After years of toil, it’s finally here—the end of your dissertation! You’ve completed your graduate coursework, discovered and defined an important gap in the research literature to develop your topic around, spent countless hours analyzing and integrating the relevant literature on your topic, constructed an aligned methodology for your study, and conducted the statistical analysis or qualitative analysis required to answer your research questions. Your only step now is to summarize and interpret your findings, which should be such an exciting moment!
But… we know. We’ve heard it from so many of our dissertation consulting clients: You just want to be done. The inspiration and excitement that drove your early work on your dissertation have most likely deflated over the many, many months—or even years—of researching and writing about your topic and methods, only to be tasked by your committee with revising, expanding, and editing your dissertation draft time and time again.
Now that you’re at this final stage of the manuscript write-up, it’s understandable that your previously fiery ambition to conduct the world’s best study has transformed into a desperate desire to simply put an end to this chore and move forward with your career. The good news is that the really hard work has been done by the time you reach your last dissertation chapter, and our hope is that the following tips on writing a good discussion chapter will help you to sail through to your final defense in no time!
Setting Up the Discussion Chapter
A standard expectation for thesis or dissertation chapters is that they allow the reader to jump in on any one of them and be able to quickly gain a sense of what the study is about and what it’s trying to address. For this reason, the first main objective when writing the discussion chapter is to provide relevant background so that the reader has plenty of context when you begin your discussion of your study’s unique findings (Thompson, 2013). This means that this first main section of your discussion chapter should be a snap to write, as you’re really just drawing from your previous work in the dissertation to help reacquaint the reader with your topic.
Of course, university requirements vary in specifics, but in our experience providing dissertation assistance to clients at a wide variety of universities, we find that a restatement of the problem that motivated the study along with the purpose of the study typically kick off the discussion chapter. Some programs even specify a verbatim restatement of these sections, but at most you’ll simply need to grab the problem statement from your introduction chapter and slightly rephrase it. Be careful to stick closely to the meanings conveyed in the initial problem statement, and be sure to use the same key citations in supporting the problem.
After recapping the problem, restate the purpose of the study—usually verbatim—as presented in chapter 1 along with a brief statement of the aims or significance of the study. For example, you might say: “The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to understand how exclusionary discipline affects subsequent school performance by high school students. The overall aim of the study was to gain insights that might inform practice that better supports school performance among students who have experienced exclusionary discipline.” Do note that because you have collected your data and analyzed it—in this example, using qualitative analysis—your study is considered finished, and so you will need switch to past tense when referring to the study’s purpose, aims, or methods.
After refreshing the reader on the study’s problem, purpose, and aims, you’ll want to pull some excerpts from your methods chapter to provide a preface to the findings you will soon discuss. Be sure to restate the method (i.e., quantitative research, qualitative research , mixed methods) and research design along with a brief description of your participants and basic procedures. Many of our dissertation consulting clients make the mistake of including the same level of detail on these points as they provided in their methods chapters, but this is not necessary. And, do note that your chair will definitely catch on if you’re trying to copy/paste excessively from your methods in order to beef up the page count on your discussion chapter. So, just stick to the basics: participants, sampling strategy, and data collection methods.
In most cases, you’ll be asked to conclude this introduction section with a brief preview of the major findings (i.e., the results of your statistical analysis or qualitative analysis) of the study. But, save the in-depth details on your results for the next section, as this is where you’ll really get into depth on your study’s findings. For purposes of this introduction section, usually a paragraph or so will suffice. If you conducted qualitative analysis, just list the major themes that emerged from your data. If you completed a quantitative study, give a short overview of the variable relationships your statistical analysis revealed. An important reminder to keep in mind is that you never present new findings in the discussion chapter (Cals & Kotz, 2013); any results you present in this chapter should have been thoroughly outlined in your results chapter.
