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OK.

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We finally arrived at the discussion section which is one of the more interesting sections because as

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I mentioned at the beginning this is the section where you will sell your answer to the question.

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And in this lecture, I want to show you what the main goals of the discussion section are and also the

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logic and structure of the discussion section.

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So first of all, what are the goals in the Discussion section? And there are two simple goals.

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First, you want to show that you gave a convincing answer to your question.

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And second, you want to show that you gave a valuable answer to your question.

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Now, with that in mind, let's have a look at the essential parts of a discussion section. So a discussion

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section often begins with a summary.

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There you remind us of your research questions, your methods, and your results.

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Very very briefly.

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Then after that you finally get into the interpretation of your results.

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What do they mean?

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Did the treatment work or are there alternative explanations?

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Now is finally the time to talk about this.

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Okay.

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The next part is usually the integration of your research into existing research.

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So how does it compare with research that is already there?

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And most importantly what did you add to what we already knew?

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Another essential part is: implications of your research.

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What are the general lessons that we can learn from your results.

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What general phenomena do we understand better or maybe: how could your results help us towards potential

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applications. Then, very often you will find a section in which the researchers talk about limitations

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of their study.

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So what are the weaker parts of your research?

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And also importantly: do they invalidate your conclusions? Can you draw your conclusions despite your

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limitations?

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And then finally, very often at the end of the discussion section, you find a summary or conclusions section

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in which you just tell the reader in general what the key takeaways from your research are.

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So these are the essential and typical parts of a discussion section.

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Now, what's important is to not just know that these parts are there but understand what purpose they

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serve.

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So in the last slide I talk about the two main goals of the discussion section which is to make clear

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that you gave a convincing and valuable answer. And I'm gonna mark these parts now in blue and green,

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blue parts are parts in which you're mostly concerned about arguing that you gave a convincing answer

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to your research question while in the green parts you're usually more focused on the question whether

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you gave a valuable answer.

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So for example when you talk about the interpretation of your results and whether there are alternative

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explanations then you're basically talking about the question: are your results convincing?

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For example, if there are plausible alternative explanations for your results then you may not be able

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to answer your question.

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Likewise if your study has limitations,

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for example, if it is only correlational or if the measurements do not turn out to be that reliable or

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if part of your results did not confirm your hypothesis then that could mean that you cannot give a

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convincing answer to your research question and therefore these two parts - interpretation and limitations -

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are mostly about showing that you gave a convincing answer to your question.

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Now what about the other parts?

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So in the integration part you basically show that you contributed something new to the literature which

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is the first sign that you contributed something valuable then in the implication section you go a bit

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further and show what the general lessons are that we have learned.

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What do we understand better? What applications may be possible based on your results?

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So here you really show the reader the value of your research. And then finally in the summary and conclusions

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section you just summarize the key points again while focusing on the value of your research.

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What have we learned?

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What do we understand better?

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These things need to stay on the mind of the researcher after the researcher has finished your paper.

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Okay.

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When you look at this you may wonder: why is it so cluttered?

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So for example, why don't we take the limitations part and move it up to the interpretation so that we

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first discuss whether our answer is convincing and then we discuss what the value of our answer is?

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And that's actually exactly what I did in one of my first paper and I remember that my supervisor made

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the remark that I wrote the paper in a very well German style. And here's what he meant.

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The problem is that if you put the limitations section here then you start your discussion section pretty

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much with the weak spots of your research. But you don't want to start with the weak spots of your research.

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It makes much more sense to first show the value of your research and then after the reader got a little

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bit excited about your research start to talk about limitations.

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And this tends to be true most of the time. It's usually good to have limitations...

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Well at least not at the beginning.

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But I also want you to be aware that these things are not fixed and there may be cases in which it makes

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sense to put the limitations first.

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So for example, a situation where I would put the limitations first is if there is something that looks

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like a serious limitation, something that will make many readers reject everything that I have to say

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about integration and implications,

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but that isn't actually a real limitation.

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And if that's the case I would start with the limitations to get that limitation out of the way.

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However in most cases it will make more sense to put the limitations more at the end of your discussion

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section. OK so now you know the essential parts of the discussion section and what their function is.

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And now let's move to the next lecture in which we're going to construct the outline of your discussion

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section.