WRITING YOUR

DISCUSSION

ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC WRITING

By the end of this lecture, you should be
able to:
• identify different approaches to writing the
discussion
• use appropriate language to construct the
discussion section
 3

DISCUSSION SECTION
• The discussion section is a chance for the
researcher to verbalize her findings and what
those findings mean to the subject matter of the
experiment.
• Writing the discussion is not difficult, provided
you have guidelines and the body of your paper
and research is well organized.
• The discussion section of an empirical research
paper is your opportunity to conclude the
research and help the reader interpret the
results of your research.
 4

DISCUSSION SECTION
• The discussion section is essentially written for
the sake of explaining your findings
• In very simple terms, what you did to answer the
research questions and why you did it that way
• It explains the results of your study, and connects
the results to each research question.
 5

APPROACHES TO WRITING YOUR

DISCUSSION SECTION
1) Explain your findings
2) Compare the findings
3) Evaluate the findings
4) Infer from the findings
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APPROACH 1:
EXPLAIN YOUR FINDINGS
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APPROACH 1:
EXPLAIN YOUR FINDINGS
a) give reasons for the findings
Example 1 :
Based on the statistical analysis, the
results show that some of the school
teachers have integrated well within the
community in which they were residing.
The percentage, however, is not high and
this could be attributed to the fact that
most of them were female. They were
already occupied with their job and
household duties which did not allow
them to be active in community services.
 8

APPROACH 1:
EXPLAIN YOUR FINDINGS
a) give reasons for the findings
Example 2 :
Based on the Figure 3, the results clearly show that
most of the students who took part of the survey
preferred the pre-paid plan. Only a small fraction of the
students used the post-paid plan as opposed to those
who used the pre-paid plan. The results were anticipated
as the respondents were all students, and the pre-paid
plan seemed to be the most suitable plan to cater for the
needs of the students as they paid for what they used
only. While there were a handful of students from wealthy
families, the majority of the students simply could not
afford the post-paid plan.
 9

APPROACH 1:
EXPLAIN YOUR FINDINGS
b) explain the scenario or circumstances during
the data collection period or at the time of
experiment which might have some influences
on the results of the research
Example 1 :
Based on the statistical analysis, the
results revealed that most of the students
were receptive to the idea of using Arabic
vocabulary in their English classes. This
is not surprising considering the
institution is an Islamic institution.
 10

APPROACH 1:
EXPLAIN YOUR FINDINGS
b) explain the scenario or circumstances during
the data collection period or at the time of
experiment which might have some influences
on the results of the research
Example 2:
There are several factors that make phone
calls not so popular among students. The most
obvious factor was financial restraint. Students
generally lived on the shoestring budget and
could not afford the luxury of spending too
much on making calls. These factors helped
make SMS the most popular means of
communicating.
 11

APPROACH 1:
EXPLAIN YOUR FINDINGS
c) explain the results based on the limitations or
constraints of the research during the data
collection period.
Example 1 :
The results from the study only indicated the
language errors made by students in the final
examination. Since the error analysis indicated
were only taken from the postgraduate students,
the findings cannot represent all the university
students’ performance. Due to the time
constraint, errors from the undergraduate
students were excluded as there was a big
number of students involved.
 12

APPROACH 1:
EXPLAIN YOUR FINDINGS
c) explain the results based on the limitations or
constraints of the research during the data
collection period.
Example 2 :
One of the most popular peripheral services
through the cell phone was to get sports results.
this was highly anticipated as students usually
followed sports events on regular basis,
especially the Malaysia Premier League. Since
the majority of the respondents were female
students, the findings of the research did not
show any significant result in the use of this
peripheral service for sports.
 13

APPROACH 2:
COMPARE THE FINDINGS
 14

APPROACH 2:
COMPARE THE FINDINGS
a) compare the findings of the research with the
findings of other research within the same fields
(discussed in the literature review section)
Example :
It can be summarized that SMS was the most
popular means of communication among
students of higher learning institutions. This
trend was very much expected as students live
on a strict budget. This was similar to the
findings of another study conducted by Lim et
al. (2002) at University Telekom Malaysia which
found that SMS was the primary reason why
students owned a handset.
 15

APPROACH 2:
COMPARE THE FINDINGS
b) compare and relate the different findings of the
research to highlight certain results as significant

Example 1 :
A significant number of students were found
to have part-time jobs during the semester. This
may explain the high percentage of absenteeism
among them. The demographic profile of the
students involved also showed that they are non-
sponsored student, some even have families to
support. Therefore, it is very likely that there exist
a relationship between financial status and
students performance.
 16

