Hi all, have you (or are you going to) discuss your findings and discussion together or separately?

By that, I mean are you going to have findings chapter(s) just talking about your key findings and providing quotes (if qualitative which I am) etc, followed by separate discussion chapter(s) linking your findings to previous literature

OR

Are your findings linked to previous literature together?

I hope that makes sense. I have always done findings and discussion chapters separately, but I'm wondering whether it would be best to do them together.

Thanks all!

Every thesis differs......but I've separated four result chapters from my two discussion chapters. My examiners were happy with the structure so I'm not changing it.

I have four findings chapters (exactly as you describe, qualitative, quotes etc) and then an analysis/discussion chapter following and it's this chapter that I have to work on for my thesis revisions. Not a word was said about my 4 findings chapters!

I have Introduction, literature review, method (epistemology mainly), then 3 chapters which are like self-contained studies, as you'd read in a journal article, but obviously a bit longer, then a discussion chapter that reitertes the findings, pulls it all together and gives overall limitations etc. Each of my middle 3 chapters has their own method, results, discussion. If that makes sense?

Hi, mine are integrated chapters, but the overall feel of the thesis is a bit different, I have 3 "analysis" chapters which focus on three stages of implementing a project. I've pulled in the literature throughout. However I would stress that I am going to receive feedback on the first of these three chapters on Wednesday so I may post back with something different after that! 8-)

Thanks all, that's really helpful, although I'm not sure what to do!

I have 4 key concepts which I am exploring, but for 1 of them there isn't as much to discuss, so I'm a bit worried that if I did separate them into 4 findings chapters then 1 would be considerably shorter than the other 3? Ady, what were the word lengths for your findings and discussion chapters?

Agggghhh maybe I should just start writing and see how I get on!

:-) ah yes indeed, this was a point of discussion as I was drafting my thesis! Initially I also felt that one of my themes, although relevant, was not as substantial as the others and I suggested having two findings chapters and sub-divide each into two separate sections - four 'sections' in all rather than four chapters. I thought this way I could give the one with slightly less content just the amount of space it needed, without padding it out to match the others. This suggestion didn't go down well!! Eventually, the four of them (as chapters) came to roughly 6000 words each so as a package they came to ~24,000. As I say, absoltuely nothing was said about my findings in the viva. Some of the analysis however...

I spent ages trying to decide 'how' to present my findings. I read 'Presenting qualitative data' by Ronald Chenail and found it very helpful and it has some good additional references as well. It's available for free download from The Qualitative Report.

Thanks so much Ady! That is exactly the issue I'm toying with at the moment; whether to have 4 separate findings chapters, or whether to combine them into 2 which I'm not sure about (although I would have a reaonsable explanation if I did do it like that). Was there any particularly reason why your sups didn't like the idea of combining chapters? I'm half way through writing findings for the first concept and that's 3k at the moment, so I imagine that I will also have 6k ish per concept.

Were there any issues with your chapters varying in length? At the moment I think I will have 2 lit review chapters approx 10k each, my meth chapter is 12k, and then I'd have the 4 6k findings chapters. Some people say to have e.g 8 chapters all of 10k each to keep it all consistent, but I can't imagine how this would work! Hmm.

Thanks for your help!

Issues of structure did come up in the viva but not in relation to my findings, about something else:$ In the end I have to put things back to the way they were!

Supv thought findings chapters themselves should be roughly the same length but overall my chapters did differ in terms of length and I don't think it mattered. I know lots of people say chapters should be of even-ish length but if this isn't the way it naturally falls, I don't think you should force it.

Writing my findings took me ages as in ages and ages finding a way and then the actual writing happened quite fast!!

I'd probably recommend you stick to different chapters if you can and stick to talking about the findings alone in the results section, and to have a separate discussion chapter where you put all the findings together and then relate to relevant literature if that makes sense?

I wouldn't worry too much about chapter length unless they're really short/long. I'd imagine anyone would rather have a succint and yet in depth text than a long waffly one.