Research Writing

Prof. Aradhna Malik

Vinod Gupta School of Management
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Lecture – 20
Writing the Results Section

Welcome back to the MOOC course on research writing. My name is Aradhna Malik,
and I am helping you with this course. And in the previous class we finished our
discussion on how to write your methodology section. We discussed presentation of
different types of data, both qualitative and quantitative. Now in this class we are going
to talk about how you present your results section.

So, you started by identifying a gap in the knowledge base, you reviewed literature you
justified the gap that you found in the knowledge base. You told the world or the readers
how you found that gap in the knowledge base, and why it is important to fill that gap in
the knowledge base, and then you evaluated the methods that were available for filling
up that gap in the knowledge base, you narrowed down you you evaluated these methods
on a series of parameters, and then you narrowed down and chose one specific method to
fill this gap in the knowledge base.

So, then you start getting results. So, today we are going to talk about how you write up
the results section of your paper. The purpose of this is, the purpose is to report what you
found out as a result of the methods you employed.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:25)

So, you found out something and you want to report what you employed you want what
you found out as a result of the methods you had employed ok. What you put in the
section, the first thing that you put in this section or this section actually summarizes
what you found out.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:42)

It brings out the key results that are tabulated or reduced or analyzed and presented
through appropriate info graphics. Now we had talked about reduction of data how do
you reduce the data you analyze it, you summarize it, you condense it, instead of saying
ok, I found out this much you know so many percent people had pets, so many
percentage of people had dogs as pets, and so many percentage of people or such such
and such percentage of people had cats as pets and. So, you know instead of writing
sentences what you do is you draw up a table, and you summarize your findings. And
you present this through appropriate infographics, we had this discussion in a previous
lecture.

Then you also described the highlights of the results. So, you describe something
significant that has come up or that has been brought to light as a result of the analysis of
your data. So, then you you you describe how you analyze the data, you write down your
analysis in the method section, and then you come up with your results, and you write
down your results you say this is what I found out, and these are the most significant or
most important or most outstanding findings from whatever I have found out, these are
the note worthy findings.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:20)

Now, the importance of a good results section. Again, this is from a website put up by the
University of Southern California. I have given you the reference here. The importance
of a good results section is that when formulating the results section it is important to
remember that the results of a study do not prove anything. The results are just results
they do not prove x or y, you report the results its only in the discussion of the results
that you establish proof of whatever you have found out. Avoid providing data that is not
critical to answering the research questions. So, it is very, very important that when we
write a good results section, it is very important to find it is very important to note these
two very, very important things, that is, one results do not prove anything. And then in
order for the results to mean anything, we should provide the results that are directly tied.
We may find a lot of things while analyzing our data but we must report only what is
directly tied to our research question. How do you organize the results section? You
present a synopsis of the results followed by an explanation of key findings.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:44)

So, you summarize the results, and then you present a synopsis. Then you present a result
you explain it, and then you move on to the next result and then explain it and so on and
then end with an overall [Link] still do not tie the results with your literature. At
this point, you say you say you know so many say you explain your results in you know
instead of just putting numbers, you put numbers in a table and then you say the p value
of something is so and so, but you explain what that p value means in terms of the
research question.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:23)

Now, the content of the research of the results section would include an introductory
context for understanding the results by restating the research problem. So, you restate
the result the research problem, and then you provide a context and you say this is within
this context this is how something pans out, or this is how these these results are valid or
these are the results this this research question or research problem forms the foundation
as a result of which, or on which this whole exercise is built and the results are then an
outcome of the exercise that was built on this foundation called the research problem
which was in turn an outcome of the literature you reviewed of whatever you studied.

Inclusion of non-textual elements info graphics to further illustrate key findings if

appropriate. So, you provide your results you reduce the information and then you
provide the reduced information in the form of infographics and describe the
infographics. A systematic description of your results highlighting for the reader
observations that are most relevant to the topic under investigation. A short paragraph,
that concludes the results section by synthesizing the key findings of the study. So, you
provide a synopsis.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:56)

Now, the some of the problems to avoid when writing a research question are, you avoid
discussing or interpreting your results. When you write up a research results section, you
avoid discussing your results in light of the available literature. You do not describe your
as you describe your results, but you do not say how or why they should be considered
valid or not considered valid, or how they tie in with whatever has been done before ok.

