How to write further research section

The results of your particular research paper should be organized with more than just a description of what those results are. The section should also include information on the future research that you wish to plan for any purpose. You should talk about suggestions that you might have for future projects regardless of whether they are ones that you or another entity will produce.

Talk About Research Gaps

To start, you could talk about any research gaps that you had and how they might have impacted your findings. Sometimes you might not have access to certain forms of research or other ideas that could be useful for your study. You can write in your recommendations about future plans that you might hold based on what studies could be carried out in the future or any variables that might be difficult to acquire or utilize.

Build Upon Certain Findings

The next point could be to build upon what you have found. You might notice one part of your results that is very interesting and fascinating. You could build upon those findings by talking about how those results could be explored in detail based on new research opportunities that have come about.

Expand Frameworks

Your framework or model for research could be analyzed quite well. You can ask to have an additional amount of research performed by adding new variables or other special measurements that might be of value to you. Anything that is relevant or sensible for research purposes is always worth considering so you will find ways to make research more useful down the line.

Review New Contexts

Sometimes the results that you come across could be reviewed in a new context. That is, you might ask to have a particular topic analyzed based on outside factors that might come about in the future or how a certain subject could be influenced by alternative variables. You must think about as many new contextual points as possible while also being realistic as to whether or not they could be reviewed at some point in the future.

Some of the contextual points could entail aspects relating to a cultural plan or to a certain location. Whatever the case is, you have to write a smart context based on what you understand so it will be easier for a project to be reevaluated over time.

You have to think about how you’re going to expand upon the research in your project to make it stand out. Be certain when writing that you are fully aware of how your research is going to be managed in a sensible way. This is to make your report more sensible over time as it helps to expand upon your topic.

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

NoteThere is often overlap between your discussion and conclusion section, but these are usually separate sections. However, in some cases, these two sections are combined.

If you’re unsure about your field’s best practices, check out sample dissertations in your field or your departmental guidelines.

Table of contents

What not to include in your discussion section

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.

Step 1: Summarize your key findings

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.

Examples: Summarization sentence starters

• The results indicate that…
• The study demonstrates a correlation between…
• This analysis supports the theory that…
• The data suggest that…

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Step 2: Give your interpretations

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.

Examples: Interpretation sentence starters

• 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.

Step 3: Discuss the implications

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.

Examples: Implication sentence starters

• 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.

Step 4: Acknowledge the limitations

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.

NoteYou should only mention limitations that are directly relevant to your research objectives. Then, share how much impact they had on achieving the aims of your research.

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.

Examples: Limitation sentence starters

• 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…

Step 5: Share your recommendations

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.

Examples: Recommendation sentence starters

• Further research is needed to establish…
• Future studies should take into account…
• Avenues for future research include…

Discussion section example

Here is an example of how you can introduce your discussion section. Note that it includes everything mentioned above: notably research outcomes, limitations, interpretations, and avenues for future research.

Frequently asked questions about discussion sections

What goes in the discussion chapter of a dissertation?

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 limitations: what can’t the results tell us?

What’s the difference between results and discussion?

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.

What’s the difference between the discussion and the conclusion?

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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What should I write in further research?

These include: [1] building on a particular finding in your research; [2] addressing a flaw in your research; examining [or testing] a theory [framework or model] either [3] for the first time or [4] in a new context, location and/or culture; [5] re-evaluating and [6] expanding a theory [framework or model].

What is further study in research?

Further Studies means and shall include academic study involving masters or doctorate degree. Sample 1.

What are the five 5 sections of a research study?

Nearly all journal articles are divided into the following major sections: abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, and references. Usually the sections are labeled as such, although often the introduction [and sometimes the abstract] is not labeled.