The Results Section of a Dissertation

• Apr 26, 2022
• 5 min read

• Tags: Academic Research, Academic Writing, Dissertation

The main purpose of a dissertation is to contribute knowledge to your field of study. So it goes without saying that a dissertation is rather pointless if you don’t document the results of your research clearly! This is where you document the findings of your research, where you make sense of what you have discovered throughout the research process and explain its relevance to the research question or problem. Let’s explore how to write the results section of your dissertation.

What goes in the results section

Conventionally, the results section is the fourth chapter of your dissertation, written after you present your method of study. How exactly you present your findings differs from study to study, depending on the topic and discipline your research is situated in, the methods you used, and what kind of data you are presenting. 

Here’s what you’ll cover in the results chapter: 

• A brief reminder of the research question and the purpose of your research  
• The results of your experiment or study and what they mean 
• The data that you’ve collected in sentence form, accompanied by visual elements such as tables, graphs, charts, etc. 
• A critical analysis of how they relate to your research question 

Pro-tip: Always check your university’s guidelines for specific details on what you are required to write about in this section.

Results vs discussion

It’s important to note that the results chapter is usually not the same as the discussion. The purpose of the results section is to present findings in a logical, objective, and impartial manner. At this stage, you do not include your interpretation as a researcher or discuss the implications of the research. Observations that you make, as a researcher, are better suited for the next few chapters. In other words, you simply present the data in the results chapter, and you interpret it in the discussion chapter. 

Although, in some cases (for instance, if your university tells you to), you may be asked to combine the two sections. In this case, you’ll have to weave your interpretation and analysis into the segments where you’re presenting data. 

It’s important to note that the results chapter is usually not the same as the discussion. The purpose of the results section is to present findings in a logical, objective, and impartial manner. At this stage, you do not include your interpretation as a researcher or discuss the implications of the research. Observations that you make, as a researcher, are better suited for the next few chapters. In other words, you simply present the data in the results chapter, and you interpret it in the discussion chapter. 

Although, in some cases (for instance, if your university tells you to), you may be asked to combine the two sections. In this case, you’ll have to weave your interpretation and analysis into the segments where you’re presenting data. 

How to write and structure the results section

Regardless of whether your dissertation is qualitative or quantitative in nature, there are certain aspects common to this chapter. It has an introduction that reiterates the aims and purpose of the research, a body that deconstructs the results obtained during the research process, and a conclusion that summarizes the study’s findings and sets the stage for a discussion about its implications for your research area. 

This chapter is written in the simple past tense, as you are reporting a study that has been conducted in the past. 

Reporting qualitative research 

The purpose of qualitative research is to explore the depth and nuances of a particular topic. So you’ll be engaged with uncovering it through words and detailed descriptions, rather than hard numbers. A qualitative study sees data being presented primarily in the form of words, often supplemented with quantitative data that supports relevant claims. You’re likely to resort to this kind of analysis if you’re working in humanities and social sciences. 

The first decision you’ll need to make at this moment is whether you’ll be structuring your data chronologically (in order of how you conducted the research) or thematically (in terms of patterns and trends that you see in your data). 

Ensure that each finding you highlight is directly relevant to your research question. You may have made many discoveries over the course of your research, but your chapter has to be concise and report findings that either support or contradict your hypothesis. There is a lot of raw data that you will need to sift through to decide what’s important. 

Include excerpts and quotations from appropriate sources such as interviews, discussion transcripts, supporting literature, and so on, to back each of your findings. 

Although your chapter is mostly just a barrage of words, it’s useful to have graphs, tables, charts, and other visual elements that illustrate what you’re saying in text. Having such quantitative parameters within the chapter is not mandatory (and may not even apply to certain types of research, like a literary analysis), but is often helpful with establishing a story for your research. 

Commonly used qualitative research methods: in-depth interviews, case studies, focus group discussions, theoretical research, literary analysis, and so forth. 

Reporting quantitative research

Quantitative research, as the name suggests, focuses on studying data through statistical and mathematical techniques. If you’re doing this type of research for your dissertation, your results chapter will be dominated by statistics and numbers (represented through graphs, tables, charts, etc.), explained succinctly through text. 

Here’s what you have to include in the chapter: 

• Statistical analysis, their relevance and relationship with the research question 
• Observations about whether data supports or rejects the hypothesis 
• Trends, patterns, and relationships that can be understood from the data 

Since numerical data can be dense and difficult to understand at the first glance, it’s always advised that you articulate them visually, through graphs, tables, charts, and perhaps even relevant figures. Not only does this allow you to deconstruct data in a more appealing way, but it also allows you to spell out a narrative for your data, which you will support with text that explains your findings. 

Commonly used quantitative research methods: Surveys, polls, simulations and modeling of data 

Tips to write a good results section

• Include tables, figures, and other visual elements to present complex data in a more accessible way. These elements should supplement the words rather than be repetitive. 
• Use a variety of visual elements to illustrate data that might be difficult to interpret solely with words. 
• Be honest in your reporting. This may seem obvious, but it’s easy to forget that results always don’t need to corroborate your hypothesis. In fact, it’s perfectly acceptable for the opposite to happen; this is useful in telling the research community that something doesn’t work! What matters in this section is relevance.
• Be concise and precise in your reporting. You don’t need to delve into every little detail about your data. Simply present data and information that is relevant to your research question. 

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Tanvi

With a foundation in Life Sciences, Tanvi enjoys curating technical writing tips tailored for ESL students. When she's not translating complex concepts into bite-sized nuggets, she can be found playing with dogs or painting landscapes.