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General Research Paper Guidelines: Discussion
- Introduction
- Literature Review
Discussion Section
Limitations.
The overall purpose of a research paper’s discussion section is to evaluate and interpret results, while explaining both the implications and limitations of your findings. Per APA (2020) guidelines, this section requires you to “examine, interpret, and qualify the results and draw inferences and conclusions from them” (p. 89). Discussion sections also require you to detail any new insights, think through areas for future research, highlight the work that still needs to be done to further your topic, and provide a clear conclusion to your research paper. In a good discussion section, you should do the following:
- Clearly connect the discussion of your results to your introduction, including your central argument, thesis, or problem statement.
- Provide readers with a critical thinking through of your results, answering the “so what?” question about each of your findings. In other words, why is this finding important?
- Detail how your research findings might address critical gaps or problems in your field
- Compare your results to similar studies’ findings
- Provide the possibility of alternative interpretations, as your goal as a researcher is to “discover” and “examine” and not to “prove” or “disprove.” Instead of trying to fit your results into your hypothesis, critically engage with alternative interpretations to your results.
For more specific details on your Discussion section, be sure to review Sections 3.8 (pp. 89-90) and 3.16 (pp. 103-104) of your 7 th edition APA manual
*Box content adapted from:
University of Southern California (n.d.). Organizing your social sciences research paper: 8 the discussion . https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/discussion
Limitations of generalizability or utility of findings, often over which the researcher has no control, should be detailed in your Discussion section. Including limitations for your reader allows you to demonstrate you have thought critically about your given topic, understood relevant literature addressing your topic, and chosen the methodology most appropriate for your research. It also allows you an opportunity to suggest avenues for future research on your topic. An effective limitations section will include the following:
- Detail (a) sources of potential bias, (b) possible imprecision of measures, (c) other limitations or weaknesses of the study, including any methodological or researcher limitations.
- Sample size: In quantitative research, if a sample size is too small, it is more difficult to generalize results.
- Lack of available/reliable data : In some cases, data might not be available or reliable, which will ultimately affect the overall scope of your research. Use this as an opportunity to explain areas for future study.
- Lack of prior research on your study topic: In some cases, you might find that there is very little or no similar research on your study topic, which hinders the credibility and scope of your own research. If this is the case, use this limitation as an opportunity to call for future research. However, make sure you have done a thorough search of the available literature before making this claim.
- Flaws in measurement of data: Hindsight is 20/20, and you might realize after you have completed your research that the data tool you used actually limited the scope or results of your study in some way. Again, acknowledge the weakness and use it as an opportunity to highlight areas for future study.
- Limits of self-reported data: In your research, you are assuming that any participants will be honest and forthcoming with responses or information they provide to you. Simply acknowledging this assumption as a possible limitation is important in your research.
- Access: Most research requires that you have access to people, documents, organizations, etc.. However, for various reasons, access is sometimes limited or denied altogether. If this is the case, you will want to acknowledge access as a limitation to your research.
- Time: Choosing a research focus that is narrow enough in scope to finish in a given time period is important. If such limitations of time prevent you from certain forms of research, access, or study designs, acknowledging this time restraint is important. Acknowledging such limitations is important, as they can point other researchers to areas that require future study.
- Potential Bias: All researchers have some biases, so when reading and revising your draft, pay special attention to the possibilities for bias in your own work. Such bias could be in the form you organized people, places, participants, or events. They might also exist in the method you selected or the interpretation of your results. Acknowledging such bias is an important part of the research process.
- Language Fluency: On occasion, researchers or research participants might have language fluency issues, which could potentially hinder results or how effectively you interpret results. If this is an issue in your research, make sure to acknowledge it in your limitations section.
University of Southern California (n.d.). Organizing your social sciences research paper: Limitations of the study . https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/limitations
In many research papers, the conclusion, like the limitations section, is folded into the larger discussion section. If you are unsure whether to include the conclusion as part of your discussion or as a separate section, be sure to defer to the assignment instructions or ask your instructor.
The conclusion is important, as it is specifically designed to highlight your research’s larger importance outside of the specific results of your study. Your conclusion section allows you to reiterate the main findings of your study, highlight their importance, and point out areas for future research. Based on the scope of your paper, your conclusion could be anywhere from one to three paragraphs long. An effective conclusion section should include the following:
- Describe the possibilities for continued research on your topic, including what might be improved, adapted, or added to ensure useful and informed future research.
- Provide a detailed account of the importance of your findings
- Reiterate why your problem is important, detail how your interpretation of results impacts the subfield of study, and what larger issues both within and outside of your field might be affected from such results
University of Southern California (n.d.). Organizing your social sciences research paper: 9. the conclusion . https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/conclusion
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- How to Write a Discussion Section | Tips & Examples
How to Write a Discussion Section | Tips & Examples
Published on August 21, 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on December 7, 2022.
