how to make chapter 4 of research

• Introduction for Types of Dissertations
• Overview of the Dissertation
• Self-Assessment Exercise
• What is a Dissertation Committee
• Different Types of Dissertations
• Introduction for Overview of the Dissertation Process
• Responsibilities: the Chair, the Team and You
• Sorting Exercise
• Stages of a Dissertation
• Managing Your Time
• Create Your Own Timeline
• Working with a Writing Partner
• Key Deadlines
• Self Assessment Exercise
• Additional Resources
• Purpose and Goals
• Read and Evaluate Chapter 1 Exemplars
• Draft an Introduction of the Study
• Outline the Background of the Problem
• Draft your Statement of the Problem
• Draft your Purpose of the Study
• Draft your Significance of the Study
• List the Possible Limitations and Delimitations
• Explicate the Definition of Terms
• Outline the Organization of the Study
• Recommended Resources and Readings
• Purpose of the Literature Review
• What is the Literature?
• Article Summary Table
• Writing a Short Literature Review
• Outline for Literature Review
• Synthesizing the Literature Review
• Purpose of the Methodology Chapter
• Topics to Include
• Preparing to Write the Methodology Chapter
• Confidentiality
• Building the Components for Chapter Three
• Preparing for Your Qualifying Exam (aka Proposal Defense)
• What is Needed for Your Proposal Defense?
• Submitting Your Best Draft
• Preparing Your Abstract for IRB
• Use of Self-Assessment
• Preparing Your PowerPoint
• During Your Proposal Defense
• After Your Proposal Defense
• Pre-observation – Issues to consider
• During Observations
• Wrapping Up
• Recommended Resources and Readings (Qualitative)
• Quantitative Data Collection
• Recommended Resources and Readings (Quantitative)
• Qualitative: Before you Start
• Qualitative: During Analysis
• Qualitative: After Analysis
• Qualitative: Recommended Resources and Readings
• Quantitative: Deciding on the Right Analysis
• Quantitative: Data Management and Cleaning
• Quantitative: Keep Track of your Analysis
• The Purpose of Chapter 4
• The Elements of Chapter 4
• Presenting Results (Quantitative)
• Presenting Findings (Qualitative)
• Chapter 4 Considerations
• The Purpose of Chapter 5
• Preparing Your Abstract for the Graduate School
• Draft the Introduction for Chapter 5
• Draft the Summary of Findings
• Draft Implications for Practice
• Draft your Recommendations for Research
• Draft your Conclusions
• What is Needed
• What Happens During the Final Defense?
• What Happens After the Final Defense?

Chapter 4 Considerations Topic 1:  Chapter 4

• You may describe your sample here if this is something that emerged from your data collection and analysis or if you believe it helps provide context for your findings. You may also describe your sample in chapter 3 if it is not a part of your findings and it becomes a distraction from your actual findings.
• You may organize your chapter in terms of themes or categories or cases or research questions.
• When presenting qualitative data, all names are masked to provide confidentiality. You made this commitment to your participants during the consent process and in your IRB application.
• You may use tables, charts, or figures in both qualitative and quantitative capstones.
• Tables, charts, and figures should be able to be interpreted without supporting text BUT
• It is your responsibility to tell your reader what you think is the most important information in the table, chart, or figure.
• Descriptive statistics
• In quantitative research, when presenting important results.
• Consult APA to ensure that you use the appropriate format for tables, charts, and figures.
• In qualitative research there is never a risk of finishing without something worth reporting. Qualitative research is about understanding an experience and gaining insight. It is always the case that the data will provide insight into an experience.
• If the finding is substantial enough to warrant reporting, you develop a research question that aligns to the finding.
• Qualitative research questions can and often should be revised up until the dissertation is completed. The research questions match the findings, not the other way around.

Academic research and writing

A concise introduction

Chapter 4 – Primer

Chapter 4 introduces you to the research process and its cornerstones. Every research project starts with an open-ended indirect research question, which is implicitly or explicitly accompanied by a research hypothesis. Often a research problem is substantiated by an ad-hoc hypothesis, which advances to a working hypothesis and ultimately will be developed into a scientific hypothesis. The logic and quality of hypotheses can differ and determine the success of the research process. Depending on their inner logic, scientific hypotheses can be formulated as cause-effect hypotheses, distribution hypotheses, correlation hypotheses and difference hypotheses. Based on their quality, scientific hypotheses can be differentiated into nomological hypotheses, quasi-nomological hypotheses and statistical hypotheses. The research approach has to match the research problem to be investigated. Literature-based research, theoretical research, developmental research, quantitative research, qualitative research or a mixture of the aforementioned approaches provide means to tackle a research problem at hand. Different academic disciplines favour different scientific styles that predetermine the applicable research approaches. Three general types of scientific styles are introduced and critically reflected: the theoretical solution-driven style, the empirical solution-driven style and the hypothesis-driven style.

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Presenting your qualitative analysis findings: tables to include in chapter 4.

The earliest stages of developing a doctoral dissertation—most specifically the topic development  and literature review  stages—require that you immerse yourself in a ton of existing research related to your potential topic. If you have begun writing your dissertation proposal, you have undoubtedly reviewed countless results and findings sections of studies in order to help gain an understanding of what is currently known about your topic. 

In this process, we’re guessing that you observed a distinct pattern: Results sections are full of tables. Indeed, the results chapter for your own dissertation will need to be similarly packed with tables. So, if you’re preparing to write up the results of your statistical analysis or qualitative analysis, it will probably help to review your APA editing  manual to brush up on your table formatting skills. But, aside from formatting, how should you develop the tables in your results chapter?

In quantitative studies, tables are a handy way of presenting the variety of statistical analysis results in a form that readers can easily process. You’ve probably noticed that quantitative studies present descriptive results like mean, mode, range, standard deviation, etc., as well the inferential results that indicate whether significant relationships or differences were found through the statistical analysis . These are pretty standard tables that you probably learned about in your pre-dissertation statistics courses.

But, what if you are conducting qualitative analysis? What tables are appropriate for this type of study? This is a question we hear often from our dissertation assistance  clients, and with good reason. University guidelines for results chapters often contain vague instructions that guide you to include “appropriate tables” without specifying what exactly those are. To help clarify on this point, we asked our qualitative analysis experts to share their recommendations for tables to include in your Chapter 4.

Demographics Tables

As with studies using quantitative methods , presenting an overview of your sample demographics is useful in studies that use qualitative research methods. The standard demographics table in a quantitative study provides aggregate information for what are often large samples. In other words, such tables present totals and percentages for demographic categories within the sample that are relevant to the study (e.g., age, gender, job title). 

If conducting qualitative research  for your dissertation, however, you will use a smaller sample and obtain richer data from each participant than in quantitative studies. To enhance thick description—a dimension of trustworthiness—it will help to present sample demographics in a table that includes information on each participant. Remember that ethical standards of research require that all participant information be deidentified, so use participant identification numbers or pseudonyms for each participant, and do not present any personal information that would allow others to identify the participant (Blignault & Ritchie, 2009). Table 1 provides participant demographics for a hypothetical qualitative research study exploring the perspectives of persons who were formerly homeless regarding their experiences of transitioning into stable housing and obtaining employment.

Participant Demographics

Tables to Illustrate Initial Codes

Most of our dissertation consulting clients who are conducting qualitative research choose a form of thematic analysis . Qualitative analysis to identify themes in the data typically involves a progression from (a) identifying surface-level codes to (b) developing themes by combining codes based on shared similarities. As this process is inherently subjective, it is important that readers be able to evaluate the correspondence between the data and your findings (Anfara et al., 2002). This supports confirmability, another dimension of trustworthiness .

A great way to illustrate the trustworthiness of your qualitative analysis is to create a table that displays quotes from the data that exemplify each of your initial codes. Providing a sample quote for each of your codes can help the reader to assess whether your coding was faithful to the meanings in the data, and it can also help to create clarity about each code’s meaning and bring the voices of your participants into your work (Blignault & Ritchie, 2009).

Table 2 is an example of how you might present information regarding initial codes. Depending on your preference or your dissertation committee’s preference, you might also present percentages of the sample that expressed each code. Another common piece of information to include is which actual participants expressed each code. Note that if your qualitative analysis yields a high volume of codes, it may be appropriate to present the table as an appendix.

