✍️ Discussing Findings

Here's some ✏️ tips on discussing findings from Academic Phrasebank.

The term ‘discussion’ has a variety of meanings in English. In academic writing, however, it usually refers to two types of activity: a) considering both sides of an issue, or question before reaching a conclusion; b) considering the results of research and the implications of these. Discussion sections in dissertations and research articles are probably the most complex sections in terms of their elements. They normally centre around a 'statement of result' or an important 'finding'. As there is usually more than one result, discussion sections are often structured into a series of discussion cycles. The most common elements in these cycles, and some of the language that is typically associated with them, are listed below. Note that when offering explanations and suggesting implications the language used is very tentative or cautious (refer to the section entitled Expressing Caution).

Here are a few examples (more examples can be found in the Academic Phrasebank)

Providing background information: reference to the literature

• A number of recent studies …
• Several reports have shown that …
• As mentioned in the literature review, ...
• Prior studies that have noted the importance of ...
• Very little was found in the literature on the question of ...

Providing background information: reference to the purpose of the study

• One of the aims of this study was to …
• The third question in this research was ...
• An initial objective of the project was to identify ...
• This study set out to assess the importance of X in ...
• The first question in this study sought to determine ...

Restating the result or one of several results

• This study found that …
• One interesting finding is ...
• The current study found that ...
• Another important finding is that ...
• The most important result was that ...

🔍Want to see some examples? Go to the Learner Support Page and Check the Academic Phrasebank resource under Academic Writing. Check Pages 64 - 70.

Reference