Synthesising and discussing findings

The discussion section shows your arrival at new understandings, insights, solutions or theories emerging from your data analysis, which requires high levels of synthesis and conceptualisation.

To write an effective discussion:

  • Connect all your findings and key evidence and put these in the bigger context of your inquiry
  • Answer the research question or hypothesis
  • Position your research in the field and state your original contribution
  • Acknowledge limitations of your findings to show your self-awareness and critical thinking as a researcher.

Examples of discussing original contributions

Read the following discussion examples showing statements of original contributions. Notice the type of language that carries these statements, some of which we’ve bolded to highlight the writers’ authority and relationship to their field.

Example 1

Thesis titled ‘Foreign direct investment in Australia: Determinants and consequences’ (Faeth, 2005, p. 308)

Comparing these results with previous econometric studies analysing the consequences of FDI [foreign direct investment] in Australia shows that FDI has a wider range of consequences than previously assumed. It has been shown in this study that employment growth, wage growth, labour productivity growth and industry concentration were affected by Australian FDI.

Example 2

Thesis titled ‘Doctors down under: European medical migrants in Victoria (Australia), 1930-60’ (Mody, 2018, p. 231)

This thesis begins to redress the silence that characterises the historiography on twentieth-century medical migration to Australia. In doing so, I have demonstrated that medical migrants today represent part of an unbroken and sometimes hard-won legacy of refuge, second chances and fresh starts inherited from the medical migrants who arrived before them.

Approaches to the discussion

To arrive at a synthesis of your thesis and be able to state your original contribution, consider what processes to use for handling data.

Watch this video to learn about two approaches: tracking and mapping your findings and using a creative-rational approach.

Video 1: Approaches to the discussion

Activity: Write a tiny discussion


Step 1: Free-write in response to the following prompt. Try 5-10 minutes of no-pause, no-edit writing:

  • “What do you know now about your research problem that you didn’t know before starting your research?”

Step 2: Follow this up with the rational tasks of sorting and linking conclusions, as explained in the video.

Step 3: Write a brief introduction to your discussion. Start with what you’ve achieved in the previous chapters and quickly proceed to how you will put these findings together.

Use the side menu to go the next section: Using disciplinary conventions, where we look at a checklist for reflecting on the thesis core.