BLDE University


What To Include Into My Dissertation Discussion Chapter


This essential element of your dissertation seems to cause a lot of anxiety and fear in students and to be honest, I am not sure why. The first thing that you need to do is to put it in context and try and view it simply as a tiny part of the overall project that needs to be completed. Easier said than done, right? Wrong! Not when you know how! Here are my essential tips on what you should include in your dissertation discussion chapter:

What has your research shown?

All right, so in this scenario the most important thing that you are going to need to wrap your head around is what your findings mean, what have you actually proven throughout the course of your research.

Unravel your thoughts

Knowing what to write and how to organize it all in a coherent manner can be terrifying. So, the first thing that I suggest you do is just let it all out! Just start writing with no thought for the order or layout, or whether it even totally belongs in this chapter! Just get it all out and down on the screen in front of you so that you at least have something; a reference point from which you can then start framing the perfect discussion chapter.

Statistics

It is imperative that you include any statistics that you have gathered in this chapter. You should also set out any findings from questionnaires or surveys that you have conducted. Simply glossing over them will not suffice. You need to cover things such as:

  • Gender
  • Age
  • Highest Level of education

You will also then need to undertake a statistical analysis of your findings. So, as an example you might want to look at how various forms of social media have impacted upon different demographics.

Presentation

Facts and figures can easily get buried and lost if you just churn them out indiscriminately. I would strongly urge you to do whatever you can to jazz them up. So, this may include things like tables and flow charts. Anything that is going to take your findings and elevate them from the ordinary to the extraordinary.

Comparative Studies

Rather than just setting out one side of the story, it is really helpful if you can offer up a comparison. This will help consolidate the fact that your paper is unbiased.