Lab report

Instructions for the Discussion Section

The discussion section is comprised of three parts. The first part is a restatement of the major results - stated this time in everyday language rather than the statistical jargon of the results section. The second part is a description of how the results relate to the literature you reviewed in the Introduction. The third part looks to the future in discussing limitations of the study, implications of the findings, and potential directions for future research. As you can see the discussion section is all about your major findings - what they are, how they fit what is already known, and how they change our understanding. The restatement of the major findings is done in the first paragraph. Lay out the one, two, or three major findings; at least what you consider will be the major findings. Relate back to the purpose and the hypotheses at the end of the introduction. What major findings will support each hypothesis? Do not use statistical jargon - you are not actually presenting the results of the statistical tests - you did that in the results section. In the discussion you are discussing the major potential findings as they relate to your purpose and hypothesis and without jargon. The next paragraph takes up the previous literature and may bring in some new literature related to your major findings. You will have citations here as you show how your findings agree or disagree with the findings of past research. Since you don't really have any findings, you are actually suggesting that IF this is the result, THEN the findings of "Johnson (2011) will be supported in that cell phone use among college students is directly related and negatively related to grades (for example)." You will need to relate your major findings to more than one previous study - here's where you show how your study fits the whole history of research in the topic area. The next paragraph...or the next or next depending on how many paragraphs you wrote earlier, covers the big picture. Most findings have limited external validation and this is where you describe the limits of your findings. Obviously a study that used only MTSU college students is limited in application to that population. Even studies with a broad range of subjects are limited in ways. Results are not always limited by the subject characteristics - they can be of limited practical value, require massive changes in cultural attitude in order to be effective outside the experiment, or perhaps would be effective only in some specific situations (this kind of schizophrenia, but not others, for example). The limitations often suggest the need for future research to determine if the current (your future potential) findings would hold up in a slightly different method, with a different population, when applied to real-life, etc. I always like to end the discussion with a big-picture glorious statement or two, much like the beginning of the Introduction. Indeed, you can paraphrase your first sentence of the introduction in order to end the discussion. For example, "The present study, should it produce positive findings, could potentially alter the use of cell phones among college students, which in turn, would promote learning, encourage face-to-face exchanges, and return the U.S.A. to a nation of involved, connected, learned, citizens ready and able to take on the difficult tasks of war, balancing the budget, and the coming financial crises." Ok, so that's a bit much....but the one thing you do what to do is end on the high note. You spent a lot of time and effort doing this proposal and your final sentences should reflect the high-value, the worth, and the importance of the potential results.