The discussion section is where you delve into the meaning, importance, and relevance of your results .
It should focus on explaining and evaluating what you found, showing how it relates to your literature review and paper or dissertation topic , and making an argument in support of your overall conclusion. It should not be a second results section.
There are different ways to write this section, but you can focus your writing around these key elements:
- Summary : A brief recap of your key results
- Interpretations: What do your results mean?
- Implications: Why do your results matter?
- Limitations: What can’t your results tell us?
- Recommendations: Avenues for further studies or analyses
Table of contents
What not to include in your discussion section, step 1: summarize your key findings, step 2: give your interpretations, step 3: discuss the implications, step 4: acknowledge the limitations, step 5: share your recommendations, discussion section example, frequently asked questions about discussion sections.
There are a few common mistakes to avoid when writing the discussion section of your paper.
- Don’t introduce new results: You should only discuss the data that you have already reported in your results section .
- Don’t make inflated claims: Avoid overinterpretation and speculation that isn’t directly supported by your data.
- Don’t undermine your research: The discussion of limitations should aim to strengthen your credibility, not emphasize weaknesses or failures.
Start this section by reiterating your research problem and concisely summarizing your major findings. Don’t just repeat all the data you have already reported—aim for a clear statement of the overall result that directly answers your main research question . This should be no more than one paragraph.
Many students struggle with the differences between a discussion section and a results section . The crux of the matter is that your results sections should present your results, and your discussion section should subjectively evaluate them. Try not to blend elements of these two sections, in order to keep your paper sharp.
- The results indicate that…
- The study demonstrates a correlation between…
- This analysis supports the theory that…
- The data suggest that…
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The meaning of your results may seem obvious to you, but it’s important to spell out their significance for your reader, showing exactly how they answer your research question.
The form of your interpretations will depend on the type of research, but some typical approaches to interpreting the data include:
- Identifying correlations , patterns, and relationships among the data
- Discussing whether the results met your expectations or supported your hypotheses
- Contextualizing your findings within previous research and theory
- Explaining unexpected results and evaluating their significance
- Considering possible alternative explanations and making an argument for your position
You can organize your discussion around key themes, hypotheses, or research questions, following the same structure as your results section. Alternatively, you can also begin by highlighting the most significant or unexpected results.
- In line with the hypothesis…
- Contrary to the hypothesized association…
- The results contradict the claims of Smith (2022) that…
- The results might suggest that x . However, based on the findings of similar studies, a more plausible explanation is y .
As well as giving your own interpretations, make sure to relate your results back to the scholarly work that you surveyed in the literature review . The discussion should show how your findings fit with existing knowledge, what new insights they contribute, and what consequences they have for theory or practice.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Do your results support or challenge existing theories? If they support existing theories, what new information do they contribute? If they challenge existing theories, why do you think that is?
- Are there any practical implications?
Your overall aim is to show the reader exactly what your research has contributed, and why they should care.
- These results build on existing evidence of…
- The results do not fit with the theory that…
- The experiment provides a new insight into the relationship between…
- These results should be taken into account when considering how to…
- The data contribute a clearer understanding of…
- While previous research has focused on x , these results demonstrate that y .
Even the best research has its limitations. Acknowledging these is important to demonstrate your credibility. Limitations aren’t about listing your errors, but about providing an accurate picture of what can and cannot be concluded from your study.
Limitations might be due to your overall research design, specific methodological choices , or unanticipated obstacles that emerged during your research process.
Here are a few common possibilities:
- If your sample size was small or limited to a specific group of people, explain how generalizability is limited.
- If you encountered problems when gathering or analyzing data, explain how these influenced the results.
- If there are potential confounding variables that you were unable to control, acknowledge the effect these may have had.
After noting the limitations, you can reiterate why the results are nonetheless valid for the purpose of answering your research question.
- The generalizability of the results is limited by…
- The reliability of these data is impacted by…
- Due to the lack of data on x , the results cannot confirm…
- The methodological choices were constrained by…
- It is beyond the scope of this study to…
Based on the discussion of your results, you can make recommendations for practical implementation or further research. Sometimes, the recommendations are saved for the conclusion .
Suggestions for further research can lead directly from the limitations. Don’t just state that more studies should be done—give concrete ideas for how future work can build on areas that your own research was unable to address.
- Further research is needed to establish…
- Future studies should take into account…
- Avenues for future research include…
In the discussion , you explore the meaning and relevance of your research results , explaining how they fit with existing research and theory. Discuss:
- Your interpretations : what do the results tell us?
- The implications : why do the results matter?
- The limitation s : what can’t the results tell us?
