1 WRITING CHEMICAL RESEARCH PAPERS Phew! Getting there, at last! RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

2 What the Results Section Should contain It should present the key results of your work This is probably best done using tables and/or figures for quantitative work or schemes and text for mainly qualitative work Avoid repetition of data presentation

3 Organization of Results Results should be presented in logical sequence The sequence should match that in Materials and Methods Plan all figures and tables in order of sequence of results

4 Writing an Effective Results Section: General Points Make sure that all data is accurate and consistent throughout the manuscript Use the past tense and keep the writing clear, brief and accurate Use only results that are relevant to the questions posed in the Introduction

5 More General Points Use your Outline and divide the data between text, figures and tables in the most effective way Summarize your results (text) and refer the reader to the relevant data in figures and/or tables. Avoid repetition Highlight the major trends or differences in your results

6 Discussion: its Purpose Here you should state the interpretations and implications of your results It should present answers to questions and assessment of hypotheses posed in the Introduction It should explain how the results support the answers and hypotheses and how the answers fit in with other literature reports

7 Organization of Discussion Organize the Discussion so that it makes the biggest impact on the reader Build upon organization of arguments already decided at the Outline manuscript stage Use a cluster diagram, issue tree or simply a numbered sequence

8 What the Discussion Should Contain Brief but thorough and clear arguments A full statement and explanation of answers posed, with full support and defense No repetition of results No side issues

9 Writing an Effective Discussion: General Points Re-state the hypotheses you are testing and answer the questions posed in the Introduction Start with the specific and move to the general: relate your findings to the literature In present tense, use same key terms and viewpoint as when posing questions in the Introduction

10 More General Points Address all the results relating to posed questions Use them well to support your deductions Explain why results are acceptable: comment on consistency, precision (etc) and comment on agreement with previously published data

11 More General Points Describe principles, patterns or relationships shown by each major result and try to put them in perspective. First state the answer, then the relevant results, followed by citations of other researchers’ work. Use the figures and/or tables to enhance your argument.

12 Yet More General Points Explain why your answers are valid and why others are not Give an evaluation of conflicting explanations of your results Identify limitations or weaknesses and comment on how these affect interpreatation and validity of the results

13 Finally Summarize concisely the principal implications of the results Provide one or two recommendations for further work, if this is helpful Explain the importance of the results and conclusions of your study and show your work contributes to knowledge in this field

14 Relationship Amongst Observed Facts (Data) The discussion should lead the reader to unambiguous conclusions. The following two slides give examples of how different conclusions can result if the argument is unclear

15 A physicist, biologist and a chemist were going to the ocean for the first time. The physicist saw the ocean and was fascinated by the waves. He said he wanted to do some research on the fluid dynamics of the waves and walked into the ocean. Obviously he was drowned and never returned. The biologist said he wanted to do research on the flora and fauna inside the ocean and walked inside the ocean. He too, never returned. The chemist waited for a long time and afterwards, wrote the observation, "The physicist and the biologist are soluble in ocean water".

16 A science teacher set up a simple experiment to demonstrate to her class of juniors the dangers of alcohol. She filled one glass with water and the other with gin. She then dropped a worm into each glass. The worm in the water survived happily, but the one in the gin died very quickly. “What does this experiment prove?” she asked. After some silence, one little boy suggested: It proves that if you drink gin you won’t have worms.” T-H-A-N-K-Y-O-U!

17 Example

18Example…continued

19 Example…continued