How to write a discussion chapter for your PhD thesis: a step-by-step guide
Greetings, fellow scholars! Dr. Elizabeth Yardley here, ready to guide you through the intricate journey of crafting a robust discussion chapter for your dissertation.
Whether you're feeling lost or overwhelmed, fret not.
In this comprehensive guide, I'll provide you with a structured outline of headings to streamline your discussion chapter, making it a more manageable and purposeful task.
Navigating the Discussion Chapter Journey
Embarking on the discussion chapter can be likened to reaching the summit of your academic expedition. Having supported social science graduate students for two decades, I understand the unique challenges faced during this critical phase.
The exhaustive nature of preceding chapters, like findings and analysis, often leaves you feeling a bit burnt out. So, before you plunge into the discussion, consider a brief hiatus. Your brain deserves some well-earned rest and recovery!
Introduction: Setting the Stage
As you commence the discussion chapter, start with a structured introduction. Recap your aims and objectives, providing a quick, high-level summary of your findings. Avoid overwhelming your reader with statistics or lengthy quotes. The goal here is to offer a snapshot that encourages your reader to zoom out and grasp the overarching theme of your chapter.
Additionally, in this introductory section, provide your reader with an overview of what you'll be covering in the chapter in terms of content and order. However, it's advisable to leave this until you've completed the entire discussion chapter, ensuring that what you planned initially aligns with the final structure.
Main Body: Building the Framework
The main body of your discussion chapter is where the depth of your analysis unfolds. Revisit the existing literature from your literature review, examining your findings in this context. Consider the shift from theory to contribution and develop new headings based on the major takeaways from your study.
Maintain a balance in the number of headings, aiming for three to five. Too few headings may condense complex information, overwhelming your examiner, while too many may dilute the impact. If you find yourself with less than three headings, look for opportunities to expand, and if you have more than five, consider condensing them for clarity.
When generating headings, resist the urge to replicate those used in the literature review. You're now contributing to the field, and your headings should reflect the unique stage of your study.
Headings Generation: Simplifying the Process
Generating headings can be a daunting task, but it's essential to simplify the process. Sit down with a pen and paper, focusing on summarizing your research in a few key points. Imagine explaining your research casually to someone in a coffee shop. By distilling the main points without delving into the details, you'll develop compact, relatable, and accessible headings.
Critical Questions for Each Heading
As you delve into each section, consider critical questions about the literature's relevance to your findings. Assess its helpfulness, identify useful theories and concepts, and recognize where the literature falls short. When examining across sections, evaluate how they collectively address your research questions, providing insights into literature coverage and potential synthesis. Here’s some food for thought:
Looking at what you found, what can you say about the literature?
To what extent is it helpful in making sense of what you found?
What particular theories and concepts are useful in explaining what emerged from your study?
What does the literature not help explain?
In what ways is it unhelpful?
Was there anything that the literature didn't cover?
What does your study add to this particular part of the literature?
What do your findings suggest about the literature and its coverage of your topic?
How might you synthesize some of the areas of the literature to better make sense of your findings?
Addressing Limitations: A Thoughtful Approach
In the limitations section, steer clear of generic discussions about time constraints. Instead, focus on meaningful limitations, such as the possibility of reinforcing the study with additional data or the generalizability of results to other groups or cases. Here are some questions to help you:
Could other data have been collected to reinforce the study?
Are the results generalizable to groups or cases beyond the ones that you studied?
What would the implications of your study be for other groups or other cases?
And do you think it's sensible to just directly apply your findings to these groups?
Is there anything else that needs to be taken into consideration before your findings can be applied to these people or all these things?
What kind of data collection or analysis techniques might have been undertaken?
Future Research: Setting the Stage for Continuity
Now, it’s time to think about where research in this field could do from here. Consider these questions:
What direction could future research take in this area?
What research should be done now in this area?
To what extent has your study highlighted the need for this additional research and identified more gaps in the literature?
What have you discovered that changes things? What new things have you highlighted and what are the implications of that going to be for future research?
Does future research need to be done in a different way?
Have you highlighted things that really do need to be taken into consideration when studies are being designed or when samples are being chosen?
Final Thoughts
Concluding your discussion chapter requires patience. Resist the urge to rush through; instead, savor the depth this phase adds to your research. Allow time for reflection, and cut yourself some slack. Quality takes precedence over speed.
Crafting a discussion chapter is undoubtedly a formidable task. By following this structured outline, you'll navigate through each section with clarity and purpose.
Need more help with your discussion chapter?
Then take a look at my PhD Survival Guide - also suitable for highly ambitious masters degree students. Click here to check it out!
