What part of the research paper shows the significant findings of the study?

There is no one right style or manner for writing an education paper. Content aside, the writing style and presentation of papers in different educational fields vary greatly. Nevertheless, certain parts are common to most papers, for example:

Title/Cover Page

Contains the paper's title, the author's name, address, phone number, e-mail, and the day's date.

Abstract

Not every education paper requires an abstract. However, for longer, more complex papers abstracts are particularly useful. Often only 100 to 300 words, the abstract generally provides a broad overview and is never more than a page. It describes the essence, the main theme of the paper. It includes the research question posed, its significance, the methodology, and the main results or findings. Footnotes or cited works are never listed in an abstract. Remember to take great care in composing the abstract. It's the first part of the paper the instructor reads. It must impress with a strong content, good style, and general aesthetic appeal. Never write it hastily or carelessly.

Introduction and Statement of the Problem

A good introduction states the main research problem and thesis argument. What precisely are you studying and why is it important? How original is it? Will it fill a gap in other studies? Never provide a lengthy justification for your topic before it has been explicitly stated.

Limitations of Study

Indicate as soon as possible what you intend to do, and what you are not going to attempt. You may limit the scope of your paper by any number of factors, for example, time, personnel, gender, age, geographic location, nationality, and so on.

Methodology

Discuss your research methodology. Did you employ qualitative or quantitative research methods? Did you administer a questionnaire or interview people? Any field research conducted? How did you collect data? Did you utilize other libraries or archives? And so on.

Literature Review

The research process uncovers what other writers have written about your topic. Your education paper should include a discussion or review of what is known about the subject and how that knowledge was acquired. Once you provide the general and specific context of the existing knowledge, then you yourself can build on others' research. The guide Writing a Literature Review will be helpful here.

Main Body of Paper/Argument

This is generally the longest part of the paper. It's where the author supports the thesis and builds the argument. It contains most of the citations and analysis. This section should focus on a rational development of the thesis with clear reasoning and solid argumentation at all points. A clear focus, avoiding meaningless digressions, provides the essential unity that characterizes a strong education paper.

Conclusion

After spending a great deal of time and energy introducing and arguing the points in the main body of the paper, the conclusion brings everything together and underscores what it all means. A stimulating and informative conclusion leaves the reader informed and well-satisfied. A conclusion that makes sense, when read independently from the rest of the paper, will win praise.

Works Cited/Bibliography

See the Citation guide.

Appendices

Education research papers often contain one or more appendices. An appendix contains material that is appropriate for enlarging the reader's understanding, but that does not fit very well into the main body of the paper. Such material might include tables, charts, summaries, questionnaires, interview questions, lengthy statistics, maps, pictures, photographs, lists of terms, glossaries, survey instruments, letters, copies of historical documents, and many other types of supplementary material. A paper may have several appendices. They are usually placed after the main body of the paper but before the bibliography or works cited section. They are usually designated by such headings as Appendix A, Appendix B, and so on.

Use these tips for your academic article's Research Results section and organize your findings in line with academic writing requirements

This article is part of an ongoing series on academic writing help of scholarly articles. Previous parts explored how to write an introduction for a research paper, literature review outline and format, and how to write a research methodology.

Academics and researchers publish their scholarly articles to show the results they have obtained using gathered or collected data. Research papers present the process of testing hypotheses or models and how their findings help shape or advance a particular research topic. Thus, the ‘Results’ section is essential in expressing the significance of an academic article.

The findings of your research should be included in a separate section of your academic article, as it is the only section that contains data and results.

Aspects to Consider in Writing the Results Section of a Research Paper

A good place to start for your results section, it’s to restate the aim and objective of your research paper, so that your readers can refocus on the core of your academic article. So far in your research paper, your readers covered the introduction, literature review, research methodology and now it’s the time and place to bring their attention back to the purpose. A short paragraph is sufficient to restate your paper’s purpose.

Then, it’s key to consider that this is main section of your research paper where you present and explain the data you have collected or gathered and the findings of your data analysis and interpretation.

The academic writing should be clear, impartial, and objective. Each result, which confirms or refutes your assumptions, should be noted in an unbiased manner to increase the credibility of your study.

The results section gives you the opportunity to:

• summarize the collected data in the form of descriptive statistics and
• report on the findings from relevant and appropriate inferential statistical analyses and interpretation that are aimed at answering your academic article’s research questions or supporting your hypotheses, and show your research significance.

