Writing the Results Section

• Writing the Results Section
• Preparation
  1. Review your results carefully
  2. Repeat your analyses to verify the accuracy
  3. If you need graphics or images, review the style guide and Perdue OWL for guidelines regarding tables and figure
• Choose contents and format Appendices typically include:
  1. Instructions to participants, questionnaires and survey forms, copies of instruments used, letters of access and permission
  2. Tables
     1. Used to present complex data in columns and rows. ́
     2. Can present multiple data in an easy to understand form
  3. Figures
     1. Any illustration other than a table.
  4. All these content types appear after the References and should never appear in the body of an APA compliant paper
• Organization: Game plan
  1. Think of your organization like this:
     1. I stated the problem in the Literature Review
     2. I explained my methods in the Methods section

• and I will summarize in the Discussion.

1. How do I best take my reader from Methods to Discussion?

1. Be consistent!
   1. If you have 3 hypotheses in the Literature Review, they need to show up in the Methods section and the Results section.

• Organization: Ordering
  1. By hypothesis H1, H2, H3, etc.
  2. By research question Q1, Q2, Q3, etc
  3. By research method Interview, survey, etc
  4. Qualitative, quantitative
  5. By chronology
  6. By variable
  7. Age, self-concept, achievement level, etc
• Tables and Figures
  1. Just as you developed your hypotheses before you wrote your Literature Review, you should develop your tables and figures before writing your Results.
  2. Be sure to comply with APA requirements
  3. APA Pub Manual offers several questions to help you make effective decisions about your tables:
     1. Is the table essential?
     2. Is the entire table double-spaced?

• Is the title brief but clear?

1. Does every column have a column heading?
2. Are all abbreviations and symbols explained?
3. Are the notes presented in proper form and order

1. Other specific criteria
   1. Supplement without duplicating the text
   2. Text should not be required to explain your table or figure

• Convey only essential facts

1. Omit distracting information
2. Are easy to understand

• Writing your results: Opening paragraph
  1. A sentence that restates the problem
  2. A sentence that provides an overview of the section
  3. Talk in general terms about you did that brought you to your results
  4. Maintain objectivity
  5. Remember that you are not interpreting data in this section
• Writing your results: The rest of the section
  1. The pattern from the first paragraph holds though out
• State a generalization and Summarize the results
• The narrative does not simply rehash what is in the tables and figures.
  1. The narrative calls attention to the major findings
  2. Refer to any tables or figures that are appropriate
  3. Provide specific evidence that supports your reported results
• Headers
  1. Unlike the Methods section, there are no specific headers that are required in this section
  2. Use the appropriate levels of headers to clarify the organization of the section
• Close the section with a brief concluding paragraph that notes generally what you have discovered and points the reader to the discussion section where the results will be analyzed
• The Results section is NOT where interpretations are done

End of session