Discussion

Function

• Interpret your results in light of what was already known about the subject of the investigation

• Explain our new understanding of the problem after taking your results into consideration.

• It tells how your study has moved us forward from the place you left us at the end of the Introduction.

Fundamental questions to answer

• Do your results provide answers to your testable hypotheses? If so, how do you interpret your findings?
• Do your findings agree with what others have shown? If not, do they suggest an alternative explanation or perhaps a unforseen design flaw in your experiment (or theirs?)
• Given your conclusions, what is our new understanding of the problem you investigated and outlined in the Introduction?
• If warranted, what would be the next step in your study, e.g., what experiments would you do next?

Style

• Use the active voice whenever possible

• Watch out for wordy phrases; be concise and make your points clearly.

• Use of the first person is okay, but too much use of the first person may actually distract the reader from the main points.

Approach

• Organize the Discussion to address each of the experiments or studies for which you presented results

• Discuss each in the same sequence as presented in the Results, providing your interpretation of what they mean in the larger context of the problem.

• Do NOT waste entire sentences restating your results

• If you need to remind the reader of the result to be discussed, use “bridge sentences” that relate the result to the interpretation

• Do NOT introduce new results in the Discussion.