20 Writing the results chapter

General

This chapter is sometimes called ‘Analysis’, or ‘Data analysis’. For your readers this might be the most important chapter, the core of your work, together with the subsequent or integrated discussion.

Purpose of the results section

However your work is organized, there is always a presentation of the results and findings. This presentation is not only an objective description or compilation of raw data (which are placed in the Appendix), but a summary of your data based on a line of argumentation and evaluation. The author of the results section already undertakes a certain selection, organisation and guide the readers to the understandings they wish them to come to. Therefore, the writer must “draw out the significance of the data, highlight significant trends and comparisons, keep indicating the reader where in the data he or she is being led” (Paltridge & Starfield, 210, p.135). In science and engineering there is a strong visual element in forms of tables, graphs or other figures, which have to be clearly connected to the text to enhance the reader’s understanding of the argument that is being built up.

Even though the results section is the core of your paper and/or presents something new, it is often the shortest chapter. The previous parts (introduction, methodology) explained why and how you reached the results, and the subsequent chapter – the discussion – explains the significance of the results. Most important is that the results are presented with utmost clarity.

Overall structure of the result section

Depending on the kind of study you are undertaking, sometimes also on the discipline, you find a variety of options of how to write up this section, and you have to make choices. For example, whether to have a separate chapter with the title Results (or Findings), where to locate this section within your paper, how to structure it or whether you integrate the results/ findings in the Discussion chapter. These are the decisions to be taken when organising the structure of the paper and when writing the outline. However, during the course of your research you might realize that the results differ from what you expected at the onset of your project or that your original outline does not allow for the elaboration of the results you actually obtained. This means you have to develop or maybe revamp the overall structure of your paper in the course of the work. For more go to the chapters on Outlines and/or Structure of academic texts.

Data commentary

The results of engineering research are usually presented in tables and figures. For more information on the rationale for adequate visual aids – whether for instance to use a table or a graph – and aspects to consider when creating them, go to the chapter on Using non-text material. However, tables and figures do not simply speak for themselves but you have to communicate to your readers what e.g. numbers and quantities mean; you also want your readers to accept your conclusions, which should follow logically from your results. If you do not comment on the results, your reader might interpret them differently, and your conclusions might appear rather strange or surprising.

The purpose of data commentary

Typically, a data commentary will include at least three of the following elements:

• Highlight the results.
• Assess standard theory, common beliefs, or general practice in light of the given data.
• Compare and evaluate different data sets.
• Assess the reliability of the data in terms of the methodology that produced it.
• Discuss the implications of the data.

The overall structure of data commentary

Data commentaries usually have the following elements in this order:

These summary statements can be considered as a kind of metadiscourse – sentences and phrases that help readers make their way through a text by revealing such things as organization, referring readers to relevant parts of a text (Swales & Feak, 2004, p.117).

Highlighting statements are usually ordered from general to specific. Such statements are generalizations drawn from the details of the data display. Such statements need good judgement. They demonstrate that you

• can spot trends and regularities,
• that you can separate more important findings from less important ones,
• that you can make claims of appropriate strength.

So, do NOT

• simply repeat all the details in words,
• attempt to cover all the information, or
• claim more than is reasonable.

Sometimes your data may not be quite what you expected. Try to find explanations or suggestions what work could be done in the future to overcome the problem that your research did not yield the desired data.

Language focus

Location elements and summaries:

Location elements help readers navigate a text by referring to relevant parts or establishing logical connections. According to Swales and Feak (2004, p.121) the verbs in table 8 below are most commonly used in references to visuals.

Table 8: Verbs to refer to visuals

Making appropriate claims:

As soon as authors start to evaluate their results in the data commentary, they make claims or assumptions about their meaning and significance. They will also refer to other research done in the field, compare findings with previous findings, or start making comments on the strengths and weaknesses of their findings. Researchers have  to keep asking themselves how confident they can be about their findings and conclusions. To express the right degree of confidence is a skill that has to be learnt by writers of research papers. Go to the guidelines for using modifying and intensifying language so that you know when to use “There is a strong possibility…” or “It can therefore be assumed that…”.

For useful phrases to lead your reader through the results section (meta-language), go to the Academic Phrasebank, Reporting Results.