More about the best way to read scholarly articles
The student may ask us:
Is it worth looking at the Discussion section of a scholarly article?
We may answer:
The Discussion section answers a question that many students may ask themselves while preparing their own theses or academic research papers: what is the point of it all?
A well-presented discussion section can explain to the reader why it was worth the bother to prepare all the research findings. What they mean, and how the data is interpreted and analyzed, gives us the real importance of any research. So in some ways it may be argued that a discussion section can be the most important part of any article. It reaches ultimate conclusions. Note that in other areas of a paper, such as the abstract, no other references are included. By contrast, in the Discussion section, the results of the present study are compared with other research. The writers typically explain how their own results agreed or disagreed with past researchers.
The student may wonder:
What will not be included in the Discussion section?
We may reply:
Typically, in the Discussion section, no further or information is offered. Only what has already been presented in the paper is mentioned, as its significance is given.
If the students wants to know if anything else may be found in the Discussion section, we may add:
The Discussion section is also a good place for analyzing the study and how it could be improved. If the writer honestly admits that certain aspects of the research could be better, we see that the most important goal was to approach the truth as accurately as possible.
Any weaknesses in technique or presentation may be corrected by the same writer in future research or by other researchers with other resources and opportunities. Sometimes the Discussion section can be a good source of ideas about where to think about future research.
If the student asks us:
Is there anything we should be careful about when reading the Discussion section?
We may reply:
Keep in mind that the Discussion section is about interpretation, not fact. It offers the researcher’s opinions on what the data means. While the data should be a matter of fact, what it means is a matter for discussion. So it is possible to disagree with some interpretations by researchers about the meaning of their findings.
The student may wonder:
Is it worth reading any part of an academic research paper twice?
We may answer:
The one section that is worth reading again may be the conclusion. When we read it the first time, we had less information about the full results of the research and what the writer thinks its significance may be. After we are more fully informed, we may have a different or fuller view of what the real importance of the research article is, when we read the conclusion once more.
If the student is puzzled and points out:
There does not seem to be any Conclusions section in the academic research paper I am reading.
We may reply:
In some papers, the conclusions are found in the Discussion section. Look for them there.
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