For an organized Research Results section, it’s best to use sub-sections. These sub-sections or divisions can be based on:

• Your research questions, hypotheses or models, or
• The statistical tests you have conducted.

How to Clearly Report Your Research Findings

If you have used statistical analyses in your academic article, and found answers to your research questions, report those facts in relation to your question.

A clear, coherent presentation of your research paper’s results should exhibit logical explanations without bias.

Confirming or Rejecting Hypotheses in Your Research Results

While defining the section of your research’s outcomes area, it’s important to keep in mind that the research results do not prove or demonstrate anything.

Your research findings can only affirm/ confirm or reject the hypotheses and assumptions elaborated upon in your academic article.
In any case, your results:

• help with the understanding of a research problem from within,
• assist in dividing the research problem into different parts and concepts,
• add to the exploration of an issue from various vantage points.

Summarizing Key Findings in Your Results Section

In a coherent results presentation, you should:

• offer summarizing notes of your outcomes and
• save the explanations of your key discoveries for your Discussion section.

For example, in your empirical analysis you notice an uncommon correlation between two variables. In the Results section, it is okay to bring up this outcome, however, posing new hypotheses for this uncommon result should be presented in the Discussion section.

Using Tables and Figures to Highlight Research Results

Any valuable academic article should focus on using tables, figures and/or graphs to:

• provide accurate views about the research findings,
• summarize the analysis,
• help with the interpretation of these outcomes, and
• offer better understanding of the overall study.

Instead of using only descriptive text for your scholarly article, consider other visual ways and representations that improve the academic writing of your research paper.

Figures, tables and graphs are useful methods for gathering a great deal of information into one place that can then be mentioned in the content of your article. If any research question or hypothesis is confirmed by your data and analysis, you can point to a table or figure that illustrates your finding.

When you present tables or figures in your results section, make sure to describe at least some of the data included in these visual representations so that readers can clearly understand how the table works and what interpretations can be concluded from them.

You can also use appendices if you have many other helpful figures or tables that cannot be fully included in the text of your academic article.

By using a helpful combination of text, figures, and tables, you, as Authors and Academics, can use this section to effectively share your studies’ findings with the scientific community.

Presenting Research Findings and Statistical Significance

A systematic description of your research results and a correct data analysis and interpretation are related to statistical significance, as they help avoid speculations or misinterpretations by readers of your academic article.

In a valuable research paper:

• data must be directly and clearly presented,
• statistical tests need to be used, and
• the figures obtained and included in the study have to be explained.

Tests of statistical significance should always be presented with your results to show that your research findings objectively confirm or disprove your hypotheses.

You need to report the research results with enough details so that readers can see which statistical analyses were conducted and validated to justify or disprove your hypotheses. It is important to mention relevant research findings, including those that were are statistical insignificant, not validated within your model’s framework, and are at odds with your initial assumptions.

Even if not all of your research results are confirmed, you should not ignore them. These negative results that do not support a particular hypothesis should be noted in the results section, and then explained in the Discussion section.

Writing a Research Results section that do not address the negative results, invalidates the research paper and does not reflect appropriate academic writing.

Research Results Comparison with Similar Academic Articles

The largest part of interpreting and discussing your research findings should be reserved for the Discussion / Conclusion section.

However, there are instances when it is appropriate to compare or contrast your results with findings from previous and similar studies. For example:

• Similar to Author [Year], one of the findings of this study is the strong relationship between…
• While Author [Year] found an indirect relationship between, our study highlighted ….

Key Aspects for Your Research Results Section

For a good structure and organization of your research, keep in mind these aspects:

• Start your research results section by restating the purpose of your research, so that your readers can re-focus on core of your academic article
• Include helpful and quality tables, figures, graphs that can synthesize your research
• Make sure you include details about your data analysis and interpretation, as well as statistical significance tests
• Report the statistical insignificant research findings for your academic article’s credibility
• Use the past tense when describing to your research results
• Do not use vague terms and be as concise as possible when you are reporting your research findings
• Conclude your section with a short paragraph that summarizes your study’s key outcomes.

Which aspects do you focus on when writing your research results section?

This blog series focuses on useful academic writing tips. Next, we examine the Discussion and Conclusion section.
Find our more on writing high-quality research papers