Wastewater Management in New York April 30

SBLY 110/210: Sustainability Studio

Final Research Paper Background: Discussion and Conclusions

Discussion section • It is customary to add a Discussion section after Results

• Sometimes just one big section: Discussion and Conclusions

• The Discussion section is where you can add some commentary about the results-- but not opinion! • For example, discuss if your hypothesis was proven (or disproven),

but try not to pass value judgements on your results

• The Discussion is also the place to identify/highlight results that may be notable, extreme, unusual, surprising, etc. • It may be useful to compare your results to past studies in here

Discussion section Components of a discussion section:

• Summary: A brief recap of your key results • Interpretations: What do your results mean? • Implications: Why do your results matter? • Limitations: What can’t your results tell us? • Recommendations: Avenues for further studies or analyses

Conclusions section

In the second half of discussion, or its own Conclusions section, you should highlight the following: • Briefly highlight the key and novel findings and identify how the

study contributes new knowledge

• Reinforce the importance of the study (why should we care?)

• Discuss what future work should stem from your study (you could do this in the discussion or conclusion).

Activity #1 • Find an article from your literature review that has a results and a

discussion section (separate). • Read the results, discussion, and conclusion sections in detail. • Compare the two sections (how do they differ?) • Identify the following elements (use color coding or comments):

• Summary: A brief recap of key results • Interpretations: What do the results mean? • Implications: Why do the results matter? • Limitations: What can’t the results tell us? • Recommendations: Avenues for further studies or analyses

Activity #2

• Working in a group, take a look at the results provided (not from actual papers!), and compile a discussions/conclusions section to present to the class • What is interesting/novel about the results?

• Why should we care?

• What future research would you want to do?

Group 1: Hofstra Student Data

• https://www.hofstra.edu/about/glance.html (Look at Student Characteristics)

Group 2: Plastic Bag Laws

• State Plastic Bag Legislation https://www.ncsl.org/environment-and-natural-resources/state-plastic-bag-legislation

Group 3: Social Media Usage Statistics

• Pew Research Center Social Media Usage

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/

SBLY 110/210: SUSTAINABILITY STUDIO

Writing the results section

Presentations

Final Research Papers: Results section

■ Will vary a bit depending on research methods

■ Should be clear, concise, and free of opinion.

■ Should mainly just report the facts here and save further analysis for ‘Discussion’ and ‘Conclusions’ sections

Results section layout

■ Fairly straightforward and formulaic, but try to vary your sentence structure and make the writing interesting.

■ One way to accomplish above is to have sub-sections – Logically, this might be the results of each research question, but

could be even more detailed if it makes sense

■ Good to have several figures/tables, but not too many

Figures and Tables

■ Label them as Figure 3, Table 2, etc.

■ Refer to them in the text: – Ex: “Figure 3 provides a breakdown of

specific tool use among online tool users.”

■ Try to embed figures and tables in text, for final draft (For now, can have separate sections/documents)

Figure 3. Online tools used by direct market farmers in March-December 2020

Figures and Tables ■ Label them as Figure 3, Table 2, etc.

■ Refer to them in the text: – Ex: “Figure 3 provides a breakdown of specific

tool use among online tool users.”

■ Try to embed figures and tables in text, for final draft (For now, can have separate sections/documents)

■ What are different types of figures and tables that you know or have seen in research papers?

Figure 3. Online tools used by direct market farmers in March-December 2020

Figures and Tables

■ You can create figures and tables using Excel, Paint, Canva, etc.

■ If a table is getting long, or if you are not sure if a figure is absolutely necessary, consider creating an ‘Appendix’ section for them. Refer to the appendix in the text. – Ex: “See Appendix A for a table of all online tool categories”

Quantitative findings: Statistics and Numbers ■ Use the word significance only for statistical significance

– Important to establish if results are significant (or not), when using quantitative analysis

■ Use consistent decimal points (typically 2 decimals, e.g., 0.01)

■ Report results in metric units, unless you had to collect in customary units, and stay consistent

Types of charts for quantitative data

Qualitative Data

■ It may or may not make sense to quantify your qualitative data (depending on the type of data you have and your sample size).

■ Think of creative ways to put your qualitative results into figures/tables

■ Include a few illustrative quotes but avoid large swaths of quotes, passages etc. (specific formatting for quotes of 3+ lines)

“A quarter of the interviewed farmers (n=7), particularly those who use websites or other online platforms for sales, discussed the challenges associated with having to pay fees. … Several farmers (n=5) shared their dislike for those fees, considering they often also must pay for credit card payments or other payment app transactions. Farmer 10 shared, “[o]ne thing that I'm not too happy about is all the fees. Every time you turn around, there's a fee, and it's easy to forget all those when you're doing your cost estimates.”

Theme Sub-theme

Having concerns (n=13) ● The disconnection between people and between humans and the source of their food (n=5)

● The possibility of increased competition from larger produce delivery companies (n=4)

● Not being able to use online sales as a small farm (n=3) ● Companies’ data ownership (n=2) ● Lack of transparency in the management of platforms (n=2)

Not worried about its effect on their farm (n=12)

● Trusting that customers will keep going to the farmers’ market (n=5) ● Having an online store gives a peace of mind (n=4) ● Being too niche (n=3) ● Being remote is an advantage (n=2)

Seeing it positively (n=6) ● It can bring better market opportunities and make things more efficient (n=5) ● “I’m glad it’s not a temporary trend” (n=1)

Table 2. Farmers’ attitudes toward market digitalization.