You report background information, you avoid reporting background information or you
avoid attempting to explain your findings. You report whatever you have found out you
describe it, but you do not explain it. You know if it is contrary to what others have found
out you do not provide that explanation in the results section. You only provide what you
have found out.

You avoid ignoring negative results, why? Because negative results properly explained
help you form a robust foundation for justifying whatever you are trying to or justifying
the thoroughness of your research. It does not you may have done enough study you may
have found out enough number of things, you may think that your study is going to take
one direction, however, when you compile the results you find out that whatever you had
assumed did not happen.

So, you do not ignore the results that are contrary to what you thought you would get as a
result of this study. You report these findings, and your your your final discussion and
conclusion may be totally different and that is fine if you are able to support whatever
you are saying with logical arguments. You avoid including raw data or intermediate
calculations. So, you finish your calculations, and then you provide the you know you
avoid including raw data or raw numbers that have not been processed or reduced so far.
And or you do not even provide intermediate calculations you just provide the final
results.

The analysis goes in with your methodology section. You avoid compromising on facts.
So, if there are some facts that you need to present, even if they take the readers’
understanding to a different level you avoid compromising on those facts. You avoid
verbosity and imprecision. Now this is the time, you can be verbal you can not be
verbose, but you can use more words many more words in the literature section of your
paper or your document or your thesis or your dissertation than you can in other parts of
your research or in other parts of your document.

So, here the one thing you must totally avoid is verbosity. You can not use too many
words, you report what you have found out and stop there. And pull the reader in a
specific direction as a result of how you present whatever you have presented. But you
are precise you have to be to the point and very, very direct. Use short sentences if that
helps. Using short sentences has two main benefits. The first very big benefit is that
many of us in India use English as a second or third or fourth or fifth language. So,
English in most cases is not our native language, we have a different native language a
language that is different than English. English for most of us living in India is a foreign
language. Now when we start writing, we have learnt we have studied in very good
schools we have been taught by the best of teachers. But when we start writing the
tendency to make grammatical mistakes in this foreign language is very high. To add to
that is the complexity caused by the advent of the internet. Now I belong to the pre-
internet generation.

Many of you who are listening to this course or who are watching this course on video
were probably born into a life of computers ok. And I think I have talked about this
earlier also. So, you have learnt to use the autocorrect function. For us we had to use our
brains or use a dictionary or use a grammar book or ask our teachers. So, we learnt it in a
very different way. Now because you have instant gratification, you have dictionaries on
your phone you have the autocorrect feature you have grammarly you have you know
what have you all kinds of things to help you correct your grammar, many times many of
us do not want to spend the time and effort learning the the mechanics of the language
we are using whether it is English or Hindi or any other regional language. And we say
what is the point, that is what my students have asked me very many times they say mam
what is the point of even learning grammar when there is an autocorrect function, why
should I tax my brain I will spend that time learning maybe about finance or operations
which is more tiring.

However, when you start writing many times the computer cannot catch those faults. So,
if you use long sentences, then the tendency to make grammatical mistakes and confuse
the reader and as a result of that confuse the reader is very, very high. If you use very
brief very short very direct sentences the tendency to make grammatical mistakes is
reduced to a large extent.

And that in turn leads the reader to a lesser number of conclusions, than a long sentence
would. If you use a long sentence than the number of interpretations of that lengthy
sentence will be more whereas, if you use a short sentence you say this is a table that is
it, as x leads to y simple. X may lead to y, x leads to a, b, c, d and e. But in most cases, it
leads to y, and in some other cases it may lead to j and k.

Then the reader is confused as to which direction you are taking. Or you provide the
context within this context x leads to y. So, you describe the context when you say ok.
Within this context this is the context x in this context leads to y. X in another context
that is different than this could lead to anything else ok. So, you shorten your sentences
you make them very crisp and make sure your sentences I mean this is just an
approximate figure you have to make your own judgment, but if your sentences are not
more than maybe say 12 or 15 words long, the chances of them being misinterpreted
comes down significantly.

Present avoid presenting the same data or repeating the same information more than
once, unless required by the nature of your study. Avoid inappropriately labelling your
infographics. So, when you label your infographics, make sure that the data labels are
accurate, make sure that your legends are appropriately labelled etcetera, now when you
avoid all these problems your results section will be robust, it will be sturdy and it will
be easier to understand and it will form a sound foundation for you to build your
discussion and conclusions on. That is all we have time for in this lecture thank you very
much for listening. We will continue with some more discussion on research writing in
the next class.

Thank you.