Education

Best Ways to Sum Up Key Points in Dissertation Discussion

Introduction

Are you ready to discuss the meaning and relevance of your dissertation results? Well, then the dissertation discussion is the chapter where you will do this. The dissertation discussion chapter performs a critical task, and that is to sum up key points.

This chapter focuses on what you have found after years of research work. It also tells the readers how your study results relate to the existing knowledge. Remember that there will be tons of information you need to discuss in this chapter. It is not an easy task to tackle this much information. So, you need some guidelines about the best ways, to sum up key points in the dissertation discussion. Do not worry; the centre of today’s article is also about this. So, let’s start our discussion with the following very fundamental question.

What makes a good discussion in a dissertation?

One thing that you do not know is what are the things that make a discussion chapter good. So, let’s learn about those things one by one.

  • To write a good discussion chapter, you need to focus on what you have found in your research. Always focus more on the results of the research study in the discussion. It will help you sum up key points more effectively.
  • The next thing that makes a discussion chapter good is showing the relevance of the results to your research questions. You must talk about how dissertation results answer the research questions.
  • A good discussion chapter also focuses on making an argument supporting the overall study’s conclusion. It is because you will structure your conclusion based on the discussion chapter.

Hence, the above mentioned are some things that make a good discussion in a dissertation. You must ensure that you touch on these things in your dissertation discussion. It is essential to sum up the key points. However, you can hire dissertation writing services if you feel issues in summing up the key points.

What are the four key things to include when writing a discussion?

As discussed earlier, a dissertation discussion means to sum up key points. The problem is that students do not know what things to include that help them do so. There are many ways to write a dissertation discussion chapter. It does not matter which way you choose; you must focus on the following four key things.

Interpretations

Interpretation of the results is an important thing to do in a dissertation discussion. The meaning of the results may seem obvious to you, but it is not to readers. You have to spell out the significance of your results to better understand your readers. During the interpretation of the results, you tell about the meaning of your results. To effectively do so, you should identify the correlations and explain them. Also, you should explain those patterns concerning the research questions. This practice will validate your research further.

Implications

Discussing the implications of your research helps you sum up key points. You should relate your study to the scholarly work, i.e., a literature review. You discuss what contributions your study has made to the previous knowledge by doing this. The discussion section should also show how your results fit with existing knowledge. Also, you need to discuss the consequences of your research on the literature. By doing this, your reader will know what you have done in your research and how it impacts the literature.

Limitations

No research is perfect by all means. There exist some flaws and limitations in research that other researchers try to cover in their research. So, you need to discuss those limitations in the discussion chapter. These limitations might be due to your overall research design or specific methodology. The unanticipated obstacles that emerge during the research also limit your research. For example, due to COVID-19, many students could not complete their dissertations. So, you need to discuss these limitations in the dissertation discussion chapter.

Recommendations

The fourth essential thing to sum up key points is making recommendations. You must make recommendations for the practical applicability of your research. All those recommendations must be based on your research results. Sometimes, the researcher saves the recommendations for the conclusion. There is nothing wrong with this; you can give recommendations there too.

This section also includes suggestions for future research in the same area. Do not just state that more study needs to be done in this area. You must give concrete ideas for how future work can build on the areas you failed to address.

What should be included in the discussion section?

Mainly, the dissertation discussion includes the research results. Still, there are some other things that you need to include in this section. A brief description of those things is as follows:

Reiterate the Research Problem

Before discussing the results, you must reiterate the research problem. It brings the readers back to the central theme. This practice allows the readers to analyse the upcoming results of the original research problem. After describing the research problem in two to three sentences, move quickly to the findings. It will allow the readers to understand the discussion chapter better.

Explain the meaning of the findings

Remember that the discussion chapter is the chapter of explanation, not presentation. You must not present the results in the form of graphs, figures, and charts. To formulate a good discussion chapter, you should explain the findings and unfold the hidden patterns.

Relate the findings to similar studies

No research is restricted enough that it does not have any connection with other studies. The discussion chapter should relate your findings to those similar studies. This will also point out how your study differs from others.

Conclusion

All in all, a dissertation discussion chapter is about how, to sum up key points. Also, all the key points must relate to the research questions and problem. The guidelines mentioned above will significantly help you structure a good discussion chapter.

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