How To Present Interview Findings In A Dissertation

Dissertation Results & Findings Chapter (Qualitative). Learn to write down the outcomes chapter (also known as findings chapter) for the qualitative dissertation or thesis. Step-by-step guide + examples.

The concluding summary is essential since it summarises your key findings and lays the reason for discussion chapter. Bear in mind that some readers may skip straight to this (in the introduction section), so make certain that it may be read and understood well in isolation.

  • Section 1: Introduction
  • Section 2: Body
  • Section 3: Concluding summary

Video advice: Presentation of Findings


How do I write the results chapter?

The results chapter in a dissertation or thesis (or any formal academic research piece) is where you objectively and neutrally present the findings of your qualitative analysis (or analyses if you used multiple qualitative analysis methods). This chapter can sometimes be combined with the discussion chapter (where you interpret the data and discuss its meaning), depending on your university’s preference. We’ll treat the two chapters as separate, as that’s the most common approach.

Writing up your results in a thesis or dissertation – Once you’ve finished collecting and analyzing your data, you can begin writing up the results. This is where you report the main findings of your.

For each theme, make general observations about what the data showed. For example, you might mention recurring points of agreement or disagreement, patterns and trends, and individual responses that were particularly significant to your research question. You can clarify and support these points with direct quotations, and report relevant demographic information about participants.

  1. Tables and figures
  2. What can proofreading do for your paper?
  3. Is this article helpful?

Discussing your findings

Your dissertation’s discussion should tell a story, say experts. What do your data say?

Steven David, PhD, who successfully defended his dissertation in clinical geropsychology at the University of Southern California last May, found this point to be particularly difficult. When he defended his master’s thesis, his committee told him his conclusions went too far out on a limb. He used more restraint with his dissertation and his committee thought he wasn’t positive enough.

You’ve conducted your research, analyzed your findings and written your results. You’re tired and the last thing you want to do is keep writing. Yet, arguably the most difficult part of writing your dissertation awaits: your discussion, the place where you sew up the various threads of your research into a cohesive narrative. This is not the time to hurry through just because the end is in sight, say experts and students alike. Rather, it’s the time to pull back and take a fresh look at your work.

Reporting and discussing your findings

A claim like this, which implies that the statement is true in every case, cannot be supported with evidence. Claims should therefore be specific and precise, and the level of certainty must match the level of evidence. There are many methods used in academic writing to qualify a claim:

  • Finding your focus
  • What have you learnt from your data?
  • Three kinds of story: macrostructures for a thesis
  • The big picture
  • Structure
  • Examples
  • What to include
  • Reporting conventions
  • Quantitative data
  • Dealing with “Problems”
  • Past or present tense?
  • Qualitative data

Using cautious language

This page deals with the central part of the thesis, where you present the data that forms the basis of your investigation, shaped by the way you have thought about it. In other words, you tell your readers the story that has emerged from your findings. The form of your chapters should be consistent with this story and its components. Contents: Find the story in your dataPresent your findingsDiscuss your findingsUsing cautious languageFind the story in your dataFor many kinds of research, the main work of interpretation cannot be done until most of the data has been collected and analysed. For others, the data already exists (in the form of archival documents or literary texts, for example), and the work of interpreting it begins much earlier in the research process. Whatever kind of research you are doing, there comes a moment when your head is full of ideas that have emerged from your analysis. Ideally, you will have written them down as they came to you. Now you have to convert that mass of material and ideas into a written text that will make sense to a reader, and do justice to your findings.

Writing Chapter 4 – In reporting qualitative data in Chapter 4, you discuss the themes or categories that emerged from the word, phrases and sentences you collected from interviews, observations or document analysis. …

Chenail (1995) akins writing-up qualitative data to “the Tarzan Process, because I think of the quotes as vines in the jungle. As I maneuver myself from one quote to the next, I imagine myself as Tarzan swinging from one vine to another. It’s a great way to travel and a fun way to conceptualize the data re-presentation process”.

5. How to report qualitative research findings?

Interviews can be presented in a number of ways, there is no specific format to follow. However, alike other research methods, justification and methodology of the study should be provided. The research process should be fully transparent so that any researcher can reproduce it. In addition, it should be comprehensible to the reader.