Initial Codes

Tables to Present the Groups of Codes That Form Each Theme

As noted previously, most of our dissertation assistance clients use a thematic analysis approach, which involves multiple phases of qualitative analysis  that eventually result in themes that answer the dissertation’s research questions. After initial coding is completed, the analysis process involves (a) examining what different codes have in common and then (b) grouping similar codes together in ways that are meaningful given your research questions. In other words, the common threads that you identify across multiple codes become the theme that holds them all together—and that theme answers one of your research questions.

As with initial coding, grouping codes together into themes involves your own subjective interpretations, even when aided by qualitative analysis software such as NVivo  or MAXQDA. In fact, our dissertation assistance clients are often surprised to learn that qualitative analysis software does not complete the analysis in the same ways that statistical analysis software such as SPSS does. While statistical analysis software completes the computations for you, qualitative analysis software does not have such analysis capabilities. Software such as NVivo provides a set of organizational tools that make the qualitative analysis far more convenient, but the analysis itself is still a very human process (Burnard et al., 2008).

Because of the subjective nature of qualitative analysis, it is important to show the underlying logic behind your thematic analysis in tables—such tables help readers to assess the trustworthiness of your analysis. Table 3 provides an example of how to present the codes that were grouped together to create themes, and you can modify the specifics of the table based on your preferences or your dissertation committee’s requirements. For example, this type of table might be presented to illustrate the codes associated with themes that answer each research question. 

Grouping of Initial Codes to Form Themes

Tables to Illustrate the Themes That Answer Each Research Question

Creating alignment throughout your dissertation is an important objective, and to maintain alignment in your results chapter, the themes you present must clearly answer your research questions. Conducting qualitative analysis is an in-depth process of immersion in the data, and many of our dissertation consulting  clients have shared that it’s easy to lose your direction during the process. So, it is important to stay focused on your research questions during the qualitative analysis and also to show the reader exactly which themes—and subthemes, as applicable—answered each of the research questions.

Below, Table 4 provides an example of how to display the thematic findings of your study in table form. Depending on your dissertation committee’s preference or your own, you might present all research questions and all themes and subthemes in a single table. Or, you might provide separate tables to introduce the themes for each research question as you progress through your presentation of the findings in the chapter.

Emergent Themes and Research Questions

Bonus Tip! Figures to Spice Up Your Results

Although dissertation committees most often wish to see tables such as the above in qualitative results chapters, some also like to see figures that illustrate the data. Qualitative software packages such as NVivo offer many options for visualizing your data, such as mind maps, concept maps, charts, and cluster diagrams. A common choice for this type of figure among our dissertation assistance clients is a tree diagram, which shows the connections between specified words and the words or phrases that participants shared most often in the same context. Another common choice of figure is the word cloud, as depicted in Figure 1. The word cloud simply reflects frequencies of words in the data, which may provide an indication of the importance of related concepts for the participants.

As you move forward with your qualitative analysis and development of your results chapter, we hope that this brief overview of useful tables and figures helps you to decide on an ideal presentation to showcase the trustworthiness your findings. Completing a rigorous qualitative analysis for your dissertation requires many hours of careful interpretation of your data, and your end product should be a rich and detailed results presentation that you can be proud of. Reach out if we can help  in any way, as our dissertation coaches would be thrilled to assist as you move through this exciting stage of your dissertation journey!

Anfara Jr., V. A., Brown, K. M., & Mangione, T. L. (2002). Qualitative analysis on stage: Making the research process more public.  Educational Researcher ,  31 (7), 28-38. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X031007028

Blignault, I., & Ritchie, J. (2009). Revealing the wood and the trees: Reporting qualitative research.  Health Promotion Journal of Australia ,  20 (2), 140-145. https://doi.org/10.1071/HE09140

Burnard, P., Gill, P., Stewart, K., Treasure, E., & Chadwick, B. (2008). Analysing and presenting qualitative data.  British Dental Journal ,  204 (8), 429-432. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2008.292

Final Year Project Topics and Research Materials

www.researchwap.com

Tips On How To Write The Chapter Four Of Your Final Year Project

Tips on how to write the chapter four of your final year project effectively.

In writing the  final year project , Students at times find it difficult to document their findings properly. In every research project, chapter four is the heart of the research work and sometimes, supervisors do not even start the reading of the research work from chapter one, but they jump to chapter four because that is the chapter that tells the reader all that was done, the instrument you used, how you analyzed your data and finally your findings.

The purpose of this chapter four in your final year project is to summarize the collected data and the statistical treatment, and or mechanics of analysis. The first paragraph should briefly restate the problem, taken from Chapter one, and explain the object of each experiment, question, or objective, point out salient results, and present those results by the table, figure, or other forms of summarized data. Select tables and figures carefully. Some studies are easier to defend if all the raw data is in this chapter; some are better if the bulk of the raw data is in an appendix.

Also, read this article – Step By Step Guide To Write A Good Research Proposal

Chapter four of a Qualitative Research work carries different titles such as ‘Analysis of Data’, ‘Results of Study’, ‘Analysis and Results’ and so forth but the keywords are ‘analysis’ and ‘results’ which implies that you have ‘analyzed’ the raw data and presenting the ‘results’ or what you discovered in the fieldwork carried out, in this Chapter.

Studies have shown that a greater number of students always find it difficult to document their findings correctly. You may have done a good job writing Chapter one (Introduction) , Chapter two ( Literature Review ), and Chapter three (Methodology) with such clarity and end up making a mess of Chapter four (Findings and Data Analysis).

Since chapter four is the heart of your research work and if your supervisor does not start the reading of your work from chapter one, but jump to chapter four which you have spent so much time collecting and analyzing data but do a poor job of reporting the results of the findings.

Also, read this article – Step By Step Instructions To Design And Develop A Questionnaire For A Final Year Project

Alternatively, after collecting all the data and your presentation of your results lack organization and clarity, your reader would struggle by trying to figure out what you have written, and by this, you’ve just wasted your precious time and possibly the cost of compiling the chapter.

Chapter four should ‘stand-alone:

 what does this mean?

This means that you could ask a friend to read it and he or she would understand what you discovered in your study without having to read Chapters one to three.

For you to achieve this, your chapter four should be aligned to the purpose of the study, the research questions, why the study was important, how it connects to the underlying theories, literature review, and reflective of the conceptual framework. Chapter four is the culmination of your study and represents your best thinking and how you answered the research question you had formulated and stated in chapter one of the research project.

Also, Read This Article – How To Write Effective Research Project Abstract

A good researcher should begin this chapter with two or three introductory paragraphs. A transition from chapter three is very important too. The researcher should also provide a very brief review of the overall research design. It is not necessary to list all of the secondary questions and hypotheses at the beginning of the chapter, but the introductory section of the chapter should focus the reader’s attention on the primary research question and hypothesis.

Don’t border detailing everything, the bulk of the chapter will consist of the presentation of findings for the secondary questions and hypotheses set forth in Chapter three.

In quantitative research, the results usually begin with a description of the sample, For example, the sample size, description of participants who were excluded, and why the handling of missing data.

Also, the descriptive statistics.  For example, frequencies and percentages for categorical variables, means, standard deviations, and ranges for continuously measured variables are presented, and normality of continuously measured variables is usually presented.

Address each hypothesis in turn, presenting a description of the analysis that was computed to address each hypothesis and the results of that analysis. State whether the null hypothesis was rejected.

Also, Read This Article – Trending Project Topics For Final Year Students At A Glance

Do not repeat in tedious prose that it is obvious for a knowledgeable peer to see at a glance.  The dissertation advisor usually has an opinion about the level of detail needed in this chapter.  Table titles and figure captions should be understandable without reading the chapter text.

Note all relevant results, even those that were contrary to the alternative hypotheses, or those that tend to distract from clear determinations.

