Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Material & Methodology
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgement
• References
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RESULT
PURPOSE
to present the results and make them meaningful to the reader.
statement of results: the results are presented in a format that is accessible to the
reader (e.g. in a graph, table, diagram or written text). Notice that raw data is
usually put in an appendix, if it is included at all.
explanatory text: all graphs, tables, diagrams and figures should be accompanied
by text that guides the reader's attention to significant results. The text makes the
results meaningful by pointing out the most important results, simplifying the
results (e.g. "nearly half" instead of "48.9%"), highlighting significant trends or
relationships (e.g. "the rate of oxygenation decreases as the temperature
decreases"), and perhaps commenting on whether certain results were expected
or unexpected. 2
RESULT
COMMON PROBLEM
The text includes too much detail that simply repeats data presented in
graphs, tables, etc. without making the results meaningful.
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RESULT
ORGANIZATION
•Presenting all the results, then giving a discussion (perhaps in a different section)
•Presenting part of the results then giving a discussion, presenting another part then
giving a discussion, etc.
The method of organization you use will depend on the quantity and type of results you
obtain from your research. You should look for a method of presentation that makes the
information and ideas you are presenting as clear as possible to the reader.
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RESULT
Task: read through the part of the results section below and try to find the
purpose of each sentence. The underlined statements are some ideas to help
you: explanation, reference to a figure, statement of results, making the results
meaningful, comparison.
SUMMARY (adapted from the abstract) Objective of the study: to investigate strategies
in failure diagnosis at cutting-machine-tools with a verbal knowledge acquisition
technique.
Results
"Figure 2 shows"
Reference to a figure. Notice that the present tense is used ("shows"). Usually references
to figures, tables etc. are put in parenthesis rather than in the main body of the sentence
because they are of secondary importance to the results themselves.
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RESULT
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RESULT
ADVICE
References to the figure and to the appendix are generally put in parentheses,
e.g. "(see Appendix)" because this information is of secondary importance. Of
primary importance are the results themselves, so most of the sentences
focuses on them. Look at the following two sentences. Which one is more
effective? Remember the purpose of the text in a results section.
b) The results from the laboratory experiment indicate that the reaction proceeds
faster in the presence of this metal (see Table 1).
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RESULT
The point of this sentence is just to tell the reader to look at Table 1. It does not make the
results in Table 1 meaningful because it does not comment on them.
"b) The results from the laboratory experiment indicate that the reaction
proceeds faster in the presence of this metal (see Table 1)".
This sentence is more effective than a) because it makes the results in the table
meaningful by pointing out a relationship between the speed of the reaction and the
presence of the metal. Notice that the reference to the table is de-emphasized by being
put in parentheses because it is of only secondary importance.
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WRITING FORMAT
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Material & Methodology
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgement
• References
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DISCUSSION
It includes:
Explanation of results: the writer comments on whether or not the results were
expected, and presents explanations for the results, particularly for those that are
unexpected or unsatisfactory.
Deduction: a claim for how the results can be applied more generally (a conclusion
based on reasoning from the results, e.g. we fed fish a new feed, all the fish gained
weight, therefore the new feed causes fish to gain weight).
Hypothesis: a more general claim or possible conclusion arising from the results (which
will be proved or disproved in later research).
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DISCUSSION
COMMON PROBLEM
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DISCUSSION
ORGANIZATION
There are two basic ways of organizing the results and discussion:
The method of organization you use will depend on the quantity and type of
results you obtain from your research. You should look for a method of
presentation that makes the information and ideas you are presenting as clear as
possible to the reader.
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DISCUSSION
Discussion
These strategies appeared in about 60% of the total observed strategies. The
primary strategy was “Historical Information”. This corresponds to the results
of Hoc (1989). In information theory, strategies such as “Information
uncertainty”, which eliminates the greatest number of failure causes, or “Split
half”, which results in a binary splitting of the problem space, are economical
ways to shorten the problem space. We found that in real-life failure diagnosis,
even maintenance experts with more than 20 years experience seldom used
these strategies. One reason may be that the use of this strategy requires
information about conditional probabilities and a fully described problem space
that cannot be supposed for troubleshooting in complex manufacturing
systems.
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DISCUSSION
SOME ADVICE
If you are putting your discussion into a discussion section separate from the
results, you may want to provide a summary of the results to remind your
reader of your main findings.
Put your results in context (e.g. by comparing them with previous research, or
with existing theory) in order to explain them.
Give reasons to account for differences between your research and previous
research or existing theory, or to explain unexpected results.
Remember too that the focus should be different: while you are simply
presenting results and making them meaningful to your reader in the results
section, in the discussion section you are explaining them.
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WRITING FORMAT
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Material & Methodology
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgement
• References
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CONCLUSIONS
PURPOSE
Recommendations.
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CONCLUSIONS
COMMON PROBLEMS
Too long. The conclusion section should be short. Often the conclusion
section is as little as 2.5% of an entire piece of published research.
Too much detail. Conclusions that are too long often have unnecessary
detail. The conclusion section is not the place for details about your
methodology or results. Although you should give a summary of what was
learnt from your research, this summary should be short, since the emphasis in
the conclusions section is on the implications, evaluations, etc. that you make.
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CONCLUSIONS
Objective: The main objective of this study was to assess the impact of
roadbuilding on villages on rural communities.
Conclusion: The model produced in this study can accurately predict the
social and economic impact of road-building on villages in northern Laos.
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CONCLUSIONS
EXAMPLES 1
Read the texts below and see if you can decide the purpose of each highlighted sentence
(e.g. summary of research, major conclusion, problems/drawbacks and other negative
aspects, qualified conclusion, directions for future research, structure of the writing).
Conclusions
The Sisodiya and Cheung beam-type element is found to be particularly suitable for the
analysis of coupled shear/core wall structures. However, it is not without problems. Firstly,
when connected with coupling beams, it yields large fluctuations of shear stresses which
are not realistic. Secondly, it gives only the average bending moments within the elements
but would not give directly the maximum bending moments needed for structural design.
Thirdly, the finite element method is computationally less efficient than many other
methods. These problems have been studied and the following remedies are proposed.
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CONCLUSIONS
To resolve the problem with shear stress evaluation, it is suggested that the
shear stresses in the element should be determined from the horizontal nodal
forces acting on the element instead of from the strain-displacement relation of
the element. This can eliminate all the unrealistic fluctuation of shear stresses
and produce shear stress results which are always in equilibrium with the
external loads. To resolve the problem with bending stress evaluation, it is
proposed to use the element in pairs in the form of a composite element and
apply linear extrapolation to determine the maximum axial and bending stresses.
Finally, in order to improve the computational efficiency of the method, the
number of unknowns to be solved is reduced by neglecting the lateral strains in
the walls which are generally insignificant. After these modifications, it is
believed that the improved beam-type element method is a better method than
most others for the analysis of coupled shear/core wall structures.
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CONCLUSIONS
"These problems have been studied and the following remedies are proposed."
This indicates the structure of the writing: this sentence serves as a link
between the problems just listed and the solutions that follow in the next
paragraph. By using this sentence as a link, the writers make it clear to the
reader what will come next and why. Such links (or "transitions") make writing
easier to follow.
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CONCLUSIONS
EXAMPLES 2
Conclusions
New buckling solutions for regular polygonal, elliptical, semicircular and annular Mindlin
plaes under isotropic inplane loads have been presented. It can be seen that the shear
deformation effect depresses the buckling loads more significantly with increasing plate
thickness and greater boundary restraint. Future research on such plate buckling problems
should be directed at considering: firstly, other loading conditions, such as shear loading,
partial loadings and non-uniform loadings at the edges; and secondly, boundary conditions
involving point supports, mixed edge conditions and elastic restraints.
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CONCLUSIONS
"Future research on such plate buckling problems should be directed at. . . "
Directions for future research. The present research added to the body of
knowledge in this field, but other gaps still remain or have been discovered.
These gaps are identified as being in need of research.
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