How do you structure a discussion section in research?

The discussion is a section in a research paper where you need to provide meaning, significance, and relevance of research results. When writing the research paper discussion you should concentrate on providing explanations and evaluation of findings. It is very much important for you to demonstrate how your research findings relate to the literature review and also research questions.

At the time of writing the discussion section for a research paper, you need to provide an argument for supporting the overall conclusion.  There are several techniques that you can utilize for writing research paper discussions. It is very much crucial for you to concentrate on 4 elements these are:

1. Interpretation: The meaning of the results
2. The implication of the study
3. Limitation of the study
4. Recommendation for future research

You can include the discussion and conclusion section in one section.  Before combining the conclusion and discussion section you need to consult with your supervisor. You can also review the guidelines for analyzing the requirements to combine the conclusion and discussion chapter.

How to write a discussion section for a research paper?

The 5 step process of writing the discussion section in the research paper is:

Step 1: Highlighting the most important results

You need to begin writing the discussion section by stating the research problem. After describing the problem statement you need to provide a summary of key findings. You should not repeat all information. At this step, it is very much important for you to provide a clear statement of the result. You should provide a direct answer to the main research questions. The writer needs to provide an answer to the research question in just a single paragraph.

Example:

• The result of research represents that….
• The research shows a relationship between…
• By analysing the result it has been found that…

Step 2: Explain why your research is important to the reader.

Here, you need to clearly state the importance of your research to the reader.  It is very much essential for you to demonstrate how you have answered research questions. The form of interpretation of the result is completely based on the type of research you are performing. The number of approaches that you can utilize for interpretation of findings is:

• Identify correlation, the relationship between data
• Discuss whether research results have been able to fulfill your expectation or not
• Contextualize research finding
• Clearly state unexpected outcomes and evaluate the importance
• Think about final alternatives  explanations for arguments

Based on themes, you can organize your discussion section in the research paper. The discussion section in the research as per can also be arranged according to the research questions. You should begin writing the discussion section for the research paper by clearly highlighting either the most important or unexpected findings.

Examples:

• In line with the theory….
• The results prove the claim made by Jackson that…

Step 3:Discussion of the research’s implications

You should provide your interpretations. When providing the interpretation you should review your literature.  When writing the discussion section for the research paper, you need to clearly state how the research findings match your existing knowledge. You should also write how the findings of your research have provided new knowledge. It is very crucial for you to clearly state the cost if specific issues are not resolved on time.  At this step, your aim should be to demonstrate to the reader exactly what contribution you have made in a specific field by researching a particular topic.

Step 4: Acceptance of one’s limits

All types of research have a certain type of limitation.  It is very much important for you to acknowledge such limitations, as these tactics will help you in demonstrating creditability. When facilitating discussion you need to provide a complete and correct picture of things that can be concluded from research. Limitations might occur due to the selection of an inappropriate research design or the occurrence of unanticipated hurdles during research.  When writing the discussion section you should only include such limitations that are directly related to your research objectives.  It is a step where you should also analyze the way the following limitation could influence accomplishing the aim of the research.

For instance: In case the sample size which you chose is small then it might limit its general ability. If you have faced a few problems in the collection and analysis of information then you can provide a description of the same in your research paper discussion.  In such a case, you also need to provide explanations about how the following issues have affected the result. You should also require demonstrating the way results are valid in relation to answering research questions.

Examples:

• The general ability of outcomes is limited by……
• The reliability of information is highly influenced by…
• It is beyond the scope of study…..

Step 5: Provide recommendations for research

Based on the discussion on outcomes, you need to make suggestions that could be applied for performing research in the future. You can keep suggestions to write in the conclusion section of the research paper.

You can provide suggestions based on the limitation of the research. When providing suggestions in the discussion section of the research paper you need to share concrete ideas about how future work can be built on fields that personal research was unable to identify:

• An investigation in the future needs to be performed for……..
• Future research should take into account……..

Conclusion

From the above article, it has been concluded that the discussion section in the research paper consists of a problem and a summary of key findings. Another fact that has been discovered is that when writing a research paper discussion section also consists of limitations of the study.