Interpreting Your Findings
After orienting the reader to your study’s overall context and aims in the previous section, it’s time to get into the “meat” of the discussion chapter, which is the interpretations section. Up to this point, your dissertation manuscript has worked to narrow in on the gap in the research literature that justified your study and to focus specifically on your research questions and findings as they relate to that gap. Now, however, it might help to think of this process in reverse. In this section, you put your specific findings back into the broader context of the relevant research literature, which allows you to make sense of your results and how they contribute to knowledge on your topic.
As you did in your results chapter, you’ll need to organize this section by research question, briefly recapping the findings for each. Many of our dissertation assistance clients overlook this requirement, but using headed sections to visually organize this section really does help the reader to understand how each research question’s answers fit within the larger literature on your topic. Research questions need to be stated in the exact same way as presented earlier in your dissertation, and your restatement of findings should require just a few sentences. In fact, Cals and Kotz (2013) suggested, “If you cannot present the main findings in three sentences, it may mean that you have forgotten the storyline of the paper (p. 1064). The main bulk of this section should be your discussion and interpretation of your findings, and so you want to strike a careful balance between presenting enough information about your findings to orient the reader and avoiding lengthy, verbatim restatements of your findings as presented in the results chapter.
If you conducted statistical analysis, you’ll need to make plain language statements about the relationships between variables that were found or not found. For example, let’s imagine that you examined the relationship between transformational leadership in first-line supervisors in skilled nursing facilities and retention of nursing assistants. If you found a statistically significant, positive relationship between these two variables, the discussion chapter rendering of this result would not require the same level detail as you provided in your results chapter (e.g., test statistic, p-value, etc.). You could simply state: “Data analysis revealed a significant, positive correlation between transformational leadership and retention, meaning that nursing assistants were more likely to stay in their positions when they worked for first-line supervisors who reported higher levels of transformational leadership.”
Similarly, if your study involved qualitative research and analysis, you would need to restate each theme with only a brief explanation of what each means. Although providing “thick description” of qualitative research findings by using rich details and participant quotes is excellent practice when writing a results chapter, you should be much more brief and to-the-point in your discussion chapter so that your interpretations of the findings are forefront. For example, a major theme might require a couple of pages to describe and support in a qualitative analysis results chapter; however, a discussion chapter recap might read: “The second major theme, ‘Supervisor provides positive example,’ reflected a common viewpoint among participants that when first-line supervisors behaved in ways that employees respected and wished to emulate, employees felt a sense of engagement with their jobs and daily tasks.”
Now that you have provided this brief restatement of your statistical analysis results or qualitative thematic findings, you will connect your specific findings with the broader literature that provided the foundation for your study. Pemberton (2012) recommends rereading your literature review before writing this section, which is an excellent idea because it has likely been some time since you wrote the chapter. It will definitely help you to have refresh your memory of the pertinent research on your dissertation topic as you interpret your own findings. To interpret your findings, you will compare and contrast them with the research discussed in the literature review chapter, making sure to cite specific studies that are relevant to each particular finding (Thompson, 2013). Note any similarities between your findings and those of previous researchers, using a topical sentence to explain the similarity and follow-up sentences to provide specifics. In our dissertation consulting experience, we find that it is very common for our clients to race through this section, barely skimming the surface of the research literature as it relates to their results.
If you are unsure of the depth required in this section, it may help you to note that to interpret your findings thoroughly, you should be citing from 20 to 25 sources from your literature review over the course of this section. Example: “Theme 2 was consistent with findings in the literature. For example, Smith (2018) found that the inspirational motivation dimension of transformational leadership was positively correlated with employee engagement in a study involving hospital staff. Participants in the current study similarly described feeling more engaged when working under a supervisor they viewed as a role model.”
If your qualitative analysis or statistical analysis reveals any unique or divergent findings, you will definitely need to note this as well. In discussing these findings, showcase any unique contributions to the literature and also make an attempt to explain any discrepancies (Cals & Kotz, 2013). Example: “This result differed from previous findings that established no significant relationship between transformational leadership and nursing assistant retention (e.g.,Brunstad, 2019; Juarez, 2017). However, this study used a much larger sample than prior studies, possibly facilitating detection of a significant relationship more effectively.”
