Patryk Kasprzak

Engage & Reflect

in Enquiry
Findings, analysis and discussion
Chapter 4
Academic Language Skills
in Dissertation
 session aims:

• How to structure the findings, analysis & discussion section(s)?

• What is language of analysis & discussion?

 can be combined
into one chapter
in qualitative studies
in Enquiry

This is chapter 4
in Dissertation
What’s the purpose of the ‘Findings, Analysis & Discussion’
sections?
How does it relate
Synthesis to other research?

Bloom’s taxonomy
Discussion
What can we learn
Analysis from that data?

Reporting
of
findings Description What data did you get?
 Options for structure
‘blocking’
all the findings/results are presented first, followed by analysis and discussion.
result 1 → result 2 → result 3
comment 1 → comment 2 → comment 3

‘chaining’
1) a finding/result (a trend, a tendency, a feature) →
→ 2) analysis (what the result means; what does it tell us?)
→ 3) discussion (how does it relate to what you have established in the lit. review)

Chaining maintains a closer connection between each result and its associated comment, while
blocking allows more in-depth analysis.
Example of blocking (Dissertation)
Example of chaining (Dissertation)
Enquiry Chapter 2
Engage: Findings Example of blocking (quants.)
Enquiry Chapter 2
Engage: Findings
Enquiry Chapter 2
Engage: Findings Introduction:

- What’s the aim of the chapter?

- What’s your investigation?
- What’s the structure of the chapter?

Results:

- Result for hypothesis one

- Which test was used
- What the outcome of the test indicated
Secondary research example (Dissertation)
Secondary research example (Dissertation) Introduction:

- What’s the aim of the chapter?

- What’s your investigation?
- Overview of the content
 Statements indicating
acceptance or rejection of hypotheses
 Results
• Break it up into sections by hypotheses or themes or statistical tests undertaken

• Use figures (tables, charts etc.) as appropriate

• Make sure each figure is numbered, labelled and referred to in a clear manner

table
table table

etc…
text text text
 Results
from a table

described
&
analysed
 Results
from a table

described
&
analysed

Similarity /
contrast
highlighted

Evidence of
critical
thinking
 Analysis
= language of explanation
?
• X & Y could be seen as a positive factor, as…
• This is because…
• This indicates / implies that… / This means that …
• An interesting concept emerged as…
Your critical thinking.
• The results were surprising as …
Your interpretation
• This could be attributed to …
of results.
• … could be a cause for this relationship
• These responses showed a clear tendency for…
• A clear pattern emerged … ; therefore, it can be concluded that…
Chaining structure example

(Enquiry; quals research)

Chapter introduction

s o f o n -
e c tiv e nes c t o f
e th e e ff e im p a
x p lo r a nd t h
To e r a c tic e s,
o a rd i n gp ti o ns
b rga n is a
e o n o
thes
 Chapter introduction
WHAT - combination of chapters Engage and
Reflect

HOW - thematic analysis

WHY - link back to the literature review & the main

research aim

s o f o n -
e c tiv e nes c t o f
e th e e ff e im p a
x p lo r a nd t h
To e r a c tic e s,
o a rd i n gp ti o ns
b rga n is a
e o n o
thes
Chapter ‘body’

Example of chaining
(findings, analysis + discussion in quals. research)

• results (themes, sub-themes) presented

• material from the interviews quoted
• analytical comments
• & comparison with literature

To explore the effectiveness of on-boarding practices, and the impact of these on organisations
 What is the role ‘analysis & discussion’?

• explaining and/or speculating as to why your results may be ‘such and

such.’

• evaluating your findings in relation to your hypotheses / research question

• comparing & contrasting your results with other studies (the Literature
Review chapter)
 TASK
In the extract, highlight the evidence of ‘analysis’ and ‘discussion’

To investigate the possible challenges managers face when trying

to implement cross-selling within a divisional organization.
 Discussion of findings:

Enquiry example

(separate Reflect section; quants research)

 Introduction:
- What’s the aim of the chapter?
- What’s your investigation?
- What’s the structure of the chapter?

Pointing to
limitations
of one’s
study

Reference
to Enquiry
Report 1
& the gap
in literature
 Discussion of findings:

Dissertation

(secondary research example)

 Language of analysis & discussion
ANALYSIS (critical thinking)
• This is because…
• …which means…
• …which shows…
• …which is interesting because…
• However, it is worth noting that…
• It can be speculated that…
• It can therefore be argued that…
• The difference in results could be due to
…
• This suggests that…
DISCUSSION
• This disagrees with X and Y’s (2012) research…
• Contrary to X and Y’s (2014) claim,
• This contradicts the argument of …
• This supports the stance put forward by…
• This is consistent with …
• This can be linked to …
• X & Y (2013) offer the explanation that…
• …as suggested by …
 Style issues:
What’s wrong here?
 Style: avoiding ‘the author’
1) The author received answers that suggested different levels of materialism
….
The interviewees’ answers suggested different levels of materialism…
2) The author asked “do you buy something to make you feel better” and
these were the answers.
The question: “do you buy something to make you feel better” yielded the
following answers.
3) …; therefore, the author considers whether materialism is important
enough to determine whether a purchase is made.
…; therefore, materialism was considered to be a possible factor in terms of
its impact on a purchaser’s decision.
 Summary
• The Findings, Analysis & Discussion sections describe and comment on
your research findings.

• Quantitative studies often follow a blocking structure where results

and ‘small’ analytical comments are followed by a separate in-depth
analysis and discussion.

• Qualitative studies often follow a chaining structure where results are

shown, analysed and discussed simultaneously.

• ‘Analysis’ enables you to comment on the results and demonstrate

your critical thinking skills; whereas, ‘discussion’ shows how the results
relate to previous research.