Author: Miriam Cohen

The results section of a thesis or research paper is where you will state your most relevant data points and explain what those data points mean in the context of your study. But how do you know what data to put in, and how to present that data effectively? We’re going to go over how to introduce your results, what you should and should not include, ways to illustrate your data, and how to lead into your discussion section.

How should I start my results section?

As a brief introduction to this section, you want to simply restate the goal or hypothesis of your study. This eases the reader into this section and refreshes them on what your data may or may not support. You want to keep this very simple, and it is okay to paraphrase instead of restating your entire hypothesis – the main focus of this paragraph is the actual data that matters in the context of your study, not the study itself.

Tip: Make sure that you are writing in past tense – your study happened in the past, and therefore your results will be in past tense too!

What data should I use?

In your results section, you want to tell the reader what the most relevant data to your study was. But what does that mean? Some questions to ask yourself to determine whether you should use certain data points:

• Was any of your data significant, or had a great deal to do with answering your original question?
  • If so, it is important to include that data – if it is significant data, be sure to include how you calculated its significance, and what that says about your study.
• While some or all of your data may not be significant, does it still mean something in the context of your study?
  • This may be important to include for later discussion of possible implications of that data.
• Is there data that is negative, or disproves your hypothesis?
  • While your first reaction may be to avoid bringing up this data, it is still important to include it so that you may discuss its implications later in your thesis.
• Is the data I want to use raw data?
  • Generally, you do NOT want to use raw data in your results because it is not easily understood by the reader. You always want to convert raw data into an easily understood measure, such as averages or percentages. This also makes it much easier for readers to contextualize the data within your study.

TIP: You do not want to discuss implications or anything further than what the data means within the context of your study, as that will be saved for your discussion section.

How should I organize and present my data?

There are a couple of different ways to organize your data in your results section:

• Explain in the order of your methodology.

Depending on your discipline, you may have outlined your expected findings in your methodology. If this is the case, you are able to address your results in that same order for consistency.

• Identify key findings and then give a synopsis.

If you believe you have a lot of key findings in your study, you may choose to state those first before giving an overall view of the findings of your study.

• Give a synopsis of results and then identify key findings.

If you feel that you have few key findings in your study, you may decide to start with an overall synopsis before going into specifics about your data.

Generally, there are three main ways to report your data to readers: text, tables, and figures.

• Text

Most commonly used of the three is text, as after all, your thesis will mostly consist of text. This is a standard way to report results through text:

“Seed production was higher for plants in the full-sun treatment (52.3 +/-6.8 seeds) than for those receiving filtered light (14.7+/- 3.2 seeds, t=11.8, df=55, p<0.001.)” (Tables and Figures, n.d.)

• Tables and figures

Tables and figures are a great way to illustrate large amounts of data without having to write it all out. Tables should be used when you want to simply display data as it stands on its own, while figures should be used to display relationships between data points or show trends. Generally, tables and figures are placed relatively close to the paragraphs where they are mentioned; however, some disciplines may prefer that these tables and figures be placed in an appendix at the end of your thesis.

Tip: There are various types and formats of figures and tables that can be used to display your results. When a reader looks at your tables and figures, they should be able to understand your data without having to read the rest of your results section. This source has great dos and don’ts for tables and figures.

How do I lead into my discussion section?

It is important to end your results by using a general wrap up statement or paragraph stating whether or not your hypothesis was supported by the data presented. Without this, there may be an awkward drop-off at the end of the section. Be sure to synthesize the most prevalent findings that you will explore further in your discussion so that the reader knows what direction you will be heading in going forward.

**Creative Thesis**

For those who may be completing a creative thesis, there are still opportunities to present results. If you want to synthesize literature that you reviewed previous to your completion of your creative project, you may use text or even a table to illustrate the conclusions of the literature and how you plan to base your work off of them. The formatting of any tables and figures is slightly different, as they are often included at the end of the thesis as opposed to within it.