Sometimes our dissertation assistance clients worry that unexpected or counterintuitive findings might mar the quality of their dissertations. But, it does truly help to be transparent in such cases. If there were findings that were unexpected, state that openly, as such honesty is actually strengthens your work (Cals & Kotz, 2013). For example, if your results did not align with your stated hypotheses or contradicted the theoretical framework, acknowledge the divergence and then attempt to explain why this happened.
Discussing the Implications of Your Findings
We work with many of our dissertation consulting clients right from the beginning, when they are developing their topics and envisioning the change they can bring with their studies. The implications section of the discussion chapter is where you at last get to discuss how your dissertation might have an impact in the real world. It may help to go back to your significance section (usually found in chapter 1) to remind yourself of your original thoughts on this question when you were planning your dissertation (Pemberton, 2012).
As you discuss the real-world applications of your research findings, make sure you are clear about “what ways and to whom [your] findings matter and why” (Pemberton, 2012, p. 86). In the course of our dissertation consulting with clients, we find that overstating the findings is a very common mistake. So, work on staying within the confines of what you found and avoiding exaggeration of the applicability or usefulness of your findings. It is also important to focus your discussion of implications on real-world contexts that are relevant given your field of study.
For example, let’s imagine that you conducted qualitative research into communication strategies that are useful for elementary school teachers when working with students with social- emotional learning disabilities (SELD). Through qualitative analysis of your interviews with teachers, you identified several themes related to effective and non-effective communication approaches for these students. Because these findings apply specifically to elementary school settings, you would want to focus on ways that these findings might be applied in such settings: policy, practice, interventions, professional development, etc. It is important to specify parties your dissertation findings might help: teachers, counselors, students with SELD and their classmates, etc. Although it might be exciting to imagine that your findings regarding communication strategies and challenging behavior might be useful for political or business arenas, you really need to stay close to your core population and setting when writing the implications.
Additionally, draw specific information from your qualitative analysis themes to clarify how such communication approaches might be of benefit, such as with classroom management, reducing office referrals, or improving task engagement and performance for students with SELD. After completing the enormous feat your dissertation represents, it is understandable that you might feel so inspired that you imagine that these communication strategies might help students with SELD far into their futures (e.g., with job placement, relationships, mental health), and maybe they will! But such long-term, broader life outcomes are beyond the scope of your dissertation’s specific findings regarding classroom communication; therefore, they do not belong in your implications section.
Any experienced dissertation editor will tell you that another way of inappropriately overstating the implications of your findings is through your language choices. Our dissertation assistance clients are often unaware of the nuances conveyed by language in their studies until they begin editing to address their committees’ review comments. For example, the word “prove” is always problematic (e.g., “these results prove that…”) because it implies a conclusive finding. No matter how compelling your findings might be, you must be more tentative in your reporting by choosing words such as “indicate” (e.g.,these results indicate that…”) or “suggest.”
Similarly, when discussing the potential implications of your findings, avoid words such as “will” (e.g., “these findings will lead to improvement in…”) that convey certainty about how your dissertation’s results will help those within your field of study or practice. Use language that conveys the tentative nature of research findings and their potential for social change (Cals & Kotz, 2013). You can state the implications more tentatively by using words such as “might” (e.g., “these findings might to lead to improvement in…”) and “may.”
Acknowledging the Limitations of Your Study
Toward the end of your discussion chapter, you will always be called upon to acknowledge the limitations of your study and discuss how these affected your findings and what you can conclude from them. It might help to keep in mind that all studies—not just dissertations—have limitations and that, just because a study has limitations, this does not mean that it was a “bad study.” In other words, the point of the limitations section is not to totally trash your dissertation and its contributions to knowledge; it is simply to recognize aspects of the research topic that your study could not address.