APPROACH 2:
COMPARE THE FINDINGS
b) compare and relate the different findings of the
research to highlight certain results as significant
Example 2 :
Cell phone call rates are based on the location of the
caller and the location where the destination number was
registered. Since the student population came from
different parts of the country, making long distance calls to
family members back in the respective states could be very
expensive for students. Therefore, the number of calls made
by the students to the family members compared to the
SMS was relatively small. This shows that financial
limitation was a significant factor in the lives of students in
the higher learning institution.
 17

APPROACH 3:
EVALUATE THE FINDINGS
 18

APPROACH 3:
EVALUATE THE FINDINGS
a) provide assessment of the findings
Example 1 :
The findings suggest that there is a mismatch
between the written literacy demands of the job
market and the level of proficiency of applicants
who were university graduates. This claim
seemed to have found its basis only for local
companies. However, there was no way of
verifying this claim for the international
companies as there were no previous studies
conducted on them. As such, the feedback from
these companies is still needed to produce a
more substantive finding.
 19

APPROACH 3:
EVALUATE THE FINDINGS
a) provide assessment of the findings
Example 2 :
Better coverage of certain service providers means
that service is available over a wider coverage. One of the
service providers claimed that its cellular network offered
a more stable and wider coverage in most parts of
Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak compared to
other service providers. This claim seemed to have found
credibility among the students in most institutions of
higher learning. However, there was no way of verifying
this claim as their had been no studies conducted on the
network coverage of all service providers in the country.
As such, the responses by the students on the better
coverage of one service provider seemed to be on
hearsay.
 20

APPROACH 2:
EVALUATE THE FINDINGS
b) decide if the results is negative or positive,
successful or otherwise.
Example :
From the data collected, there is no doubt that
the engineering students generally had positive
experiences with Problem Based Learning (PBL)
as they worked together on the their project in
groups. Students acquired self-directed learning
as they worked together in finding a solution to
a problem which mirrors the real world.
Through feedback from peers, students also
learnt to express their ideas and share tasks
assigned to them.
 21

APPROACH 4:
INFER FROM THE FINDINGS
 22

APPROACH 4:
INFER THE FINDINGS
a) develop your own viewpoint and ideas based on the
facts and results

Example :
The finding suggested that traffic information was
the least attractive peripheral service provided by
the hand phone service provider among the
respondents. This was expected as the university
was situated far from the busy metropolitan area.
Apart from that, many of the students lived on the
campus and did not need traffic information to travel
to their classes. As such, traffic information may not
be useful to them.
.
 23

APPROACH 4:
INFER THE FINDINGS
b) make sense of findings
Example :
Comparing reactors where yeast extract and
glucose were added, it was observed that the
gradients of the graphs for variation in nitrate
concentration in these reactors are all very
close and similar to that of the control reactor.
Thus, it can be deduced that at the beginning of
the experiment the biomass were utilizing the
naturally occurring readily biodegradable
substrate as the electron donor for
denitrification.
 24

APPROACH 4:
INFER THE FINDINGS
c) do not leave findings in the statistical form as
no one would be able to understand what the
numbers mean

Example :
The finding suggested one quarter of the
those surveyed were doing some form of part-
time jobs. 98% of those who responded are
postgraduate students who have families.
 25

APPROACH 4:
INFER THE FINDINGS
d) be creative and do not be afraid to speculate

Example :
The statistical analysis has shown that more
and more female students are selected for the
dean’s list. The numbers show that even in the
Faculty of Engineering, the ladies are outdoing
the male students in terms of examination
results and performance in the industrial
training. Perhaps in the future, the ladies will be
more in demand in the industry than their male
counterpart. It would probably be difficult for
male engineers to find a job.
 26

COMMON ERRORS IN DISCUSSION

1) Don’t substitute a summary for discussion
• Summary is the purpose of an abstract
• A discussion is not a superficial
intepreretation of your results
• You should refer to the data in a general
way but avoid giving the data again
• Do not simply reformulate and repeat
points already made as each new
statement should contribute to your
position and to the readers’
understanding of the problem
 27

COMMON ERRORS IN DISCUSSION

2) Don’t simply justify the research by claiming
it has practical application
• Research is justified by what it allows us
to understand.
• When we understand relations between
variables, then we can make practical
applications
• Do not feel compelled to say how your
research applies
 28

COMMON ERRORS IN DISCUSSION

3) Don’t make a discussion out of all the little
things that went wrong in your study
• The discussion should not be apologetic
• Your work will not be valued simply because
you admit, apologize and explain for all the
lists of failures
• Don’t discuss what might have happened if
the there had not been any error
• Accept the fact that our research is not
perfect and proceed to the analysis and
discussion
 29