KCE practice is to translate quotes only for publications in international scientific journals, but not for KCE reports. Although KCE reports are written in English, inserted quotes are in Dutch or French to stay close to the original meaning. The authors should pay attention to the readability of the text and make sure that the text without quotes is comprehensive to English speaking readers.

Ideally, quotes are anonymous and are accompanied by a pseudonym or description of the respondents. For example, in a research about normal birth, this could be: (Midwife, 36 years). There are however exceptions the rule of anonymity, e.g. stakeholder interviews, in which the identity of the respondent is important for the interpretation of the findings. In that case the respondent should self-evidently be informed and his agreement is needed in order to proceed.

(Guide) How to Present Qualitative Research Findings in PowerPoint? – As a researcher, it is quite pointless to do the research if we are unable to share the findings with our audience appropriately! Using PowerPoint is one of the best ways to present research outcomes. But, how does one present qualitative research findings using PowerPoint? In order to present the qualitative research findings using PowerPoint, …

NOTE – It is important to note that although the following structure is highly effective for most research findings presentation, it has been generalized in order to serve a wide range of research projects. You may want to take a look at points that are very specific to the nature of your research project and include them at your discretion.

  1. Objective of the Research
  2. Key Parameters Considered for Measurement
  3. Research Methodology Adopted
  4. Research Outcomes (Presenting Descriptive Analysis)
  5. Summary and Learnings from the Research
  6. Inclusions and Exclusions (if any)
  7. Conclusion of the Research
  8. Questions
  9. Tip 1 – Use Visuals
  10. Tip 2 – Tell a Story (Don’t Show Just Data!)
  11. Tip 3 – Include Quotes of the Participants
  12. Use Quotes in their Unedited Form

LibGuides: Dissertations and research projects: Qualitative research

Online study guides for every stage of your research project, from planning to writing up. Also includes advice on writing a remote dissertation while social distancing measures are in place.


Video advice: How to Write a Dissertation Results Section


Depending on your research aims, and whether you are working with a case-study type approach (where each section of the dissertation considers a different example or concept through the lens established in your literature review), you might opt for one of the following structures:

  • Why do I need a theoretical framework?
  • Developing a theoretical framework shows that you have thought critically about the different ways to approach your topic, and that you have made a well-reasoned and evidenced decision about which approach will work best. Theoretical frameworks are also necessary for solving complex problems or issues from the literature, showing that you have the skills to think creatively and improvise to answer your research questions. They also allow researchers to establish new theories and approaches, that future research may go on to develop.
  • How do I create a theoretical framework for my dissertation?
  • How do I choose the ‘right’ approach?
  • Introduction
  • Literature review
  • Methodology
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • A summary of your key findings – what you have concluded from your research, and how far you have been able to successfully answer your research questions.
  • Alternative structure
  • Presenting qualitative data

Developing a theoretical framework shows that you have thought critically about the different ways to approach your topic, and that you have made a well-reasoned and evidenced decision about which approach will work best. Theoretical frameworks are also necessary for solving complex problems or issues from the literature, showing that you have the skills to think creatively and improvise to answer your research questions. They also allow researchers to establish new theories and approaches, that future research may go on to develop.

The Role of the Qualitative Researcher

In the following, we’ll explore how the researcher conducting qualitative research becomes responsible for maintaining the rigor and credibility of various aspects of the research. In a way, this is analogous to the role statistics, validated and reliable instruments, and standardized measures and methods play in quantitative research.

The first step: is to self-assess your competence. Assume you do not have competence in each of the skill areas unless you have demonstrated it to someone who knows. If you perform interviews of clients, for example, but have never been taught to do interviews for research, assume you do not have the competence until a researcher who uses interviews tells you that you do.

  1. Integrity of the Research is the Issue
  2. Role of Researcher: Monitoring and Reducing Bias
  3. Role of Researcher: Developing Competence in Methods
  4. Role of Researcher: Presenting the Findings

The researcher’s ideas—about the study, her knowledge, about the topic from the literature review, hopes for the study, and simply human distractibility—crop up constantly and can distort what she hears. Confirmation bias—(the name for this) afflicts quantitative researchers, too, but more often when they are analyzing data and seeing what they are disposed to see. Qualitative researchers, whose human brains are trained to find meaning in everything, encounter confirmation bias in every interaction with both participants and data.

How to Write the Findings of a Dissertation

Not sure how to write the findings of a dissertation. Here are some comprehensive guidelines for you to learn to write a flawless findings chapter.

