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PH403: Discussion Section

PH403: Discussion Section. Janet Tate Acknowledgements http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~martins/sen_sem/thesis_org.html http://online.physics.uiuc.edu/courses/phys499/. Getting Started. BEFORE you write a word, have your results and the literature digested.

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PH403: Discussion Section

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  1. PH403: Discussion Section Janet Tate Acknowledgements http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~martins/sen_sem/thesis_org.html http://online.physics.uiuc.edu/courses/phys499/

  2. Getting Started • BEFORE you write a word, have your results and the literature digested. • Make a bullet list / outline with every point you want to make, and every figure you will insert. • When you have most of your story straight, you string the list together into paragraphs. • This is where you make claims, so you must be able to justify everything you say. • If there is agreement, or disagreement, with previous work, you will need to state that clearly and defend with precision and accuracy. • The first few sentences should summarize your most important results.

  3. What kind of discussion? • If you have posed a particular hypothesis that can be tested, this section shows how and why the results support, or do not support, your hypothesis. • If the data are contradictory (some support and some do not) address that here. • If you have built something, set up a calculation, or collected information, then you discuss pitfalls, problems, and what you actually did accomplish. • Keep in mind this thesis is a service to the next student – what did you want to read when you started?

  4. Questions to answer • What major patterns arose from the results? • What are the relationships, trends, and generalizations among the results, AND what are the exceptions? • What are the sources of error? • What are likely mechanisms, and why? • Is there agreement / disagreement with previous work? • What are the implications of your results? • Give all possible (reasonable) interpretations. If you think one interpretation is most likely, explain why, but don’t ignore any possibilities. • What do we understand now that we did not understand before this work? • What is the significance of your work?

  5. Common mistakes • New results presented: • Results belong in the “Results” section • Broad statements made: • Conclusions belong in “Conclusions” • Statements unsupported by evidence • “Inconclusive cop out”: • After all of that work, don’t just state that you cannot see any trends or that there is nothing to discuss – play with the results! • Ambiguous data sources: • Make it clear whether you are discussing your data or those in the literature. • Missing information. Don’t forget to: • Relate your discussion to the “Results” section. • Re‐state the hypothesis and motivation, tie your work into the larger field of research, compare your work to published results.

  6. Results and discussion combined? • You may feel that the results and discussion do not warrant separate chapters, especially if you are reporting very limited number of results. • The danger of “in-line” interpretation is that you fail to give the reader all of the information up front, and introduce new results after you have already forced an interpretation. • Maybe one chapter suffices for both, but even if so, it usually makes a better story to present all the results in one section, and then a section with the interpretation & implications.

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