Chapter Four Table Of Content

• Introduction to the Chapter.
• A transition from chapter three. (Very important)
• Provide a brief overview of the research project: as I stated earlier, chapter four should be able to stand alone, this means it should be presented in such a way that one can read it and understand everything about your study, this means that a BRIEF overview of the research project is very important in this chapter.
• Describe the purpose of the chapter.
• Explain the organization of the chapter.
• Data Analyses and Presentation of the Findings: this is the heart of this chapter, the presentation of the findings should be very concise and clear, make sure that you present it in such a way that even a layman can understand it.
•  State null hypothesis.
• Present the statistical results in a table.
• Draw statistical conclusions for accepted and rejected hypotheses.
• Draw a preliminary research conclusion
• Conclusion and Transition to Chapter Five

Also, Read This Article – How To Develop Effective And Unique Project Topics

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• Chapter Four: Quantitative Methods (Part 3 - Making Sense of Your Study)

After you have designed your study, collected your data, and analyzed it, you have to figure out what it means and communicate that to potential interested audiences. This section of the chapter is about how to make sense of your study, in terms of data interpretation, data write-up, and data presentation, as seen in the above diagram.

• Chapter One: Introduction
• Chapter Two: Understanding the distinctions among research methods
• Chapter Three: Ethical research, writing, and creative work
• Chapter Four: Quantitative Methods (Part 1)
• Chapter Four: Quantitative Methods (Part 2 - Doing Your Study)
• Chapter Five: Qualitative Methods (Part 1)
• Chapter Five: Qualitative Data (Part 2)
• Chapter Six: Critical / Rhetorical Methods (Part 1)
• Chapter Six: Critical / Rhetorical Methods (Part 2)
• Chapter Seven: Presenting Your Results

Data Interpretation

Once you have run your statistics, you have to figure out what your findings mean or interpret your data. To do this, you need to tie back your findings to your research questions and/or hypotheses, think about how your findings relate to what you discovered beforehand about the already existing literature, and determine how your findings take the literature or current theory in the field further. Your interpretation of the data you collected will be found in the last section of your paper, what is commonly called the "discussion" section.

Remember Your RQs/Hs

Your research questions and hypotheses, once developed, should guide your study throughout the research process. As you are choosing your research design, choosing how to operationalize your variables, and choosing/conducting your statistical tests, you should always keep your RQs and Hs in mind.

What were you wanting to discover by your study? What were you wanting to test? Make sure you answer these questions clearly for the reader of your study in both the results and discussion section of the paper. (Specific guidelines for these sections will be covered later in this chapter, including the common practice of placing the data as you present it with each research question in the results section.)

Tie Findings to Your Literature Review

As you have seen in chapter 3 and the Appendix, and will see in chapter 7, the literature review is what you use to set up your quantitative study and to show why there is a need for your study. It should start out broad, with the context for your study, and lead into showing what still needs to be known and studied about your topic area, justifying your focus in the study. It will be brought in again in the last section of the paper you write, i.e., the discussion section.

Your paper is like an hourglass – starting out broad and narrowing down in the middle with your actual study and findings, and then moving to broad implications for the larger context of your study near the end.

Think about Relationship of Findings to Theory

One of the things you will write about in your discussion or last section of your paper is the implications of what you found. These implications are both practical and theoretical. Practical implications are how the research can provide practical applications to real-world people and issues. Theoretical implications are how the research takes the current academic literature further, specifically, in relationship to theory-building.

Did any of the research you reviewed for your literature review mention a theory your findings could expand upon? If so, you should think about how your findings related to this theory. If not, then think about the theories you have already studied in your communication classes. Would any of them provide a possible explanation of what you found? Would your findings help expand that theory to a different context, the context you studied? Does a theory need to be developed in the area of your research? If so, then what aspects of that theory could your findings help explain?

Data Write-Up

All quantitative studies, when written, have four parts. The first part is the introduction and literature review, the second part is the methods section, the third section is the results or findings, and the fourth section is the discussion section. This portion of this chapter will explain what elements you will need to include in each of these sections.

Literature Review

The beginning of your paper and first few pages sets the tone for your study. It tells the reader what the context of your study is and what other people who are also interested in your topic have studied about your topic.

There are many ways to organize a literature review, as can be seen in the following website. Literature Reviews — The Writing Center at UNC-Chapel Hill

After you have done a thorough literature search on your topic, then you have to organize your literature into topics of some kind. Your main goal is to show what has been done and what still needs to be done, to show the need for your study, so at the end of each section of your literature review, you should identify what still needs to be known about that particular area.

For quantitative research, you should do your literature review before coming up with your research questions/hypotheses. Your questions and hypotheses should flow from the literature. This is different from the other two research methods discussed in this book, which do not rely so heavily on a literature review to situation the study before conducting it.

In the methods section, you should tell your reader how you conducted your study, from start to finish, explaining why you made the choices you did along the way. A reader should be able to replicate your study from the descriptions you provide in this section of your write-up. Common headings in the methods section include a description of the participants, procedures, and analysis.

Participants

For the participants' subheading of the methods section, you should minimally report the demographics of your sample in terms of biological sex (frequencies/percentages), age (range of ages and mean), and ethnicity (frequencies/percentages). If you collected data on other demographics, such as socioeconomic status, religious affiliation, type of occupation, etc., then you can report data for that also in the participants' sub-section.

For the procedures sub-section, you report everything you did to collect your data: how you recruited your participants, including what type of sampling you used (probability or non-probability) and informed consent procedures; how you operationalized your variables (including your survey questions, which often are explained in the methods section briefly while the whole survey can be found in an appendix of your paper); the validity and reliability of your survey instrument or methods you used; and what type of study design you had (experimental, quasi-experimental, or non-experimental). For each one of these design issues, in this sub-section of the methods part, you need to explain why you made the decisions you did in order to answer your research questions or test your hypotheses.

In this section, you explain how you converted your data for analysis and how you analyzed your data. You need to explain what statistics you chose to run for each of your research questions/hypotheses and why.

In this section of your paper, you organize the results by your research questions/hypotheses. For each research question/hypothesis, you should present any descriptive statistic results first and then your inferential statistics results. You do not make any interpretation of what your results mean or why you think you got the results you did. You merely report your results.

Reporting Significant Results

For each of the inferential statistics, there is a typical template you can follow when reporting significant results: reporting the test statistic value, the degrees of freedom  3 , and the probability level. Examples follow for each of the statistics we have talked about in this text.

T-test results

"T-tests results show there was a significant difference found between men and women on their levels of self-esteem,  t  (df) = t value,  p  < .05, with men's self-esteem being higher (or lower) (men's mean & standard deviation) than women's self-esteem (women's mean & standard deviation)."

ANOVA results

"ANOVA results indicate there was a significant difference found between [levels of independent variable] on [dependent variable],  F  (df) = F value,  p  < .05."

If doing a factorial ANOVA, you would report the above sentence for all of your independent variables (main effects), as well as for the interaction (interaction effect), with language something like: "ANOVA results indicate a significant main effect for [independent variable] on [dependent variable],  F  (df) = F value,  p  < .05. .... ANOVA results indicate a significant interaction effect between [independent variables] on [dependent variable],  F  (df) = F value,  p  < .05."

See example YouTube tutorial for writing up a two-way ANOVA at the following website.

Factorial Design (Part C): Writing Up Results

Chi-square results

For goodness of fit results, your write-up would look something like: "Using a chi-square goodness of fit test, there was a significant difference found between observed and expected values of [variable], χ2 (df) = chi-square value,  p  < .05." For test of independence results, it would like like: "Using a chi-square test of independence, there was a significant interaction between [your two variables], χ2 (df) = chi-square value,  p  < .05."

Correlation results

"Using Pearson's [or Spearman's] correlation coefficient, there was a significant relationship found between [two variables],  r  (df) = r value,  p  < .05." If there are a lot of significant correlation results, these results are often presented in a table form.

For more information on these types of tables, see the following website:  Correlation Tables .

Regression results

Reporting regression results is more complicated, but generally, you want to inform the reader about how much variance is accounted by the regression model, the significance level of the model, and the significance of the predictor variable. For example:

A regression analysis, predicting GPA scores from GRE scores, was statistically significant,  F (1,8) = 10.34,  p  < .05.

Coefficientsa

The regression equation is: Ŷ = .411 * .005X. For every one unit increase in GRE score, there is a corresponding increase in GPA of .005 (Walen-Frederick, n.d., p. 4).

