Reporting and

Sharing the Findings

Module VIII
Guidelines in Making Conclusion
Researchers in general consider conclusions their greatest
contribution to the fund of knowledge. Drawing conclusions is one of
the challenging tasks in the entire research process.
A finding is usually considered the chief outcome of the research
process. It denotes totality of the entire investigation. Here, the
researcher makes sure that each research question has a
corresponding answer.
In essence a conclusion allows the readers to see your research useful
in knowledge creation as it matters the way it does to the readers.
When they say so what after reading your conclusion, there must be
wrong in your conclusion, so you need to rethink and rewrite it
without unnecessarily repeating the results.
Let us take a look at some tips in preparing a well-crafted conclusion.
1. Write the conclusion as concise as possible. One or two paragraphs
may be enough.
2. Never simply restate the results. Discuss salient finding and
interpret.
3. Draw attention to limitations, exceptions or lack of correlation
between your research findings and those of the previous studies.
This is the time when you need to check if your research findings
and interpretations contrast or agree to the related literature.
4. State and discuss in quick manner the implications of the research
findings as well as any practical application of the research results.
5. State and condense your evidences for each conclusion.
Some key words or phrases can be used to start a conclusion.
Summarizing the content
Restatement of aims (research)
Summarizing the findings (research)
Suggesting implications
Significance of the findings (research contribution)
Significance of the findings with a qualification
Limitations of the current study
Guidelines in Making Recommendations

Like drawing conclusions, preparing recommendations require

researchers ability to offer plausible, if not feasible means to improve
or further the investigation being conducted. Oftentimes,
recommendations are numbered as broken down. In other occasions,
they are stated in paragraph form. The number of recommendations
usually depends on the number of conclusions drawn.
 Techniques in Listing References
Listing references may vary in style as presented in Module IV.
Oftentimes, it is dependent on the prescribed format that has been
adopted among researching individuals in schools, industries or
community.
For various reasons, APA has been widely known an used at presented
by many researchers all over the world particularly those from social
sciences and hard sciences such as physics, chemistry, environment
sciences, among others. To avoid wastage of time and efforts, you
should get to know the citation and referencing style prescribed in
your respective disciplines.
The Process of Report Writing
Writing as a language skill may be so difficult to may people; others
find it challenging while daunting for some. In research, this task may
be made easier when the researcher has obtained a full grasp of the
overall research undertakings. Critical thinking, apart from exact
writing, is needed in preparing a research report.
One important thing is that you should follow the writing format of
the research report set by the school where you study.
Burnard (2004) outlined 10 basic parts and sections of a publishable
qualitative research article:

1. Abstract
Being written the last, the abstract usually contains 200-250
words depending on the guidelines of the research organization where
you submit your paper for publication.
The basic components of research abstract include
1. Topic introduction
2. Main objective of the study
3. Research design/ method
4. Sampling technique and instrumentation
5. Findings of the study
6. Conclusions, and
7. Recommendations.
The abstract carries the title and keyword that are used in the study.
2. Introduction
A well-written Introduction
Sets the overview of the study
Puts the study in context
Defines the research problem or topic investigated
States strong justification for conducting the study
Demonstrates clear connection of the study to previous researchers

3. Aims of the study

This part of the research report clearly states the main
objective and specific objectives of the study. The researcher makes
sure that those are achievable. Oftentimes, time and money are
considered in research planning given the capability of the researcher
in conducting the entire research.
4. Review of Literature
This sub-part of the paper may be optional given the current
trends in writing a publishable research paper. Modern research
scientists, to include the researching professionals, have popularized
the idea of making the literature review embedded in almost all sub-
parts of the paper. This is predominantly found in the Introduction
and Results and Discussion.
Oftentimes, research experts use recent reference materials
(usually five years back from the present time). This is to warrant
freshness of the research findings that you may consider in your own
research.

5. Sample
The research sample is the sub-set of the target population. It
is determined substantially to establish convincing, if not, wide-
ranging generalization of the research findings. In qualitative
research, data saturation dictates the sample size with the sample
previously determined.
6. Date Collection Methods
In general, a scientific research needs to be carried out on exact data
gathering method. Dependent on the desired data to obtain, such
method should be handled with maximum precision.

7. Data Analysis Methods

Qualitative researchers always choose the most appropriate data
analysis method. Failure to properly operationalize certain method of
data analysis may impair the researcher to accurately analyze and
interpret the research findings.

8. Results and Discussion

The Discussion part consists of salient findings analyzed and
discussed using the researchers analytical thinking skills. It contains
his or her interpretation of the results and personal insights ensuring
validity and reliability of the research findings.
The findings of the study usually show the outgrowth of the inquiry
which usually appears in textual form as in the case of the qualitative
research. Interpreting the findings is one of the challenging tasks of a
qualitative researcher apart from identifying emerging themes and
patterns.

9. Conclusions
Generally, conclusions are usually considered the researchers
contribution to science. It is in this part of the research report where
the research questions are answered while drawing generalization, if
not, stating inferences, implications, and interpretations of the
research findings. It is important to note that qualitative research
does not generalize, thus cannot really make conclusions.
10. Recommendations
This part of the research report is sometimes treated optional.
Recommendations are usually based on the findings and conclusions
having all of these weaved to the core.