If this seems like déjà vu, this is because acknowledging the possible limitations to your study was something you already covered in your introduction or methods chapter. Because you can only examine so much in a single study, you were forced to make choices to delimit your study in terms of specific phenomena or variables to examine, method, population, sampling strategy, data type(s), and analysis plan. These are the foreseeable areas that might create limitations to your study, but there are also unexpected limitations that you might run into as you move into data collection and analysis that you will need to acknowledge. For example, our statistical consulting often involves assisting clients to conduct a power analysis to determine optimal sample size. If your recruitment efforts yielded far fewer participants than hoped for based on your power analysis, do acknowledge this as a limitation of your study.
Common limitations for dissertation research stem from issues related to sample size or representativeness. For example, there are often limits to generalizability resulting from use of a small, non-representative sample, as when using a purposive sampling or convenience sampling strategy. Your choices regarding methods will lead to certain limitations as well. When using qualitative research methods, you will want to acknowledge that your findings cannot provide evidence of any type of statistical relationship between variables. And, no matter how solid your statistical analysis, quantitative methods have limitations as well, such as the inability to demonstrate any type of causal relationship between variables in a correlational study.
You may be able to offer mitigating statements regarding limitations by mentioning a particular strength (Cals & Kotz, 2013). For example, although generalizability cannot be assumed in qualitative analysis, you might mention that your provision of thick description of the data allows readers to assess transferability to their own settings. But, the bottom line is it is normal and expected for there to be limitations and that these actually set up your discussion of recommendations for future research, which we’ll discuss in the next section.
Developing Recommendations for Future Research
Because no single study can answer all questions about any given phenomenon, there is always the need for further research to clarify areas that your study was not able to address. Use your collection of limitations from the last section to develop a list of specific recommendations for future studies, explaining or justifying why such studies are important given your findings (Thompson, 2013). Think about how different research questions, methods, samples, or theoretical frameworks might help to fill out understanding of the topic you examined in your dissertation.
Let’s imagine that your dissertation used qualitative analysis to explore stigma and stress management among formerly incarcerated men who have returned to work, and you found that several participants reported use of mindfulness meditation to help manage stress. This might then prompt you to recommend a quantitative study that would use statistical analysis to examine the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation on stress reduction. You might also recommend an intervention study that would allow for comparison of stress management techniques against each other or a control group.
You might also recommend a change of population; specifically, you might explore how women who have returned to work after incarceration manage stigma and stress to see if any gender differences are apparent. It might also help to re-examine your dissertation topic in the context of different types of workplaces and industries to see if there are variations according to type of job. As long as you remain within the realm of your initial topic—formerly incarcerated men and management of stigma/stress upon return to work—you may suggest any number of new directions to build upon your study’s findings.
Concluding Your Discussion Chapter
The finishing touch to your discussion chapter—and to your dissertation in total—is a brief conclusion section. Most program guidelines require that you keep this section pretty short, usually limiting you to about a page or a page and a half. Sometimes writers attempt to pad the conclusion section to boost the page count of the chapter if they run short, but trust us, reviewers know this trick and will call you on it. If you get to the conclusion section and find that you are short of your program’s requirements (most require 12 to 15 pages), it is likely that you skipped too quickly through your interpretations section and need to add more depth, detail, and source comparisons.
For purposes of your conclusion, however, you’ll want to stick to the high points of the study, briefly touching on each of the chapter’s sections. Give due space to your key findings and their implications, keeping in mind that no new information should be presented in the conclusion. Many programs require a formal statement that the discussion chapter concludes the dissertation, which at this point should just require editing and formatting to finalize. If any of these points trips you up, remember that we’re always here to help. Best of luck!
References
Cals, J. W., & Kotz, D. (2013). Effective writing and publishing scientific papers, part VI:
Discussion. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 66(10), 1064.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2013.04.017
Pemberton, C. L. A. (2012). A “how-to” guide for the education thesis/dissertation
process. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 48(2), 82-86.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00228958.2012.680378
Thompson, P. (2013). Thesis and dissertation writing. In B. Paltridge & S. Starfield (Eds.),
The handbook of English for specific purposes (pp. 200-283). Wiley.