As soon as you have gathered and analysed your data, you can start to write up the findings chapter of your dissertation paper. Remember that it is your chance to report the most notable findings of your research work and relate them to the research hypothesis or research questions as set out in the introduction chapter of the dissertation.

  • Use of Figures and Tables in Dissertation Findings
  • How to Report Quantitative Findings
  • TABLE 1
  • Paired Samples
  • TABLE 2
  • Paired Samples Correlation
  • TABLE 3
  • Paired Samples Test
  • How to Report Qualitative Findings
  • Table of content
  • Looking for quantitative dissertation help?
  • Research Prospect to the rescue then!

What to Avoid in Dissertation Findings Chapter

There were 217 participants who completed both the pretest and posttest, and a Pairwise T-test was used for the analysis. The quantitative data analysis reveals there is a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the pretest and posttest scales scores from the Teachers Discovering Computers course. The pretest mean was 29. 00 with a standard deviation of 7. 65, while the posttest means was 26. 50 with a standard deviation of 9. 74 (Table 1). These results yield a significance level of . 000, thereby indicating a strong treatment effect (see Table 3). With the correlation between the two scores being . 448, little relationship is seen between the pretest and posttest scores (Table 2). This leads the researcher to conclude that the impact of the course on the educators’ perception and integration of technology into the curriculum is dramatic.


Video advice: thematic analysis


[FAQ]

How do you present findings in a dissertation?

Introducing your findings

  1. Reminding the reader of what you set out to do.
  2. A brief description of how you intend approaching the write up of the results.
  3. Placing the research in context.
  4. Letting the reader know where they can find the research instruments (i.e. the Appendix)

How do you present qualitative findings?

The first is to simply report key findings under each main theme or category, using appropriate verbatim quotes to illustrate those findings. This is then accompanied by a linking, separate discussion chapter in which the findings are discussed in relation to existing research (as in quantitative studies).

How do you analyze interview data for a dissertation?

Steps in a Thematic Analysis

  1. Familiarize yourself with your data.
  2. Assign preliminary codes to your data in order to describe the content.
  3. Search for patterns or themes in your codes across the different interviews.
  4. Review themes.
  5. Define and name themes.
  6. Produce your report.

Jun 5, 2020.

How do you reference a dissertation interview?

If you would like to include a personal interview as part of your APA reference list, then include the interviewee, the date of the interview, and the type of interview. Interview Citation Structure: Last name, F. (Year, Month date).

References:

Begin your paper/presentation with an introduction to your research, a summary of your review of the relevant literature, and a recap of the methods you used to recruit your participants, collect data from them, analyze your data, and identify your findings.

“Understanding Human Information Behavior: When, How, and Why People Interact with Information” by Beth St. Jean, Ursula Gorham, Elizabeth Bonsignore
from Understanding Human Information Behavior: When, How, and Why People Interact with Information
by Beth St. Jean, Ursula Gorham, Elizabeth Bonsignore
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2021

For instance, when summarising your research focus for the abstract, go to your dissertation Introduction, locate your specific research objectives, summarise them into one or two sentences and insert this summary into your abstract.

“Ebook: Succeeding with Your Master's Dissertation: A Step-by-Step Handbook” by John Biggam
from Ebook: Succeeding with Your Master’s Dissertation: A Step-by-Step Handbook
by John Biggam
McGraw-Hill Education, 2021

as should how you will conduct the primary research (e.g. interviews) together with the intended use of your findings (e.g. as part fulfilment of a Master’s dissertation).

“Succeeding with Your Master's Dissertation” by John Biggam
from Succeeding with Your Master’s Dissertation
by John Biggam
McGraw-Hill Education, 2015

Your Research Methods Appendix should then include full details on who interviewees were; where and when you talked to them; how interviews were conducted (for instance, face­to­face, by phone, using a questionnaire or a dialogue mode, etc.); and how you recorded the material (for instance, taped or noted).

“Authoring a PhD: How to Plan, Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Thesis or Dissertation” by Patrick Dunleavy
from Authoring a PhD: How to Plan, Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Thesis or Dissertation
by Patrick Dunleavy
Palgrave Macmillan, 2003

Create a summary of findings, from both observations and interviews.

“101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization” by Vijay Kumar
from 101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization
by Vijay Kumar
Wiley, 2012

Add comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *