Academic Writing Guide

What is the purpose of the discussion section?

The purpose of the discussion section is to analyze the data listed in your results section. This is the designated section for identifying why you think correlations occurred. This is your chance to hypothesize why things occurred, and how this particular paper moves this field of research forward.  The discussion section is where your hypotheses come together to communicate to the reader why this project was important to the field. 

This is the most important section for a few reasons:

• You can demonstrate to the reader you can go through the entire research process with steps that include:
  • Identifying a research problem
  • Creating a hypothesis
  • Designing and implementing a research study
  • Analyzing the results
• Reinforce the importance of your research to the reader by highlighting how your project specifically fills gap in existing research. 
• Identify new gaps in the literature, demonstrating areas for future research. 

Discussion Section Checklist 

The following is a checklist of items to keep in mind when designing your discussion section.

• Remind the reader of the research problem 
  • Often the discussion section is connected to introduction. Think of the introduction like the start of a journey, while the discussion section is the destination. In other words, the discussion section is what we have been working to since the beginning of your paper. This is where you can make your impact on the current research.
• Re-State Your Findings with Explanation
  • Remember the discussion section is the place to dive into your findings to make connections and correlations between them. Remember to re-state important findings without re-writing your Results Section. 
• Connect your findings to existing research
  • The goal of your study should be to add to and impact the current body of research. You want to demonstrate to the reader that your research makes an impact by filling in the gaps found in past research. In other words you want to demonstrate that your study helps to move the field of research forward. 
• Identify multiple explanations for findings
  • The point of research is not to prove, but rather discover. You proceed with the study to see what the data demonstrates, and not just what you want to see. Many times researchers do a study thinking they will find one thing, and an alternate finding appears changing their view of the research. These unexpected findings often open up new areas of research that change the course of the body of research itself. Providing multiple findings also gives the reader a fuller picture of the study as a whole, avoiding bias. 
• Acknowledge Study Limitations
  • One other important piece of your analysis is acknowledging study limitations. The reader's job is to analyze, and make their own assumptions about your study. One of the things they might look for is the limitations in your study through analysis of your methodology. Discussing possible limitations gives you the author a chance to explain why they exist, while defending your choices. 
• Acknowledge gaps of research, and suggest new possible research
  • One of the reasons people enjoy doing research is there are always new ideas to explore, and is never boring. Findings from one study will inspire another one, and that study will inspire another creating a chain reaction. One of the ways you can add to your particular research field is to identify gaps in your study, and brainstorm new studies to fill those gaps.