The results chapter or section simply and objectively reports what you found, without speculating on why you found these results. The discussion interprets the meaning of the results, puts them in context, and explains why they matter.
In qualitative research , results and discussion are sometimes combined. But in quantitative research , it’s considered important to separate the objective results from your interpretation of them.
In a thesis or dissertation, the discussion is an in-depth exploration of the results, going into detail about the meaning of your findings and citing relevant sources to put them in context.
The conclusion is more shorter and more general: it concisely answers your main research question and makes recommendations based on your overall findings.
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Purdue Online Writing Lab College of Liberal Arts
Writing the Experimental Report: Methods, Results, and Discussion
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Written for undergraduate students and new graduate students in psychology (experimental), this handout provides information on writing in psychology and on experimental report and experimental article writing.
Method section
Your method section provides a detailed overview of how you conducted your research. Because your study methods form a large part of your credibility as a researcher and writer, it is imperative that you be clear about what you did to gather information from participants in your study.
With your methods section, as with the sections above, you want to walk your readers through your study almost as if they were a participant. What happened first? What happened next?
The method section includes the following sub-sections.
I. Participants: Discuss who was enrolled in your experiment. Include major demographics that have an impact on the results of the experiment (i.e. if race is a factor, you should provide a breakdown by race). The accepted term for describing a person who participates in research studies is a participant not a subject.
II. Apparatus and materials: The apparatus is any equipment used during data collection (such as computers or eye-tracking devices). Materials include scripts, surveys, or software used for data collection (not data analysis). It is sometimes necessary to provide specific examples of materials or prompts, depending on the nature of your study.
III. Procedure: The procedure includes the step-by-step how of your experiment. The procedure should include:
- A description of the experimental design and how participants were assigned conditions.
- Identification of your independent variable(s) (IV), dependent variable(s) (DV), and control variables. Give your variables clear, meaningful names so that your readers are not confused.
- Important instructions to participants.
- A step-by-step listing in chronological order of what participants did during the experiment.
Results section
The results section is where you present the results of your research-both narrated for the readers in plain English and accompanied by statistics.
Note : Depending on the requirements or the projected length of your paper, sometimes the results are combined with the discussion section.
Organizing Results
Continue with your story in the results section. How do your results fit with the overall story you are telling? What results are the most compelling? You want to begin your discussion by reminding your readers once again what your hypotheses were and what your overall story is. Then provide each result as it relates to that story. The most important results should go first.
Preliminary discussion: Sometimes it is necessary to provide a preliminary discussion in your results section about your participant groups. In order to convince your readers that your results are meaningful, you must first demonstrate that the conditions of the study were met. For example, if you randomly assigned subjects into groups, are these two groups comparable? You can't discuss the differences in the two groups until you establish that the two groups can be compared.
Provide information on your data analysis: Be sure to describe the analysis you did. If you are using a non-conventional analysis, you also need to provide justification for why you are doing so.
Presenting Results : Bem (2006) recommends the following pattern for presenting findings:
- Remind readers of the conceptual hypotheses or questions you are asking
- Remind readers of behaviors measured or operations performed
- Provide the answer/result in plain English
- Provide the statistic that supports your plain English answer
- Elaborate or qualify the overall conclusion if necessary
Writers new to psychology and writing with statistics often dump numbers at their readers without providing a clear narration of what those numbers mean. Please see our Writing with Statistics handout for more information on how to write with statistics.
Discussion section
Your discussion section is where you talk about what your results mean and where you wrap up the overall story you are telling. This is where you interpret your findings, evaluate your hypotheses or research questions, discuss unexpected results, and tie your findings to the previous literature (discussed first in your literature review). Your discussion section should move from specific to general.
Here are some tips for writing your discussion section.
- Begin by providing an interpretation of your results: what is it that you have learned from your research?
- Discuss each hypotheses or research question in more depth.
- Do not repeat what you have already said in your results—instead, focus on adding new information and broadening the perspective of your results to you reader.
- Discuss how your results compare to previous findings in the literature. If there are differences, discuss why you think these differences exist and what they could mean.
- Briefly consider your study's limitations, but do not dwell on its flaws.
- Consider also what new questions your study raises, what questions your study was not able to answer, and what avenues future research could take in this area.
Example: Here is how this works.
References section
References should be in standard APA format. Please see our APA Formatting guide for specific instructions.
Basic Manual For Creating A Strong APA Research Paper Discussion Section
Clearly, the discussion section of your research paper is one of the most crucial elements of the work piece, so it needs to be done totally correctly. A strong discussion section can elevate the quality of your work from good to outstanding, so you really should pay special attention to it. Itâs also important that you apply the correct formatting style to your entire work. And thatâs where this manual comes in. It will teach you how to create a strong research paper discussion section in the APA formatting style.
What is the APA formatting style?
