and why they matter.

Limitations – Unanswered Research Points

The limitations of your research results depend on the specifics of your method choice. Besides, it also depends on the complete research design and various obstacles you face when conducting research. When you write down limitations, be careful with your focus. Pay attention only to those limitations which are related to your research objectives. Show how the limitations affect the research aims. In case you did not have enough respondents, define this particular detail. In case you have not found all required data for analysis, note it. Additionally, explain how the lack of data has influenced the final results. If there were some uncontrollable variables, acknowledge this fact as well. Once dealing with limitations, get back to discussion section. Explain that even with mentioned limitations, your research results remain valid and answer the main research question. You must always be confident about your work’s significance.

Recommendations – Provide Your Advice

With all the results organized and explained, you can proceed with recommendations. You can provide recommendations for being put into practice. Also, you can advise about further research on the topic. In some cases, students can leave recommendations for a dissertation conclusion section. You can start the recommendations for further research from the limitations section. You should write about the possible next investigations. Do not simply state the importance of future work on the topic. Provide some suggestions about the research approaches and objectives. You can explain the main reasons for future research. Also, you can define the results of your work other researchers should use in their future projects.

What Information Not to Include in Discussions

There is a certain type of information you should not put into the dissertation discussion section. Many students make the mistake of putting it into the discussions. It only makes the entire paper look less credible. Thus, be ready to follow the next tips on the information you should avoid in your discussions section:

• Avoid announcing new results. You explain only the results you have found and provided in the results section.
• Avoid overstated claims. The excessed interpretation is the wrong way to interpret your data. You do not need any speculations to support your findings.
• Avoid undermining your research. You provide the limitations section to improve the credibility of your papers. You should now focus on it to undermine your research. In any case, your discoveries are important for the research.

Be attentive to the information you provide in the discussions section. Always check the prepared section a few times to assure an original and flawless text.

The dissertation discussion section always requires a logical order and complete accuracy. With the reported results put into a separate section, you must focus on detailed explanations. The dissertation discussions section is a special section of the dissertation paper where all the explanations are provided. With your results and explanations, you confirm the importance and accuracy of your research. The interpretations, implications, limitations, and recommendations are four key points to focus on. You should follow the mentioned order to provide decent discussions.

Once providing limitations, you can also improve your paper’s credibility. Be sure, even with all limitations, your results matter. Besides, you can always advise other researchers to proceed with your topic research by using information from limitations. You can explain your expectations and the way you are satisfied with the results. Your findings must answer the main research question. Moreover, you can talk about the contribution of your research to existing knowledge on the topic. Be sure your recommendations are always well-appreciated by the audience and other researchers.