Writing results

After gathering and analyzing your data, next is penning the results. You report the primary findings of your study in this section. The most critical issue is that reporting your results must be concise and pursue a logical order. Using tables and graphs helps depict specific findings you have discovered. What is risky is including subjective interpretations of your findings or what they imply. Thus, your assessment should come later in the discussion section.

When should you write the “results” chapter?

Although it depends on your field of study, you may not have a separate results chapter. Some qualitative research may have the results incorporated into the discussion. However, reporting the results before elaborating on their meaning is critical should you conduct empirical research. Then, the reader can have an explicit idea of what you found, allowing you to keep the data separate instead of your interpretation.

Concerning the tense use, the results should be in the past tense. The amount of data gathered and analyzed will determine this chapter’s length. Nevertheless, you should write this part as concisely as possible. Thus, only relevant results addressing your research questions must be in this section.

How can editing and proofreading polish the results section in your thesis and dissertation?

Editing and proofreading your results section is heavily relevant. A professional editing and proofreading service with trained and experienced experts with Ph.D. in their fields will edit your results by paying great attention to detail. Their suggestions will ensure that you have a flowing and concise “results” section.

Quantitative research results

You must deal with statistical analysis results when you conduct quantitative research. Reporting descriptive statistics, including means, proportions, and the variability of your data, is appropriate. You must also report statistical test results employed to contrast groups or evaluate the relationship between variables. Irrespective of the case, you must depict whether you support or refute your hypotheses. Therefore, the most reasonable way to design quantitative results includes establishing them around your research questions or hypotheses. You must present the procedures, such as ANOVA, t-test, and regression for each question or hypothesis, with a detailed description in the methods section. Moreover, this section contains a summary of descriptive statistics such as means and standard deviations and inferential ones such as t-scores, degrees of freedom, and p-values. It may also help include a statement on how the results relate and whether the hypotheses are supported.

Please do not ignore that the way you report your statistics also depends on the style guide you pursue. For instance, APA 7 has specific rules for registering your statistical results. Should you be unsure, read the results sections of other papers to understand better what you should include. You must ensure that you have reported both positive and negative results. Suppose you have results not meeting your expectations and assumptions. Still, you must include them without speculating on their meaning and ramifications. The usual place for comments and consequences is either discussion or conclusion section. Presenting raw data in your results chapter is inappropriate. If needed, cover them in Appendix.

Qualitative research results

The results may not relate to specific hypotheses in qualitative research. Hence, it would be best if you structured your results section around critical themes or topics from your data analysis. Each theme requires general observations about the data depicted. For instance, recurring points of agreement or disagreement, patterns and trends, and individual responses to your research question may be the most relevant. Direct quotations help clarify these points and disclose relevant demographic information about participants.

Tables and figures

Visual elements such as graphs, charts, and tables in quantitative research are beneficial if they mirror your results and offer value for the reader.

• Tables communicate precise values, providing a brief synopsis of your results.

• Graphs and charts depict trends and relationships, illustrating the most critical parts of your findings.

Referring to all tables and figures in the text is necessary. However, you must not repeat information. The text should epitomize or accentuate particular aspects of your tables and figures. Thus, it should be beyond not just re-stating the exact numbers you have already covered. More importantly, it would be best to give clear, descriptive titles and labels to your tables and figures. Only then can the reader readily comprehend what is illustrated.

Contrasting results, discussion, and conclusion

The results chapter must report the findings with brief observations concerning each question, hypothesis, or theme. Their usual place is the discussion section, where you are expected to interpret the results in detail and suggest their implications. Addressing the main research question or elaborating on the meaning of the results is inappropriate. It would be best if you avoided subjective and interpretive words, such as “appears,” “tends to,” or “implies.”

The “Conclusion” section allows you to present your interpretation of the results to address your main research question. Although the conclusion is sometimes combined with the discussion, it usually is a separate chapter at the very end.

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This article explains how to report a research results in a dissertation and thesis.  To give you an opportunity to practice proofreading, we have left a few spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors in the text. See if you can spot them! If you spot the errors correctly, you will be entitled to a 10% discount.