Using a table to report qualitative data

Considering adopting

online sales % of group

Not interested in adopting

online sales % of group Total n Total 8 47% 9 53% 17

Age under 55 5 50% 5 50% 10 Age over 55 2 33% 4 67% 6

White & of U.S. origin 3 27% 8 73% 11

Latinx & non-U.S. origin 4 80% 1 20% 5 Female 3 43% 5 57% 8

Male 4 50% 4 50% 8

Table 3. The extent of interest in adopting online sales among non-users, across demographic groups.

Reporting quantified qualitative data in a table, example:

Word clouds

Venn diagrams

Results Activity #1

■ Look at the results section in my paper (“A digital divide…”)

■ How were the results organized?

■ Tables and figures: Did I use tables and figures? If so, for what purpose? Can you find where I referred to them? Were the figures and tables properly labeled and explained?

■ Quantitative findings: How were quantitative findings reported? Were there any significant findings?

■ Qualitative findings: How were qualitative findings reported? Were they quantified? Were quotes used? How?

Results Activity #2

■ Start outlining your results section: – How will you organize it? What will be the main

sections? – What tables/figures might you use? – Will you report qualitative or quantitative findings?

Writing a Journal Article

Journal articles: components - Title

- Author(s)

- Abstract: the summary

- Introduction: what was the context that inspired this research?

- Literature review: how have other researchers studied this issue or similar issues?

- Methods: what did the author(s) do to reach their results?

- Findings: what were the results from this research study?

- Discussion: what do these results mean? What should be done?

- Conclusion: what are the main arguments that the author(s) make?

Journal articles: how to read them 1. Start with the abstract

2. Read the conclusion

3. Read the Introduction

4. Read the findings

5. Read the methods

6. Read the discussion

7. Read the conclusion again

8. Re-read from start to finish if needed

How to start writing ● Start with the methods

● Results / findings

● Discussion

● Introduction

● Conclusion

● Abstract

Methods section 1. Data

1. Geographic scope / sample population + WHY THIS SCOPE / SAMPLE?

2. Type of data: quantitative or qualitative or both

3. What is it? (e.g., locations, survey responses, atmospheric carbon volume over time, etc.)

2. Data collection:

1. How was the data gathered?

2. If surveying or interviewing, how were participants identified and recruited?

3. Data Analysis: How was data analyzed? Why were these analysis methods used?

4. Validation: How was the data or results validated?

Activity: Understand the methods section ● Read the methods section of my article ● Identify the following:

○ Data: what is the geographic scope? What is the sample population? Why? What type of data is used?

○ Data collection: What methods were used to collect data? How were participants identified and recruited?

○ Data analysis: What methods were used to analyze the data? Why were these methods used?

○ Validation: Was there any validation strategy used? If so, what?

In pairs:

● Describe the where, how, what, and why for your planned or collected

● Where: what’s the geographic scope of your data?

● How will you collect the data?

● What: identify the basic properties e.g., quantitative or qualitative

● Why: Identify two reasons you will use this data, and one limitation

Your methods section

Journal articles: how to find them

- Google scholar (scholar.google.com)

- JSTOR (Browse by subject)

- Hofstra library - speak with a librarian!

Journal articles: how to read them 1. Start with the abstract

2. Read the conclusion

3. Read the Introduction

4. Read the findings

5. Read the methods

6. Read the discussion

7. Read the conclusion again

8. Re-read from start to finish if needed

Journal articles: ACTIVITY Part 1: Find and article that can be relevant to your research (from the

journal you selected). Write down the following about the Journal Article:

● Article title

● Author name(s)

● Year published

● Journal name, volume

● Page numbers

Journal articles: ACTIVITY Part 2: Read the article and write down the following:

● What is the problem they tried to solve? (What questions did they

ask?)

● What were the main findings?

● What methods were used to reach those results/conclusions?

● What’s the argument made?

● In what ways is this article helpful for your research?

Pay attention to how each section is written and what it includes.

Journal articles: how to cite them (list of references)

APA:

Last name, Initials. (Year). Article title. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), Page

range. DOI or URL

Chicago Manual Style:

Author's Last Name, First Name. Year. "Title of Article: Subtitle." Title of

Journal Volume, Issue: page range. DOI or URL or Database Name.

Journal articles: how to cite them (in-text citations) APA:

(Author last name, Year) - (Pesci, 2012)

(First author last name et al., Year) - (Pesci et al., 2023)

For direct quotes: (Author last name, Year, p. X) - “Quote” (Pesci, 2012, p. 14)

Chicago Manual Style:

(Author last name Year) - (Pesci 2012)

(First author last name et al. Year) - (Pesci et al. 2023)

For direct quotes: (Author last name Year: X) - “Quote” (Pesci 2012: 14)

Annotated bibliography exercise 1. Use APA or Chicago manual style to write the citation for the journal article you found

for the list of references.

2. Write a summary that includes your answers to these questions:

● What is the problem they tried to solve? (What questions did they ask?)

● What were the main findings?

● What methods were used to reach those results/conclusions?

● What’s the argument made?

● In what ways is this article helpful for your research?

Citation exercise

1. Use APA or Chicago manual style to write the citation for the

journal article you found for the list of references.

2. Choose a finding from the article that you may want to

include in your research paper or proposal

3. Paraphrase the finding into a sentence and include an in-text

citation.

Citation management tools ● Zotero ● Mendeley