The first paragraph contains the summary of your purpose of the experiment and your objectives for the research. In the next paragraphs, inform the readers about an in-depth evaluation of the literature on the topic. Then, in the fourth paragraph, discuss any limitations to your research that prevented further study.
Finally, consider summarizing your hypothesis, relevant investigations based on reliable evidence and offering insights for future studies in the last paragraphs.
As mentioned before, a discussion in science encompasses the critical evaluation of the findings of an experiment. Impressing judges at a science fair involves a few tips when writing your discussion section. When summarizing literature reviews, avoid mentioning all the references that support your research. Of course, you need the proper citation and the main ideas for your research.
In this section, explicitly state any potential limitations that your hypothesis or experimental approach might have and the reasoning behind them. This will help the field to generate hypotheses and new approaches without facing the same challenges.
No study is perfect, and the discussion becomes well-rounded when you emphasize not only the impact of the study but also where it may fall short. Nonetheless, you should think about the questions that your study might lead to while you are writing the discussion. Consider posing a few questions, preferably in the form of a hypothesis, to provide a launchpad for future research. Lots of journals stipulate writing in the active voice, as it is more immediate and concise. And because the active voice is more personal, it also creates a better connection with the reader:.
Sometimes, however, the passive voice will be more appropriate if you wish to foreground the research rather than the researcher:. The passive voice is widely used in scientific communication as it creates a kind of objective distance between the researcher and the research.
But at the same time, it can come across as a bit dry and impersonal. Use the active voice if the people performing an action are important, but opt for the passive voice if it is the action rather than those who performed it that is key.
Check out our Grammar webinar for more on this and other top scientific writing tips. Scientific papers generally switch tenses between different sections of the paper. In the discussion section, a good rule of thumb is to stick to the past tense for describing completed actions e.
We measured the volumes of X and Y. You should use the present tense to interpret your results or to discuss the significance of your research findings:. As expected, those who maintained a high physical activity level had the lowest risk of hip fracture, but there was also a tendency towards a lower risk of fracture for those who increased their level of activity compared with those who reduced their level of activity, or compared with those who reported constant low activity.
This observation has previously been made in women [8,16]. There are several possible mechanisms, related to muscle performance and balance as well as to bone architecture and strength, whereby physical activity can reduce the risk of fractures [28,29].
Which of the following is a good example of a sentence you would find in the Discussion section of a lab report? Ten dogs with no previous training were selected for the study. You may suggest additional experiments needed to clarify your results. Many researchers are hesitant to do this as they feel it highlights the weaknesses in their research to the editor and reviewer.
However doing this actually makes a positive impression of your paper as it makes it clear that you have an in depth understanding of your topic and can think objectively of your research. Discuss what your results may mean for researchers in the same field as you, researchers in other fields, and the general public.
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