For more write-up help on regression and other statistics, see the following website location:

Multiple Regression  (pp. 217-220)

Reporting Non-Significant Results

You can follow a similar template when reporting non-significant results for all of the above inferential statistics. It is the same as provided in the above examples, except the word "non-significant" replaces the word "significant," and the  p  values are adjusted to indicate  p > .05.

Many times readers of articles do not read the whole article, especially if they are afraid of the statistical sections. When this happens, they often read the discussion section, which makes this a very important section in your writing. You should include the following elements in your discussion section: (a) a summary of your findings, (b) implications, (c) limitations, and (d) future research ideas.

Summary of Findings

You should summarize the answers to your research questions or what you found when testing your hypotheses in this sub-section of the discussion section. You should not report any statistical data here, but just put your results into narrative form. What did you find out that you did not know before doing your study? Answer that question in this sub- section.

Implications

You need to indicate why your study was important, both theoretically and practically. For the theoretical implications, you should relate what you found to the already existing literature, as discussed earlier when the "hourglass" format was mentioned as a way of conceptualizing your whole paper. If your study added anything to the existing theory on a particular topic, you talk about this here as well.

For practical implications, you need to identify for the reader how this study can help people in their real-world experiences related to your topic. You do not want your study to just be important to academic researchers, but also to other professionals and persons interested in your topic.

Limitations

As you get through conducting your study, you are going to realize there are things you wish you had done differently. Rather than hide these things from the reader, it is better to forthrightly state these for the reader. Explain why your study is limited and what you wish you had done in this sub-section.

Future Research

The limitations sub-section usually is tied directly to the future research sub-section, as your limitations mean that future research should be done to deal with these limitations. There may also be other things that could be studied, however, as a result of what you have found. What would other people say are the "gaps" your study left unstudied on your topic? These should be identified, with some suggestions on how they might be studied.

Other Aspects of the Paper

There are other parts of the academic paper you should include in your final write-up. We have provided useful resources for you to consider when including these aspects as part of your paper. For an example paper that uses the required APA format for a research paper write-up, see the following source:  Varying Definitions of Online Communication .

Abstract & Titles.

Research Abstracts General Format

Tables, References, & Other Materials.

APA Tables and Figures 1 Reference List: Basic Rules

Data Presentation

You will probably be called upon to present your data in other venues besides in writing. Two of the most common venues are oral presentations such as in class or at conferences, and poster presentations, such as what you might find at conferences. You might also be called upon to not write an academic write-up of your study, but rather to provide an executive summary of the results of your study to the "powers that be," who do not have time to read more than 5 pages or so of a summary. There are good resources for doing all of these online, so we have provided these here.

Oral Presentations

Oral Presentations Delivering Presentations

Poster Presentations

Executive Summary

Executive Summaries Complete the Report Good & Poor Examples of Executive Summaries with the following link: http://unilearning.uow.edu.au/report/4bi1.html

Congratulations! You have learned a great deal about how to go about using quantitative methods for your future research projects. You have learned how to design a quantitative study, conduct a quantitative study, and write about a quantitative study. You have some good resources you can take with you when you leave this class. Now, you just have to apply what you have learned to projects that will come your way in the future.

Remember, just because you may not like one method the best does not mean you should not use it. Your research questions/hypotheses should ALWAYS drive your choice of which method you use. And remember also that you can do quantitative methods!

[NOTE: References are not provided for the websites cited in the text, even though if this was an actual research article, they would need to be cited.]

Baker, E., Baker, W., & Tedesco, J. C. (2007). Organizations respond to phishing: Exploring the public relations tackle box.  Communication Research Reports, 24  (4), 327-339.

Benoit, W. L., & Hansen, G. J. (2004). Presidential debate watching, issue knowledge, character evaluation, and vote choice.  Human Communication Research, 30  (1), 121-144.

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Cousineau, T. M., Rancourt, D., and Green, T. C. (2006). Web chatter before and after the women's health initiative results: A content analysis of on-line menopause message boards.  Journal of Health Communication, 11 (2), 133-147.

Derlega, V., Winstead, B. A., Mathews, A., and Braitman, A. L. (2008). Why does someone reveal highly personal information?: Attributions for and against self-disclosure in close relationships.  Communication Research Reports, 25 , 115-130.

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3 Degrees of freedom (df) relate to your sample size and to the number of groups being compared. SPSS always computes the df for your statistics. For more information on degrees of freedom, see the following web-based resources:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsvfasNpU2s  and  http://www.creative-wisdom.com/pub/df/index.htm .

Back to Previous Spot

How To Write The Discussion Chapter

A Simple Explainer With Examples + Free Template

By: Jenna Crossley (PhD) | Reviewed By: Dr. Eunice Rautenbach | August 2021

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve reached the discussion chapter of your thesis or dissertation and are looking for a bit of guidance. Well, you’ve come to the right place ! In this post, we’ll unpack and demystify the typical discussion chapter in straightforward, easy to understand language, with loads of examples .

Overview: The Discussion Chapter

• What  the discussion chapter is
• What to include in your discussion
• How to write up your discussion
• A few tips and tricks to help you along the way
• Free discussion template

What (exactly) is the discussion chapter?

The discussion chapter is where you interpret and explain your results within your thesis or dissertation. This contrasts with the results chapter, where you merely present and describe the analysis findings (whether qualitative or quantitative ). In the discussion chapter, you elaborate on and evaluate your research findings, and discuss the significance and implications of your results .

In this chapter, you’ll situate your research findings in terms of your research questions or hypotheses and tie them back to previous studies and literature (which you would have covered in your literature review chapter). You’ll also have a look at how relevant and/or significant your findings are to your field of research, and you’ll argue for the conclusions that you draw from your analysis. Simply put, the discussion chapter is there for you to interact with and explain your research findings in a thorough and coherent manner.

What should I include in the discussion chapter?

First things first: in some studies, the results and discussion chapter are combined into one chapter .  This depends on the type of study you conducted (i.e., the nature of the study and methodology adopted), as well as the standards set by the university.  So, check in with your university regarding their norms and expectations before getting started. In this post, we’ll treat the two chapters as separate, as this is most common.

Basically, your discussion chapter should analyse , explore the meaning and identify the importance of the data you presented in your results chapter. In the discussion chapter, you’ll give your results some form of meaning by evaluating and interpreting them. This will help answer your research questions, achieve your research aims and support your overall conclusion (s). Therefore, you discussion chapter should focus on findings that are directly connected to your research aims and questions. Don’t waste precious time and word count on findings that are not central to the purpose of your research project.

As this chapter is a reflection of your results chapter, it’s vital that you don’t report any new findings . In other words, you can’t present claims here if you didn’t present the relevant data in the results chapter first.  So, make sure that for every discussion point you raise in this chapter, you’ve covered the respective data analysis in the results chapter. If you haven’t, you’ll need to go back and adjust your results chapter accordingly.

If you’re struggling to get started, try writing down a bullet point list everything you found in your results chapter. From this, you can make a list of everything you need to cover in your discussion chapter. Also, make sure you revisit your research questions or hypotheses and incorporate the relevant discussion to address these.  This will also help you to see how you can structure your chapter logically.

Need a helping hand?

How to write the discussion chapter

Now that you’ve got a clear idea of what the discussion chapter is and what it needs to include, let’s look at how you can go about structuring this critically important chapter. Broadly speaking, there are six core components that need to be included, and these can be treated as steps in the chapter writing process.

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. This “reminder” is very important because, after reading dozens of pages, the reader may have forgotten the original point of your research or been swayed in another direction. It’s also likely that some readers skip straight to your discussion chapter from the introduction chapter , so make sure that your research aims and research questions are clear.

Step 2: Summarise your key findings

Next, you’ll want to summarise your key findings from your results chapter. This may look different for qualitative and quantitative research , where qualitative research may report on themes and relationships, whereas quantitative research may touch on correlations and causal relationships. Regardless of the methodology, in this section you need to highlight the overall key findings in relation to your research questions.

Typically, this section only requires one or two paragraphs , depending on how many research questions you have. Aim to be concise here, as you will unpack these findings in more detail later in the chapter. For now, a few lines that directly address your research questions are all that you need.

Some examples of the kind of language you’d use here include:

• The data suggest that…
• The data support/oppose the theory that…
• The analysis identifies…

These are purely examples. What you present here will be completely dependent on your original research questions, so make sure that you are led by them .