COMMON ERRORS IN DISCUSSION

4) Don’t fill up space by listing topics for future
research
• Resist the temptation of listing down
questions for future research
• Lists are normally impulsively generated but
seldom meet the criteria discussion
• Unless you feel that the present research
needs a new direction and provide a
genuine insight with careful thought
• Don’t simply try to fill in the empty space
 30

SUGGESTED STEPS IN DISCUSSION

 31

COMMON WORDS USED IN DISCUSSION

 32

COMMON WORDS USED IN DISCUSSION

 33

LANGUAGE EXPRESSIONS THAT

CAN BE USED IN YOUR DISCUSSION

A. BACKGROUND INFORMATION

•As mentioned in the literature review…

.
•Prior studies showed that students….

•Other research in…....concluded that….

•This study set out with the aim of assessing the

importance of…

•Very little was found in the literature on the question of…

 34

LANGUAGE EXPRESSIONS THAT

CAN BE USED IN YOUR DISCUSSION
B. EXPLANATION OF RESULTS

• This result may be explained by …/a number of

different factors
• It may be that these students benefited from…
• There are several possible explanations for this
result.
• A possible explanation for this might be …
• Another possible explanation for this is that…

.
 35

LANGUAGE EXPRESSIONS THAT

CAN BE USED IN YOUR DISCUSSION
B. EXPLANATION OF RESULTS (continuation)
• It is difficult to explain this result, but it might be
related to…
• It seems possible that these results are due to..
• The reason for this is not clear but it may due to
….
• This inconsistency/discrepancy may due to….
• There are, however, other possible
explanations. .
 36

LANGUAGE EXPRESSIONS THAT

CAN BE USED IN YOUR DISCUSSION

C. REFERENCE TO PREVIOUS RESEARCH

(Positive/Support)
•This result of this study seems to confirm the
findings of a study by Nuraihan (2004) in this
field. .
•These findings of this research are consistent
with those of Jacob et al. (2001) who found…
•These findings supported the previous
research….
•These findings confirmed the result of other
research that…
 37

LANGUAGE EXPRESSIONS THAT

CAN BE USED IN YOUR DISCUSSION

C. REFERENCE TO PREVIOUS RESEARCH

(Positive/Support)
•These findings agree with Isarji’s (2002) findings which
showed…
.
•There are similarities between the attitudes expressed
by….
•This study corroborates the earlier findings about…
•These results are consistent with those of the other
studies which found…
•The present findings seem to be consistent with other
research that…
 38

LANGUAGE EXPRESSIONS THAT

CAN BE USED IN YOUR DISCUSSION
C. REFERENCE TO PREVIOUS RESEARCH
(Negative/Contradict)
• These findings did not support previous research …
• The present findings did not seem to be consistent with
other research that…
• In contrast to earlier findings, however, no evidence of…
was discovered.
• This study has been unable to demonstrate that…
• However, the findings of the current study do not support
the study conducted by Param (1998).
• However, this result has not been previously described in
other studies.
.
 39

LANGUAGE EXPRESSIONS THAT

CAN BE USED IN YOUR DISCUSSION
D. SUGGESTING GENERAL HYPOTHESES AND
IMPLICATIONS

• These findings suggest that…

• The findings show that there exists a weak link
between…
• It is possible that…
• It is therefore likely that such connections exist
between…
• It can thus be suggested that…

.
 40

LANGUAGE EXPRESSIONS THAT

CAN BE USED IN YOUR DISCUSSION
D. SUGGESTING GENERAL HYPOTHESES AND
IMPLICATIONS (continuation)

• It is possible to hypothesize that these

conditions are less likely to occur in…
• From the above discussion, it can be
concluded that…
• It can therefore be assumed that the…
• The findings of this study suggest that…

.
 41

LANGUAGE EXPRESSIONS THAT

CAN BE USED IN YOUR DISCUSSION
D. SUGGESTING GENERAL HYPOTHESES AND
IMPLICATIONS (continuation)

• It is possible to hypothesize that these

conditions are less likely to occur in…
• From the above discussion, it can be
concluded that…
• It can therefore be assumed that the…
• The findings of this study suggest that…

.
 REFERENCE:
Norazman Abdul Majid, Masdinah Alauyah Md. Yusoff, Tina Abdullah,
Sahirah Marzuki, Zanariah Md. Salleh, Faruk Muhammad, Siti Aishah
Abd Hamid & Rohayah Kahar. (2007). Academic report writing : from
research to presentation (2nd edition). Malaysia: Prentice Hall

THE END