Capstone: Criminal Justice Thesis

Writing a conclusion and discussion for your dissertation

Date published September 9, 2014 by  Bas Swaen.  Date updated: September 17, 2017

You finish your dissertation with a conclusion and a discussion. These are two different sections or parts, but sometimes it’s difficult to separate the two. This article discusses these two parts and the information that each part must, at a minimum, contain.

The purpose of a conclusion is to answer your research question. Begin, with repeating your research question. However, don’t simply reiterate the research question, but integrate an explanation of it into the rest of the section’s discussion.

The length of the dissertation conclusion should be between 200 and 400 words.

1. What is the relationship between mental illness and violent crime?

2. How does having a mental illness increases one’s risk of committing a violent crime?

3. What is the rate of repeat offending among mentally ill who are offenders of violent crime?

What does the discussion look like?

In the discussion, you write more interpretatively and colorfully about the results. Whereas you kept it concise in the dissertation conclusion, you write more in-depth about the subject in the discussion section.