Step 3: Interpret your results

Once you’ve restated your research problem and research question(s) and briefly presented your key findings, you can unpack your findings by interpreting your results. Remember: only include what you reported in your results section – don’t introduce new information.

From a structural perspective, it can be a wise approach to follow a similar structure in this chapter as you did in your results chapter. This would help improve readability and make it easier for your reader to follow your arguments. For example, if you structured you results discussion by qualitative themes, it may make sense to do the same here.

Alternatively, you may structure this chapter by research questions, or based on an overarching theoretical framework that your study revolved around. Every study is different, so you’ll need to assess what structure works best for you.

When interpreting your results, you’ll want to assess how your findings compare to those of the existing research (from your literature review chapter). Even if your findings contrast with the existing research, you need to include these in your discussion. In fact, those contrasts are often the most interesting findings . In this case, you’d want to think about why you didn’t find what you were expecting in your data and what the significance of this contrast is.

Here are a few questions to help guide your discussion:

• How do your results relate with those of previous studies ?
• If you get results that differ from those of previous studies, why may this be the case?
• What do your results contribute to your field of research?
• What other explanations could there be for your findings?

When interpreting your findings, be careful not to draw conclusions that aren’t substantiated . Every claim you make needs to be backed up with evidence or findings from the data (and that data needs to be presented in the previous chapter – results). This can look different for different studies; qualitative data may require quotes as evidence, whereas quantitative data would use statistical methods and tests. Whatever the case, every claim you make needs to be strongly backed up.

Step 4: Acknowledge the limitations of your study

The fourth step in writing up your discussion chapter is to acknowledge the limitations of the study. These limitations can cover any part of your study , from the scope or theoretical basis to the analysis method(s) or sample. For example, you may find that you collected data from a very small sample with unique characteristics, which would mean that you are unable to generalise your results to the broader population.

For some students, discussing the limitations of their work can feel a little bit self-defeating . This is a misconception, as a core indicator of high-quality research is its ability to accurately identify its weaknesses. In other words, accurately stating the limitations of your work is a strength, not a weakness . All that said, be careful not to undermine your own research. Tell the reader what limitations exist and what improvements could be made, but also remind them of the value of your study despite its limitations.

Step 5: Make recommendations for implementation and future research

Now that you’ve unpacked your findings and acknowledge the limitations thereof, the next thing you’ll need to do is reflect on your study in terms of two factors:

• The practical application of your findings
• Suggestions for future research

The first thing to discuss is how your findings can be used in the real world – in other words, what contribution can they make to the field or industry? Where are these contributions applicable, how and why? For example, if your research is on communication in health settings, in what ways can your findings be applied to the context of a hospital or medical clinic? Make sure that you spell this out for your reader in practical terms, but also be realistic and make sure that any applications are feasible.

The next discussion point is the opportunity for future research . In other words, how can other studies build on what you’ve found and also improve the findings by overcoming some of the limitations in your study (which you discussed a little earlier). In doing this, you’ll want to investigate whether your results fit in with findings of previous research, and if not, why this may be the case. For example, are there any factors that you didn’t consider in your study? What future research can be done to remedy this? When you write up your suggestions, make sure that you don’t just say that more research is needed on the topic, also comment on how the research can build on your study.

Step 6: Provide a concluding summary

Finally, you’ve reached your final stretch. In this section, you’ll want to provide a brief recap of the key findings – in other words, the findings that directly address your research questions . Basically, your conclusion should tell the reader what your study has found, and what they need to take away from reading your report.

When writing up your concluding summary, bear in mind that some readers may skip straight to this section from the beginning of the chapter.  So, make sure that this section flows well from and has a strong connection to the opening section of the chapter.

Tips and tricks for an A-grade discussion chapter

Now that you know what the discussion chapter is , what to include and exclude , and how to structure it , here are some tips and suggestions to help you craft a quality discussion chapter.

• When you write up your discussion chapter, make sure that you keep it consistent with your introduction chapter , as some readers will skip from the introduction chapter directly to the discussion chapter. Your discussion should use the same tense as your introduction, and it should also make use of the same key terms.
• Don’t make assumptions about your readers. As a writer, you have hands-on experience with the data and so it can be easy to present it in an over-simplified manner. Make sure that you spell out your findings and interpretations for the intelligent layman.
• Have a look at other theses and dissertations from your institution, especially the discussion sections. This will help you to understand the standards and conventions of your university, and you’ll also get a good idea of how others have structured their discussion chapters. You can also check out our chapter template .
• Avoid using absolute terms such as “These results prove that…”, rather make use of terms such as “suggest” or “indicate”, where you could say, “These results suggest that…” or “These results indicate…”. It is highly unlikely that a dissertation or thesis will scientifically prove something (due to a variety of resource constraints), so be humble in your language.
• Use well-structured and consistently formatted headings to ensure that your reader can easily navigate between sections, and so that your chapter flows logically and coherently.

If you have any questions or thoughts regarding this post, feel free to leave a comment below. Also, if you’re looking for one-on-one help with your discussion chapter (or thesis in general), consider booking a free consultation with one of our highly experienced Grad Coaches to discuss how we can help you.

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

37 Comments

Thank you this is helpful!

This is very helpful to me… Thanks a lot for sharing this with us 😊

This has been very helpful indeed. Thank you.

This is actually really helpful, I just stumbled upon it. Very happy that I found it, thank you.

Me too! I was kinda lost on how to approach my discussion chapter. How helpful! Thanks a lot!

This is really good and explicit. Thanks

Thank you, this blog has been such a help.

Thank you. This is very helpful.

Dear sir/madame

Thanks a lot for this helpful blog. Really, it supported me in writing my discussion chapter while I was totally unaware about its structure and method of writing.

With regards

Syed Firoz Ahmad PhD, Research Scholar

I agree so much. This blog was god sent. It assisted me so much while I was totally clueless about the context and the know-how. Now I am fully aware of what I am to do and how I am to do it.

Thanks! This is helpful!

thanks alot for this informative website

Dear Sir/Madam,

Truly, your article was much benefited when i structured my discussion chapter.

Thank you very much!!!

This is helpful for me in writing my research discussion component. I have to copy this text on Microsoft word cause of my weakness that I cannot be able to read the text on screen a long time. So many thanks for this articles.

This was helpful

Thanks Jenna, well explained.

Thank you! This is super helpful.

Thanks very much. I have appreciated the six steps on writing the Discussion chapter which are (i) Restating the research problem and questions (ii) Summarising the key findings (iii) Interpreting the results linked to relating to previous results in positive and negative ways; explaining whay different or same and contribution to field of research and expalnation of findings (iv) Acknowledgeing limitations (v) Recommendations for implementation and future resaerch and finally (vi) Providing a conscluding summary

My two questions are: 1. On step 1 and 2 can it be the overall or you restate and sumamrise on each findings based on the reaerch question? 2. On 4 and 5 do you do the acknowlledgement , recommendations on each research finding or overall. This is not clear from your expalanattion.

Please respond.

This post is very useful. I’m wondering whether practical implications must be introduced in the Discussion section or in the Conclusion section?

Sigh, I never knew a 20 min video could have literally save my life like this. I found this at the right time!!!! Everything I need to know in one video thanks a mil ! OMGG and that 6 step!!!!!! was the cherry on top the cake!!!!!!!!!

Thanks alot.., I have gained much

This piece is very helpful on how to go about my discussion section. I can always recommend GradCoach research guides for colleagues.

Many thanks for this resource. It has been very helpful to me. I was finding it hard to even write the first sentence. Much appreciated.

Thanks so much. Very helpful to know what is included in the discussion section

this was a very helpful and useful information

This is very helpful. Very very helpful. Thanks for sharing this online!

it is very helpfull article, and i will recommend it to my fellow students. Thank you.

Superlative! More grease to your elbows.

Powerful, thank you for sharing.

Wow! Just wow! God bless the day I stumbled upon you guys’ YouTube videos! It’s been truly life changing and anxiety about my report that is due in less than a month has subsided significantly!

Simplified explanation. Well done.

The presentation is enlightening. Thank you very much.

Thanks for the support and guidance

This has been a great help to me and thank you do much

I second that “it is highly unlikely that a dissertation or thesis will scientifically prove something”; although, could you enlighten us on that comment and elaborate more please?

