A discussion section explains what your research findings mean and connects them to the wider research. It should show how your findings address the research gap, answer your research questions, relate to existing theories and literature, and contribute to practice, research or other stakeholders.

What is the purpose of a discussion section?

Your discussion is where you close the loop that began when you started your research. You reviewed the literature, identified a research gap, explained why the research was needed and established what you wanted to achieve. You then conducted the research and presented your findings.

The discussion brings these parts together. It explains what your findings mean, how they fill the research gap and how your study fits within the wider research.

Think of your research gap as a missing puzzle piece. Your discussion is where you put that piece into the wider puzzle. You need to explain what your findings mean, how they address the gap, how they fit with existing research and what the study means for people reading it.

What should you pay attention to when writing your discussion?

Several parts of your research need to come together in the discussion:

1. Literature review – particularly theoretical frameworks and related research.

2. Rationale and research gaps – especially the gaps your research was intended to address.

3. Aims and objectives – what your research set out to achieve.

4. Research methods – including what went well and what went wrong.

5. Findings – particularly the most important and meaningful observations.

The discussion is closely connected to the rest of your research because it needs to bring these elements together. Your findings should not sit separately from the research questions, literature, methods and rationale.

What should you include in your discussion?

A discussion can cover several elements, depending on your research:

1. Explain your research findings. Explain why your findings look the way they do and use wider literature to explore possible relationships or observations. You may need to look beyond your immediate field and draw on adjacent disciplines.

2. Answer your research question and explain how you achieved your aims and objectives. Remind readers of your objectives where necessary and show how your study has addressed them.

3. Connect your research to other literature and theories. Explain how your findings fill the research gap, relate to existing studies and connect with or challenge theories.

4. Connect your research to the wider context. Consider what your findings may mean for policy, healthcare access, education, social inequalities or other contexts relevant to your study.

5. Discuss implications and recommendations for stakeholders. Implications describe how your findings affect stakeholders, while recommendations describe what those stakeholders should do in response.

6. Make recommendations for future research. Identify further research gaps or extensions that have emerged from your study.

7. Discuss limitations. Focus on limitations specific to your research rather than generic limitations of research methods.

8. Discuss strengths. Show what was done well and why your study remains valuable.

How should you structure a discussion section?

A structured approach can make writing the discussion more straightforward.

Your introduction can briefly remind the reader of the research aims, objectives and key findings. The main body should then be organised around topics rather than simply following the order of your findings chapter.

Start with your key findings and ask yourself: if I had to summarise my findings in three bullet points, what would they be? These can become the main discussion topics and help you develop the narrative you want the reader to understand.

After this, discuss implications and recommendations according to the relevant stakeholders, followed by recommendations for future research. Strengths and limitations can come towards the end, although they may also be included in the conclusions chapter depending on your research and university expectations.

If you're applying this structure to your own dissertation and want a second pair of eyes, you can find research support here.

How should you approach the conclusion of the discussion?

A short conclusion can help tie the discussion together, particularly when the chapter is long or the argument is complex. In a Masters dissertation, this may sometimes be skipped because the following chapter is already a conclusions chapter, particularly when the discussion is relatively short.

The final structure depends on your study and research objectives. Some research may also require additional elements, such as developing guidelines, frameworks, curricula, theories or models. These can be incorporated into the main discussion or recommendations, depending on their role in the research.

There is no single formula for writing a discussion in the same way that there may be a clearer structure for a methods chapter. The important point is to use your research objectives and findings to determine what your discussion needs to achieve.