Before you learn to apply the APA formatting style to your research paper, you need to understand exactly what the APA formatting style is. Basically, a formatting style is a set of guidelines that explains how you are supposed to format your work. It covers things like your table of contents, list of references, and obviously your discussion section. The APA formatting style is the formatting style used by the American psychological Association, and it is usually applied to work that falls under the social sciences, such as psychology.
How do you create your discussion section according to the APA format?
The following steps describe how you need to create your discussion section according to the APA format:
- Step 1: Explain the major findings of your work
Here you are required to describe and explain the major findings of your work. This should be done in the first paragraph of your research paper discussion section, and should be done in clear concise language, in a declarative style.
- Step 2: Explain the meaning of your findings and why they are important
Next, you need to explain the meaning of your findings and why they are important to your field.
- Step 3: Compare your findings to those of other studies
Now, you should compare your own findings to those of other studies. This helps add context to your work.
- Step 4: Reflect on other reasons for your findings
Here you need to consider other reasons for the findings you ended up with, not just your own beliefs about them.
- Step 5: Discuss the possible consequences and implications of your findings
Next, you should discuss any possible consequences and implications of your findings.
- Step 6: Describe the limitations of your study
Finally, it is extremely important that you discuss all the limitations of your study, especially for those who want to conduct further research on the topic.
Creating the best research paper
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APA Style (7th Edition): Writing the Discussion (Key Phrases to Use)
Anyone who has ever taught writing of APA Style Research Reports, knows that students struggle with writing the Discussion section. The APA now provides a handout that helps students by providing key phrases for each subsection. These should help students better match their content to the appropriate section.
You can find the handout here .
How to Write a Discussion for an APA Style Paper
Michael cohen.
American Psychological Association style is the format of choice for writers of scientific research papers. Typically, APA-style papers are broken down into a standardized set of sections, allowing readers to easily understand and access the information contained in the report. One of the most important sections of an APA-style paper is the discussion section, where the results of your experiment are analyzed.
Explore this article
- Write a brief paragraph
- Write a paragraph
- Write a paragraph which discusses any inconsistencies in your experiment
- Conclude the discussion section
1 Write a brief paragraph
Write a brief paragraph which summarizes the results of your experiment or study. Do not use overly technical language or include specifics in this section.
2 Write a paragraph
Write a paragraph which analyzes your results. Discuss whether or not your results support your hypothesis, and any larger implications or consequences of your work.
3 Write a paragraph which discusses any inconsistencies in your experiment
Write a paragraph which discusses any inconsistencies in your experiment. This paragraph should include possible sources of error and instances of inconsistent or inconclusive data. Also mention any followup questions which arose as a result of your work, and possible further experiments that could or should be conducted.
4 Conclude the discussion section
Conclude the discussion section with a short summary that emphasizes the overarching significance of the experiment.
About the Author
Michael Cohen has been a technical writer since 2006. His areas of expertise include classical music and nonprofit management, and his work has been featured across a variety of media platforms. Cohen received his bachelor's degree from The New School in New York City.
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The sample methodology in a research paper provides the information to show that the research is valid. It must tell what was done to answer the research question and how the research was done.
An APA format sample essay consists of a title page, abstract, actual essay, references and appendices with each section separated by a page break. Each page of the essay consists of a running head and page number. An APA essay must be type...
A “discussion paper” is a quantitative depiction of a specified topic, including but not limited to, a summary of applicable objections and appropriate conclusions drawn from the project.
section of a research paper. These are examples of only some, but not all, of the phrases that can be used in the. Discussion section of all APA Style
Discussion Section · Reiterate the research problem or focus. Clearly connect the discussion of your results to your introduction, including your central
It should focus on explaining and evaluating what you found, showing how it relates to your literature review and paper or dissertation topic
section of a research paper. These are examples of only some, but not all, of the phrases that can be used in the Discussion section of all APA Style papers
Your discussion section is where you talk about what your results mean and where you wrap up the overall story you are telling. This is where you interpret your
How do you create your discussion section according to the APA format? · Step 1: Explain the major findings of your work · Step 2: Explain the meaning of your
Anyone who has ever taught writing of APA Style Research Reports, knows that students struggle with writing the Discussion section. The APA now provides a
General formatting rules are as follows: Do not put page breaks in between the introduction, method, results, and discussion sections.
1 Write a brief paragraph · 2 Write a paragraph · 3 Write a paragraph which discusses any inconsistencies in your experiment · 4 Conclude the discussion section.
Video Tutorials on Writing an APA Research Paper. How to Write the Discussion Section of an APA Research Paper. 2.9K views 2 years ago.
How to write the Discussion part 1 · APA Style Reporting Statistical Results (8-10) · Writing a discussion for a research paper or thesis · How to