Sure, no problem.

Scientific proof is generally considered a very strong assertion that something is definitively and universally true. In most scientific disciplines, especially within the realms of natural and social sciences, absolute proof is very rare. Instead, researchers aim to provide evidence that supports or rejects hypotheses. This evidence increases or decreases the likelihood that a particular theory is correct, but it rarely proves something in the absolute sense.

Dissertations and theses, as substantial as they are, typically focus on exploring a specific question or problem within a larger field of study. They contribute to a broader conversation and body of knowledge. The aim is often to provide detailed insight, extend understanding, and suggest directions for further research rather than to offer definitive proof. These academic works are part of a cumulative process of knowledge building where each piece of research connects with others to gradually enhance our understanding of complex phenomena.

Furthermore, the rigorous nature of scientific inquiry involves continuous testing, validation, and potential refutation of ideas. What might be considered a “proof” at one point can later be challenged by new evidence or alternative interpretations. Therefore, the language of “proof” is cautiously used in academic circles to maintain scientific integrity and humility.

This was very helpful, thank you!

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Online Guide to Writing and Research Chapter 4: The Research Process

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• Online Guide to Writing

The Nature of Research

• Why Perform Research?
• When Is Research Needed?
• How Should Research Sources Be Evaluated?
• What Are Research Resources?
• Human Resources
• Print Resources
• Electronic Resources
• Find a Topic and Get an Overview
• Survey the Literature
• Ask a Research Question
• Manage Your Resources
• Work Your Sources into Your Research Writing
• Cite Sources
• Decide Your Point of View, or Role, for Your Research
• Collect Evidence
• Draw Conclusions
• Informal Research Structure
• Formal Research Structure

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Table of Contents: Online Guide to Writing

Chapter 1: College Writing

How Does College Writing Differ from Workplace Writing?

What Is College Writing?

Why So Much Emphasis on Writing?

Chapter 2: The Writing Process

Doing Exploratory Research

Getting from Notes to Your Draft

Introduction

Prewriting - Techniques to Get Started - Mining Your Intuition

Prewriting: Targeting Your Audience

Prewriting: Techniques to Get Started

Prewriting: Understanding Your Assignment

Rewriting: Being Your Own Critic

Rewriting: Creating a Revision Strategy

Rewriting: Getting Feedback

Rewriting: The Final Draft

Techniques to Get Started - Outlining

Techniques to Get Started - Using Systematic Techniques

Thesis Statement and Controlling Idea

Writing: Getting from Notes to Your Draft - Freewriting

Writing: Getting from Notes to Your Draft - Summarizing Your Ideas

Writing: Outlining What You Will Write

Chapter 3: Thinking Strategies

A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone

A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone: Style Through Vocabulary and Diction

Critical Strategies and Writing

Critical Strategies and Writing: Analysis

Critical Strategies and Writing: Evaluation

Critical Strategies and Writing: Persuasion

Critical Strategies and Writing: Synthesis

Developing a Paper Using Strategies

Kinds of Assignments You Will Write

Patterns for Presenting Information

Patterns for Presenting Information: Critiques

Patterns for Presenting Information: Discussing Raw Data

Patterns for Presenting Information: General-to-Specific Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Problem-Cause-Solution Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Specific-to-General Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Summaries and Abstracts

Supporting with Research and Examples

Writing Essay Examinations

Writing Essay Examinations: Make Your Answer Relevant and Complete

Writing Essay Examinations: Organize Thinking Before Writing

Writing Essay Examinations: Read and Understand the Question

Chapter 4: The Research Process

Planning and Writing a Research Paper

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Ask a Research Question

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Cite Sources

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Collect Evidence

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Decide Your Point of View, or Role, for Your Research

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Draw Conclusions

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Find a Topic and Get an Overview

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Manage Your Resources

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Outline

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Survey the Literature

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Work Your Sources into Your Research Writing

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Human Resources

Research Resources: What Are Research Resources?

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found?

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Electronic Resources

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Print Resources

Structuring the Research Paper: Formal Research Structure

Structuring the Research Paper: Informal Research Structure

The Research Assignment: How Should Research Sources Be Evaluated?

The Research Assignment: When Is Research Needed?

The Research Assignment: Why Perform Research?

Chapter 5: Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity

Giving Credit to Sources

Giving Credit to Sources: Copyright Laws

Giving Credit to Sources: Documentation

Giving Credit to Sources: Style Guides

Integrating Sources

Practicing Academic Integrity

Practicing Academic Integrity: Keeping Accurate Records

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Paraphrasing Your Source

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Quoting Your Source

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Summarizing Your Sources

Types of Documentation

Types of Documentation: Bibliographies and Source Lists

Types of Documentation: Citing World Wide Web Sources

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - APA Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - CSE/CBE Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - Chicago Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - MLA Style

Types of Documentation: Note Citations

Chapter 6: Using Library Resources

Finding Library Resources

Chapter 7: Assessing Your Writing

How Is Writing Graded?

How Is Writing Graded?: A General Assessment Tool

The Draft Stage

The Draft Stage: The First Draft

The Draft Stage: The Revision Process and the Final Draft

The Draft Stage: Using Feedback

The Research Stage

Using Assessment to Improve Your Writing

Chapter 8: Other Frequently Assigned Papers

Reviews and Reaction Papers: Article and Book Reviews

Reviews and Reaction Papers: Reaction Papers

Writing Arguments

Writing Arguments: Adapting the Argument Structure

Writing Arguments: Purposes of Argument

Writing Arguments: References to Consult for Writing Arguments

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Anticipate Active Opposition

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Determine Your Organization

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Develop Your Argument

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Introduce Your Argument

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - State Your Thesis or Proposition

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Write Your Conclusion

Writing Arguments: Types of Argument

Appendix A: Books to Help Improve Your Writing

Dictionaries

General Style Manuals

Researching on the Internet

Special Style Manuals

Writing Handbooks

Appendix B: Collaborative Writing and Peer Reviewing

Collaborative Writing: Assignments to Accompany the Group Project

Collaborative Writing: Informal Progress Report

Collaborative Writing: Issues to Resolve

Collaborative Writing: Methodology

Collaborative Writing: Peer Evaluation

Collaborative Writing: Tasks of Collaborative Writing Group Members

Collaborative Writing: Writing Plan

General Introduction

Peer Reviewing

Appendix C: Developing an Improvement Plan

Working with Your Instructor’s Comments and Grades

Appendix D: Writing Plan and Project Schedule

Devising a Writing Project Plan and Schedule

Reviewing Your Plan with Others

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How to write chapter 4 Research findings

• April 20, 2022
• Posted by: IGBAJI UGABI
• Category: Academic Writing Guide

Chapter 4 for Qualitative Research carries different titles such as ‘Analysis of Data’, ‘Results of Study’, ‘Analysis and Results’ and so forth. The keywords are ‘analysis’ and ‘results’ which implies that you have ‘analyzed’ the raw data and are presenting the ‘results’ or what you discovered in the fieldwork carried out, in this Chapter.

Content Outline

Students always find it difficult to document their findings. Chapter four is the heart of your work. Sometimes,  supervisors don’t start the reading of your work from chapter one, they jump to chapter four because that is the chapter that tells your reader all that you did, the instrument you used, how you analyzed your data and finally your findings.

Read Also: How to write Research Methodology – chapter three (3) of a research project

Hence, a well written/organized chapter four is all you need to present a convincing result.

Think about these common errors

You have spent so much time collecting and analyzing data but do a poor job of reporting the results. You may under-report despite having collected large amounts of data.

Alternatively, after collecting all the data, your presentation of the results lack organization and clarity.

Your reader struggles to try to figure out what you have written in this Chapter.

You may have done a good job writing Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 with such clarity and make a mess of Chapter 4.

You’ve just wasted your precious time and possibly the cost of compiling the chapter.

Your Chapter 4 should ‘stand-alone’ what does this mean?

This means that you could ask a friend to read it and s/he would understand what you discovered in your study without having to read Chapters 1 to 3.

Recommended: Guidelines for writing a literature review

For you to achieve this, your chapter four should be aligned to the purpose of the study, the research questions, why the study was important, how it connects to the underlying theories, literature review and reflective of the conceptual framework. Chapter 4 is the culmination of your study and represents your best thinking and how you answered the research question you had formulated/stated in chapter one of the research project.

