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PREPARING FOR THE DEFENSE

Writing Results & Discussion 

 Writing Results: 

First, go back to Chapter 3 and rewrite EVERYTHING in past tense. You have already done the study; you are not preparing to do it. Remove standard reliabilities and replace with what you got in this sample.  Add M/SD to your measures – how do they compare with samples from the literature? Remove “proposed analysis” section now that we have done the work. Chapter 4 will replace this information 

  1. Demographics – what are the characteristics of your sample? Present charts and graphs here but be sure to give the modes (highest %) and means (SD) in Chapter 3. 

  2. Descriptives of measures - Also, put descriptives in the measures section for each variable.  Reliability should be in the measures section as well. Detail if any measures have skew, kurtosis or low reliability. 

  3. Correlation matrix of ALL study variables and demographics (that are quantitative) together.  You can combine descriptives, reliabilities and correlations into one table – best for publication and being succinct.  Write further on any significant correlations that relate to hypotheses.  Follow this formatting: 

  • Microsoft productivity and Linux productivity are positively related, r (88) = .67, p < .01.  This is a large effect size.  This suggests that as Microsoft productivity skills increase, Linux productivity skills also increase. 

  • Age and Linux productivity are negatively correlated, r (88)= -.36, p < .01.  This a medium effect size.  This suggests that as age increases, Linux productivity decreases. 

Present main results – two ways – either state by analysis or state by hypothesis. Describe each analysis and what the results mean. 

  • Describe test, purpose of test and which variables are your IV and DV’s – do this for each analysis. 

  • Describe any significant results, supported by stats.  Make sure APA correct. 

  • Describe what the significant results mean practically 

  • Do the results support your hypotheses?  Directly say so. 

  • Save any implications of the results for the discussion, where you will tie the meaning of your results back to your literature review. 

  • Insert appropriate APA table or figure, correctly formatted. 

 

Writing the Discussion 

 There should be 3 major sections: 

 Summary of results – talk about the implications (what does it mean?), tie the results back to the literature and framework you discussed in the literature review.  You must talk about what you found in light of your literature review. 

Limitations – discuss things that went wrong, variables that weren’t normal, unexpected results/happenings, range restriction, sample characteristics and generalizability issues. 

Future research – what should the next steps be? What should be done differently next time? What should future researchers do? 

  

Things Students Frequently Miss: 

 

  • Having a complete discussion section (one of the sections is missing) 

  • Not tying the results back to the theory or model from the lit review; only taking about your results and not what they mean in a larger context.