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.
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.
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 …
Previous studies evaluating X observed inconsistent results on whether …
A strong relationship between X and Y has been reported in the literature.
In reviewing the literature, no data was found on the association between X and Y.
The third question in this research was …
An initial objective of the project was to identify …
The first question in this study sought to determine …
It was hypothesised that participants with a history of …
The present study was designed to determine the effect of …
With respect to the first research question, it was found that …
This study set out with the aim of assessing the importance of X in …
This study found that …
Another finding is that …
The results of this study show that …
The current investigation found that …
In this study, Xs were found to cause …
On the question of X, this study found that …
The first part of the questionnaire revealed that …
This experiment did not detect any evidence for …
The most obvious finding to emerge from the analysis is that …
One interesting finding is …
Another important finding is that …
The most important result was that …
Most striking was the substantial difference in …
Another finding that stands out from the results reported earlier is …
| (Perhaps) the most | striking important disturbing significant interesting compelling unexpected clinically relevant | finding is … |
What is surprising is that …
Surprisingly, X was found to …
One unanticipated result was that …
What is curious about this result is that …
Surprisingly, no differences were found in …
This finding was unexpected and suggests that …
One unexpected finding was the extent to which …
It is somewhat surprising that no X was noted in this condition …
It is interesting to compare Figure 4 with Figure 2 in Smith (2019) that shows …
One surprising variable that was found to be significantly associated with X was …
Contrary to expectations, this study did not find a significant difference between …
These findings are somewhat surprising given the fact that other research shows …
This study confirms that X is associated with …
This finding was also reported by Smith et al. (1989).
This finding is consistent with that of Smith (2000) who …
Comparison of the findings with those of other studies confirms …
This also accords with our earlier observations, which showed that …
These results reflect those of Smith et al. (1992) who also found that …
Increased activation in the X in this study corroborates these earlier findings.
These results corroborate the findings of a great deal of the previous work in …
This finding broadly supports the work of other studies in this area linking X with Y.
In accordance with the present results, previous studies have demonstrated that …
It is encouraging to compare this figure with that found by Jones (1993) who found that …
Consistent with the literature, this research found that participants who reported using X also …
This study supports evidence from previous observations (e.g. Smith, 2006; Jones et al., 2011).
There are similarities between the attitudes expressed by X in this study and those described by …
| These results | further support the idea of … |
This study has been unable to demonstrate that …
However, this result has not previously been described.
This outcome is contrary to that of Smith et al. (2001) who found …
This finding is contrary to previous studies which have suggested that …
In contrast to earlier findings, however, no evidence of X was detected.
The yields in this investigation were higher compared to those of other studies.
However, the findings of the current study do not support the previous research.
Smith et al. (1999) showed that … This differs from the findings presented here …
The overall level was found to be 15%, lower than that of previously reported levels.
It has been suggested that … (Smith et al., 2002). This does not appear to be the case.
The levels observed in this investigation are far below those observed by Smith et al. (2007).
These results differ from Smith’s 2003 estimate of Y, but they are broadly consistent with earlier …
A possible explanation for this might be …
Another possible explanation for this is that …
There are several possible explanations for this result.
Several factors could explain this observation. Firstly, …
An alternative explanation for this result is that it is due to …
It is difficult to explain this result, but it might be related to …
This inconsistency may be due to …
This discrepancy could be attributed to …
These differences can be explained in part by …
These relationships may partly be explained by …
The observed increase in X could be attributed to …
The observed correlation between X and Y might be explained in this way: …
It seems possible that these results are due to …
It may be that these participants benefitted from …
The possible interference of X cannot be ruled out.
Differences between X and Y may have influenced …
There are two likely causes for the differences between …
Since this difference has not been found elsewhere it is probably not due to …
| This (rather) | intriguing surprising interesting contradictory | result finding | could be due to… may be related to … might be a result of … can be attributed to … is likely to be related to … may reflect the differences in … could have been generated by … might be explained by the fact that… |
Another source of uncertainty is …
A note of caution is due here since …
These findings may be somewhat limited by …
These findings cannot be extrapolated to all patients.
These data must be interpreted with caution because …
It could be argued that the positive results were due to …
These results therefore need to be interpreted with caution.
In observational studies, there is a potential for bias from …
It is important to bear in mind the possible bias in these responses.
Although exclusion of X did not …, these results should be interpreted with caution.
However, with a small sample size, caution must be applied, as the findings might not be …
| It is possible that these results | are due to … are limited to … do not represent … have been confounded by … were influenced by the lack of … may underestimate the role of … are biased, given the self-reported nature of … may not be reproducible on a wide scale across … |
These findings suggest that …
It is possible, therefore, that …
The findings reported here suggest that …
According to these data, we can infer that …
The present study raises the possibility that …
Hence, it could conceivably be hypothesised that …
This observation may support the hypothesis that …
It may be the case therefore that these variations …
It is therefore likely that such connections exist between …
The value of X suggests that a weak link may exist between …
These results provide further support for the hypothesis that …
Therefore, X could be a major factor, if not the only one, causing …
These findings suggest that …
It can therefore be assumed that the …
An implication of this finding is the possibility that …
One of the issues that emerges from these findings is …
Some of the issues emerging from this finding relate specifically to …
The results of this observational study suggest that X may help prevent …
| These | results findings | suggest that … provide support for … cast some doubt on … have implications for … support the idea that … challenge the notion that … might further indicate that … may help us to understand … may be taken to indicate that … reveal something about the nature of … provide some tentative initial evidence that … raise intriguing questions regarding the nature of … |
This finding is reassuring since …
These findings are rather disappointing.
However, these results were not very encouraging.
The test was successful as it was able to identify students who …
The present results are significant in at least two major respects.
Unfortunately, these findings are rather difficult to interpret because …
| This is a(n) These are | (particularly) | useful valuable troubling important promising surprising reassuring remarkable encouraging disappointing | result(s). finding(s). |
This is an important issue for future research.
Research questions that could be asked include …
Several questions remain unanswered at present.
Despite these promising results, questions remain.
Additional research is needed to better understand the …
A further study with more focus on X is therefore suggested.
There is abundant room for further progress in determining …
Future studies on the current topic are therefore recommended.
Further work is needed to develop reliable analytical methods for …
To develop a full picture of X, additional studies will be needed that …
In future investigations, it might be possible to use a different X in which …
Further studies, which take these variables into account, will need to be undertaken.
| Further | work is research is studies are investigations are | needed to required to | identify the … establish how … confirm whether … assess the risks of … ascertain whether … determine whether … examine the effects of … evaluate the impact of … address the following questions: gain a better understanding of … explore the mechanisms behind … assess the longer-term impact of … confirm and validate these findings. identify or develop drugs that can … |
| If you have any questions about research project, feel free to leave a comment below. If you’d like 1-on-1 help with your research project, dissertation or thesis, be sure to book an initial consultation with one of our friendly Research Coaches. |