The researcher should begin this chapter with two or three introductory paragraphs. A transition from chapter three is very important too. The researcher should also provide a very brief review of the overall research design.

It is not necessary to list all of the secondary questions and hypotheses at the beginning of the chapter, but the introductory section of the chapter should focus the reader’s attention on the primary research question and hypothesis.

Don’t border detailing everything, the bulk of the chapter will consist of the presentation of findings for the secondary questions and hypotheses set forth in Chapter 3.

How to write chapter 4 Research findings – Outline for Chapter Four

• Introduction to the Chapter.
• A transition from chapter three. (Very important)
• Provide a brief overview of the research project: like I stated earlier, chapter four should be able to stand alone, this means it should be presented in such a way that one can read it and understand everything about your study, this means that a BRIEF overview of the research project is very important in this chapter.
• Describe the purpose of the chapter.
• Explain the organization of the chapter.
• Data Analyses and Presentation of the Findings: this is the heart of this chapter, the presentation of the findings should be very concise and clear, make sure that you present it in such a way that even a layman can understand it.
•  State null hypothesis.
• Present the statistical results in a table.
• Draw statistical conclusions for accepted and rejected hypotheses.
• Draw a preliminary research conclusion
• Conclusion and Transition to Chapter Five

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Writing guide.

How to Think About Your Research

Stephanie Link

This book is running in a long beta. Revisions are currently underway. Check back in January 2025 for updated content.

Most research can be categorized into three main types. Basic or conceptual research is when we explore ideas or theories for the purpose of developing new concepts or reinterpreting existing ones. Applied research goes a step further by moving closer towards a solution for an immediate problem.

And then, practical research provides direct answers for what we should do to fix a problem. If you are conducting basic research, your argument should be largely theoretical with your contributions seeking to advance theoretical understanding.

In applied research, the way your topic is problematized should derive from a practical, empirical, methodological, and/or theoretical argument and provide potential implications for addressing one or more of those areas. Practical research is also problem-centric, usually contextualized around a lack of resources for achieving expected outcomes.

These types can be viewed on a continuum of purely conceptual to purely practical, and a whole world of research in between. In the following sections, we will focus on empirical research writing in any of the research types, but if you are completing other types of writing (e.g., a state-of-the-art review, model development article, or conference paper), the skills you acquire will help you write those pieces as well. They just won’t be the emphasis here.

With this said, what type of research will you be writing?

Scientific Writing for Publication Copyright © 2023 by Stephanie Link is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Chapter 3. Psychological Science

The Basic Process of Scientific Research

Amelia Liangzi Shi

Approximate reading time : 28 minutes

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Describe the principles of the scientific method
• Differentiate hypotheses from predictions
• Describe why operational definitions are important
• Understand why we need peer review before publishing our research findings

Psychologists are not the only people who seek to understand human behaviour and solve social problems. Philosophers, religious leaders, and politicians, among others, also strive to provide explanations for human behaviour. However, psychologists believe that research is the best tool for understanding human beings and their relationships with others. Rather than accepting the claim that people do or do not have free will, a psychologist would collect data to empirically test whether or not people are able to actively control their own behaviour. Rather than accepting an argument that creating or abandoning a new centre for mental health will improve the lives of individuals in the inner city, a psychologist would empirically assess the effects of receiving mental health treatment on quality of life. The statements made by psychologists are empirical , which means they are based on systematic collection and analysis of data.

The Scientific Method

The scientific method can be simplified into a series of steps. Basically, ideas (in the form of theories and hypotheses) are tested against the real world (in the form of empirical observations). Then, those empirical observations lead to more ideas that are tested against the real world, and so on. In this sense, the scientific process is circular. As psychologists learn more about something, that knowledge generates further questions that can be turned into hypotheses. As our knowledge is expanded, we may have to change a theory to account for it.

A theory is a well-developed set of ideas that proposes an explanation for observed phenomena. Theories are repeatedly checked against the world, but they tend to be too complex to be tested all at once; instead, researchers create hypotheses to test specific aspects of a theory. A hypothesis is a testable prediction about how the world will behave, and it is often worded as an if-then statement (e.g., if I study all night, then I will get a passing grade on the test). The hypothesis is extremely important as it bridges the gap between the realm of ideas and the real world. Psychological researchers may form their hypotheses based on both deductive and inductive processes. In the scientific context, deduction refers to testing theories against empirical observations. Imagine you want to deductively test the general idea that “playing video games will make people happy.” You observe your friend Bob, who plays video games every day. You want to see whether he always seems happy during these gaming sessions. In this case, you are applying a general theory specifically to Bob. Induction , on the other hand, refers to using empirical observations to formulate theories. Let’s say several of your friends all mention feeling happy while playing video games. From these specific observations, you may inductively propose a hypothesis like, “People tend to feel happy when playing video games.” In this case, you are forming a theory based on the specific instances you’ve encountered.

In addition to requiring that science be empirical, the scientific method demands that the procedures used be objective , that is to say, free from the personal bias or emotions of the researcher. The scientific method prescribes the process for researchers to collect and analyze data, draw conclusions, and share their findings. By following these rules, other researchers can understand exactly how the data was collected and analyzed. They can draw their own conclusions and not rely solely on the interpretations of the original research. This promotes transparency and allows for diverse perspectives in scientific research. Some new research also aims to replicate previous findings. They can repeat, add to, modify or even falsify earlier findings. In this way, scientific knowledge grows as researchers report their findings, and other researchers add to or modify the procedures through continuous research and sharing of ideas.

The goal of research in psychology is to explain and predict relationships within a certain area of study. A good theory should offer a simple explanation of a phenomenon (that is, be parsimonious) and suggest ideas for future research. Most importantly, a good theory must be falsifiable , which means that the hypotheses generated from this theory are capable of being shown to be incorrect. Recall from the introductory chapter that Sigmund Freud had lots of interesting ideas to explain human behaviours. However, a major criticism of Freud’s work is that many of his ideas were not falsifiable; for example, it is impossible to imagine how we could measure the three elements of personality described in Freud’s theories — the id, the ego, and the superego. How could we verify or falsify their existence?

A good hypothesis is a testable prediction about relationships between clearly defined variables. Suppose that we want to test this idea: sleep is important for memory. Can you think of three different testable hypotheses? For example:

People who get more than seven hours of sleep will get a higher score on the ABC Memory Test than people who get less than seven hours.

There is a positive association between the amount of time students sleep and their grade point average.

People suffering from insomnia show an increased ABC Memory Test score when they are successfully treated for insomnia.

Operational Definitions

As you read through these examples, you may have noticed that we use very specific methods to measure sleep and memory. Psychologists use the term “ operational definition” to describe exactly how a variable is being measured. In contrast to the abstract concepts, the operational definitions are very specific. For example, we could measure sleep in many different ways: self-reported number of hours of sleep according to brain waves measured in a sleep lab, the number of hours of sleep reported by a fitness tracking device worn by participants, and so on. If we were measuring temperature, we would need to define what we mean by temperature: degrees Fahrenheit, degrees Celsius, or simply our best guess. Having clear operational definitions is crucial because. If a variable is not precisely defined, others may misunderstand the data collected, making it hard for future researchers to replicate the study.

Here are some operational definitions (OD) of variables that have been used in psychological research:

• OD1: number of presses of a button that administers shock to another student
• OD2: number of seconds taken to honk the horn at the car ahead after a stoplight turns green
• OD1: number of inches that an individual places his or her chair away from another person
• OD2: number of millimeters of pupil dilation when one person looks at another
• OD1: number of days per month an employee shows up to work on time
• OD2: rating of job satisfaction from 1 (not at all satisfied) to 10 (extremely satisfied)
• OD1 = number of negative words used in a creative story
• OD2 = number of appointments made with a psychotherapist

Peer Review

When psychologists complete a research project, they generally want to share their findings with other scientists. The American Psychological Association (APA, 2020) publishes a manual detailing how to write a paper for submission to peer-reviewed, scientific journals. The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University can walk you through the APA writing guidelines.

