The purpose of the discussion section is to interpret and describe the significance of your findings in relation to what was already known about the research problem being investigated and to explain any new understanding or insights that emerged as a result of your research. The discussion will always connect to the introduction by way of the research questions or hypotheses you posed and the literature you reviewed, but the discussion does not simply repeat or rearrange the first parts of your paper; the discussion clearly explains how your study advanced the reader's understanding of the research problem from where you left them at the end of your review of prior research.

Regards,

Ajit Singh thanks so much!

can you please give an example of a few sentences where the significance of a result is shown in a discussion chapter.

You are enough to write significance of your findings in your discussion section while explaining;

1. Explanation of results: comment on whether or not the results were expected and present explanations for the results; go into greater depth when explaining findings that were unexpected or especially profound. If appropriate, note any unusual or unanticipated patterns or trends that emerged from your results and explain their meaning.

2. References to previous research: compare your results with the findings from other studies, or use the studies to support a claim. This can include re-visiting key sources already cited in your literature review section, or, save them to cite later in the discussion section if they are more important to compare with your results than being part of the general research you cited to provide context and background information.

3. Deduction: a claim for how the findings can be applied more generally. For example, describing lessons learned, proposing recommendations that can help improve a situation, or recommending best practices.

4. Hypothesis: a more general claim or possible conclusion arising from the results [which may be proved or disproved].

And in addition you might want to distinguish between:

- statistical significance (if statistics were used of course, in qualitive design the internal validity can be considered … was it meaningful?)

- significance of the findings interpretation: does it mean someting for the reseach question or hypothesis and is that interpretation substantiated by the results.

- significance for the domain. I work innhealthcare and there the significance for patients eg improved diagnosis, treatment, or outcomes should be discussed.

And in addition you might want to distinguish between:

- statistical significance (if statistics were used of course, in qualitive design the internal validity can be considered … was it meaningful?)

- significance of the findings interpretation: does it mean someting for the reseach question or hypothesis and is that interpretation substantiated by the results.

- significance for the domain. I work innhealthcare and there the significance for patients eg improved diagnosis, treatment, or outcomes should be discussed.

Hello. When discussing something as important as the significance of findings in relation to my research question and the existing literature I always find it best to open with a reason WHY this is important to the group I am presenting to. This helps to make the subject personal making them want to "listen". Statistics are always helpful, along with a slide to visually show results for visual learners in your audience.

Best wishes -

Debbi T

Deborah Tedone William Goossen Ajit Singh thank you all so much for your help. I really appreciate it. It helped me with my dissertation.