Problems in writing a discussion section

[Woravut]

Hi all,

I am working on a paper related to 'writing a discussion'

1. Could you share your experience in writing a discussion section?

2. Did (or do) you have any difficulties in writing a discussion section?

3. Please tell me your specific problems related to writing a discussion section and how you solved your problems.

Thank you very much

[punjaporn]

My big problem is about the content of the section. We report many findings. Which of those are worth discussing?

So, I have read research in the field and learned how others choose the topics to discuss. Also, I did the study many years ago with Aj.Richard about the link of findings reported in the results and discussion sections.

We found that many single findings are normally clustered together and reported as a summary in the discussion sections. Then, researchers chose some clusters to discuss and explain. (Too many points could lead to less focused discussions.) The selected issues could be the issues which link to the literature review section, make contribution to the filed, or provide practical suggestion for future research.

[Richard]

If I'm working on an article where I've got good results but can't think what to write about them in the discussion, I look back at the article that Aum and I wrote (mentioned in Aum's post) to see if the broad functions we identified can help me think of things to write. These functions are:
Summary of the findings
Explaining the reasons for the findings
Linking the findings to the literature to show the contribution to the topic
Linking the findings to the literature to show the contribution to methodology
Real-world applications of the findings
Directions for future research

These are the things I look at to help inspire me to think of something to write. In our study, we also found 2 other functions that appear in some articles (but I don't like using these in the discussion): limitations and previously unreported findings.

[Jenny]

Hi all,
The main problem that I encountered when writing a discussion is mostly on how to organize the contents. Since writing discussion requires considerable cognitive ability to integrate the string of existing knowledge into what we write, it also determines how we present our evaluation of the findings. And we link the results back to the literature, and point out the issue that has arisen from the study, but has not yet been established in the literature.

[naratip]

I think it depends on types of research. If it's a quasi-experimental research, it's not difficult to write a discussion because everything is obvious; however, if you happen to write a discussion for a narrative study, you ll get a lot of headache.

For me the most difficult thing for writing discussion is i don't know how deep should I write.

[Jariya]

To answer Aj.Worawut

1) My experience about writing discussion part:
Writing discussion seemed common when I observed the “how to” manual. At first, it looked like all I had to do was explaining how the results related to the literature and support the answers with the results. That’s true to some extent but I had to adjust the way to show how the results and conclusions of the study were important in the discussion part which was not easy at all.


2) My problem:
The problem I always face is how to deal with sequencing the information in the discussion part. As I try to enhance the “story” of my study, I always struggle to combine relevant concepts, theory and results in the logical way. It becomes problematic when I am trying to look for pattern or relationship of major finding in order to write in meaningful manner.