Chapter 5: Discussion

The Discussion affords you the opportunity to explore the significance of your research results.

• The Discussion must satisfy the objectives as outlined in the Introduction.
• Discuss principles, relationships, and generalizations relevant to your results.
• Include important exceptions even though you cannot explain them.
• Do not discuss every little detailed result. In so doing you may shift focus away from your significant contributions.
• Some speculation is encouraged, provided it is clearly identified as such and is meaningful.
• Discuss the theoretical implications, as well as practical applications, of your results.
• Compare your results with other published work.
• Do not state cause and effect relationships that have not been proven. Frequently, experimental data can only be used to develop correlations, rather than to prove cause and effect relationships.
• Finish your discussion with a summary of the significance of your research findings to the field.