Peer review is an important part of publishing research findings in many scientific disciplines. A peer-reviewed journal article is read by several other scientists (generally anonymously) with expertise in the subject matter. These peer reviewers provide feedback to both the author and the journal editor regarding the quality of the draft. Peer reviewers look for a strong rationale for the research being described, a clear description of how the research was conducted, and evidence that the research was conducted in an ethical manner. They also look for flaws in the study’s design, methods, and statistical analyses. They check that the conclusions drawn by the authors seem reasonable given the observations made during the research. Peer reviewers also comment on how valuable the research is in advancing the discipline’s knowledge. This helps prevent unnecessary duplication of research findings in the scientific literature and, to some extent, ensures that each research article provides new information. Ultimately, the journal editor will compile all of the peer reviewer feedback and determine whether the article will be published in its current state (a rare occurrence), published with revisions, or not accepted for publication.

Peer review provides some degree of quality control for psychological research. Poorly conceived or executed studies can be weeded out, well-designed research can be improved, and ideally, studies can be described clearly enough to allow other scientists to replicate them, which helps to maintain reliability.

So why would we want to replicate a study? Imagine that our version of the Bobo doll study is done exactly the same as the original, only using a different set of participants and researchers. We use the same operational definitions, manipulations, measurements, and procedures, and our groups are equivalent in terms of their baseline levels of aggression. In our replication however, we receive completely different results and the children do not imitate aggressive behaviours any more than they would at the level of chance. If our experimental manipulation is exactly the same, then the difference in results must be attributable to something else that is different between our study and the original, which might include the researchers, participants, and location. If on the other hand, we were able to replicate the results of the original experiment using different researchers and participants at a different location, then this would provide support for the idea that the results were due to the manipulation and not to any of these other variables. The more we can replicate a result with different samples, the more reliable it is.

In recent years, there has been increasing concern about a “replication crisis” that has affected a number of scientific fields, including psychology. One study found that only about 62% of social science studies reviewed were replicable, and even then their effect sizes were reduced by half (Cramerer et al, 2018). In fact, even a famous Nobel Prize-winning scientist has recently retracted a published paper because she had difficulty replicating her results (BBC, 2020). These kinds of outcomes have prompted some scientists to begin to work together and more openly. One example of this more collaborative approach is the Psychological Science Accelerator , a network of over 500 laboratories, representing 82 countries. This network allows researchers to pre-register their study designs, which minimises any cherry-picking that might happen along the way to boost results. Cherry-picking is a biased approach where researchers selectively report data that supports a researcher’s hypothesis, while ignoring any findings that do not support it. The network also facilitates data collection across multiple labs, allowing for the use of large, diverse samples and more wide-spread sharing of results. Hopefully with a more collaborative approach, we can develop a better process for replicating and checking the quality of research. If you’d like to learn more about the Psychological Sciences Accelerator , you can check out Psychological Science Accelerator’s website .

Watch this video: The Scientific Method (15 minutes)

“The Scientific Method: Crash Course Biology #2” video by CrashCourse is licensed under the Standard YouTube licence.

Image attributions

Figure PS.1. Scientific Method 3 by Whatiguana is used under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

Figure PS.2. Original image created for this text and has a CC BY-NC-SA license .

Image Descriptions

Figure PS.1. The Scientific Method as an Ongoing Process image description:

• Make Observations: What do I see in nature? This can be from one’s own experiences, thoughts, or reading.
• Think of Interesting Questions: What does that pattern occur?
• Formulate Hypotheses: What are the general causes of the phenomenon I am wondering about?
• Develop Testable Predictions: If my hypothesis is correct, then I expect a, b, c, …
• Gather Data to Test Predictions: Relevant data can come from the literature, new observations or formal experiments. Thorough testing requires replication to verify results. (Go to Step 6 or Step 7)
• Refine, Alter, Expand or Reject Hypotheses . (Go to Step 4)
• Develop General Theories: General Theories must be consistent with most or all available data and with other current theories. [Return to Figure PS.1]

To calculate this time, we used a reading speed of 150 words per minute and then added extra time to account for images and videos. This is just to give you a rough idea of the length of the chapter section. How long it will take you to engage with this chapter will vary greatly depending on all sorts of things (the complexity of the content, your ability to focus, etc).

The Basic Process of Scientific Research Copyright © 2024 by Amelia Liangzi Shi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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References provide the information necessary for readers to identify and retrieve each work cited in the text .

Check each reference carefully against the original publication to ensure information is accurate and complete. Accurately prepared references help establish your credibility as a careful researcher and writer.

Consistency in reference formatting allows readers to focus on the content of your reference list, discerning both the types of works you consulted and the important reference elements (who, when, what, and where) with ease. When you present each reference in a consistent fashion, readers do not need to spend time determining how you organized the information. And when searching the literature yourself, you also save time and effort when reading reference lists in the works of others that are written in APA Style.

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2024 Theses Doctoral

Coordination of histone chaperones for parental histone segregation and epigenetic inheritance

Fang, Yimeng

Epigenetics involves heritable changes in an individual’s traits resulting from variations in gene expression without alterations to the DNA sequence. In eukaryotes, genomic DNA is usually folded with histones into chromatin. Post-translational modifications (PTMs) on histones not only play crucial roles in regulating various biological processes, including gene expression, but also store the majority of epigenetic information. A fundamental question in this field is how cells transmit these PTMs to their progeny. Before I began my thesis research, a well-established dogma in the field was that parental histones containing PTMs are symmetrically distributed to daughter DNA strands during DNA replication. These modified histones serve as templates for PTM duplication, thereby restoring the original chromatin states on both daughter strands. Several histone chaperones have been identified as regulators of parental histone segregation. However, their impact on epigenetic inheritance is controversial, which I reasoned is due to the lack of proper systems to examine epigenetic inheritance. This prompted me to use the unique characteristics of fission yeast heterochromatin as a model of epigenetic inheritance. In this organism, heterochromatin formation involves two distinct steps: establishment and inheritance. Reporter systems have been established to allow precise examination of heterochromatin inheritance. However, parental histone segregation pathways have not been characterized in this organism, and their impact on heterochromatin inheritance is unknown. My thesis work investigates the role of parental histone chaperones in regulating parental histone segregation and epigenetic inheritance in fission yeast. It comprises 5 chapters: Chapter 1 introduces epigenetics, with a focus on chromatin-based epigenetic inheritance. It also highlights the unique features of fission yeast heterochromatin that make it an excellent model for studying epigenetic inheritance.Chapter 2 is the focus of my thesis work. I employed inheritance-specific reporters in fission yeast to investigate the roles of three parental histone chaperones on epigenetic inheritance. In addition, in collaboration with Dr. Zhiguo Zhang’s lab, I adapted the Enrichment and Sequencing of Protein-Associated Nascent DNA (eSPAN) method, a recently developed technique designed to quantify the bias of specific proteins at replication forks, to examine parental histone segregation in fission yeast. My analyses demonstrated a critical role for parental histone segregation in epigenetic inheritance. Moreover, I discovered that both the symmetric segregation of parental histones and their density on daughter strands are critical for this process. Chapter 3 uncovers a novel function of a DNA replication protein Mrc1 in regulating epigenetic inheritance, distinct from its established roles in DNA replication checkpoint activation and replication speed control. I demonstrated the critical role of Mrc1 in regulating the symmetrical transfer of parental histone and the proper inheritance of heterochromatin. These results provide essential mechanistic insights into the function of Mrc1. Chapter 4 explores the function of an additional DNA replication protein and histone chaperone, Swi7 (Pol alpha). I have found that mutations in Swi7 lead to defects in parental histone segregation and heterochromatin inheritance, laying a strong foundation to further investigate its mechanism of action. Chapter 5 discusses potential future research directions that can build upon my thesis work.In conclusion, my thesis represents a thorough examination of parental histone chaperones in regulating epigenetic inheritance in fission yeast. By combining innovative genetic assays and advanced methodologies such as eSPAN, I have provided critical insights into the molecular mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance. In addition, the assays that I have developed during my thesis work also pave the way for future studies aimed at elucidating the mechanism of epigenetic inheritance in this important model organism.

• Epigenetics
• Gene expression
• Nucleotide sequence
• DNA replication

This item is currently under embargo. It will be available starting 2026-08-01.

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