·Summarize your findings in text and illustrate them, if appropriate, with figures and tables.
·In text, describe your results, pointing the reader to observations that are most relevant.
·Provide a context, such as by describing the question that was addressed by making a particular observation.
·Describe results of control experiments and include observations that are not presented in a formal figure or table, if appropriate.
·Analyze your data, then prepare the analyzed (converted) data in the form of a figure(graph), table, or in text form.
Steps to Writing an effective Results section
1. Determine which results to present by deciding which are relevant to the question(s) presented in the Introduction irrespective of whether or not the results support the hypothesis(es). The Results section does not need to include every result you obtained or observed.
2. Organize the data in the Results section in either chronological order according to the Methods or in order of most to least important. Within each paragraph, the order of most to least important results should be followed.
3. Determine whether the data are best presented in the form of text, figures, graphs, or tables.
4. Summarize your findings and point the reader to the relevant data in the text, figures and/or tables. The text should complement the figures or tables, not repeat the same information.
5. Describe the results and data of the controls and include observations not presented in a formal figure or table, if appropriate.
6. Provide a clear description of the magnitude of a response or difference. If appropriate, use percentage of change rather than exact data.
7. Make sure that the data are accurate and consistent throughout the manuscript.
8. Summarize the statistical analysis and report actual P values for all primary analyses.
9. Use the past tense when you refer to your results.
10. Number figures and tables consecutively in the same sequence they are first mentioned in the text. Depending on the journal, they should be in order at the end of the report after the References, or located appropriately within the text of your results section.
11. Provide a heading for each figure and table. Depending on the journal the table titles and figure legends should be listed separately or located above the table or below the figure. Each figure and table must be sufficiently complete that it could stand on its own, separate from the text.
12. Write with accuracy, brevity and clarity.
Activity 2-1: Identifying types of statements on reporting quantitative results
Table 1: The use of Management Strategy and Mother-tongue Strategy by three different groups
There are three different types of statements on reporting quantitative results:
(1) signal statement
(2) technical description statement
(3) non-technical description statement
Read the following three descriptions and match with the above three types.
(1) The means and standard deviations of the use of different strategies by three groups of students are displayed in Table 1.
(2) It means that among the three groups, High-achievers used Management Strategy most frequently, Low-achievers used it the least frequently and Average-achievers in between. In contrast, Lower-achievers used Mother-tongue strategy the most frequently, High-achievers used it the least frequently and Average-achievers in between.
(3) As shown in Table 1, the mean of the responses to Management Strategy by Highachievers is the highest (i.e. 4.25 on a five-point scale) among the three groups and the average mean of the responses to Mother-tongue Strategy is the lowest (i.e. 2. 32 on a fivepoint scale); while the average mean of the responses to these two strategies by Lowerachievers are just the opposite to High-achievers, i.e. the average mean of their responses to Management Strategy is the lowest among the three groups (i.e.3.05) and to Mothertongue Strategy is the highest (i.e.3.68). The Average-achievers are somewhat in between. Specifically, their mean of the Management Strategy is lower than that of High-achievers but higher than that of Low-achievers while their mean of the Mother-tongue Strategy is higher than that of High-achievers but lower than that of Low-achievers.
Figures and tables
·Either place figures and tables within the text of the result, or include them in the back of the report (following Literature Cited)—do one or the other.
·If you place figures and tables at the end of the report, make sure they are clearly distinguished from any attached appendix materials, such as raw data.
·Regardless of placement, each figure must be numbered consecutively and complete with caption (caption goes under the figure).
·Regardless of placement, each table must be titled, numbered consecutively and complete with heading (title with description goes above the table).
·Each figure and table must be sufficiently complete that it could stand on its own, separate from text.
Activity2-2: Question to answer
How are qualitative results reported?
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It is often said that the results section of a research paper should simply report the data that has been collected; that is, it should focus exclusively on the present results. However, research shows that this distinction between results and discussion is not as sharp as commonly believed.
Thompson (1993) studied the results section from 20 published biochemistry papers and found that scientists do not present results only in a factual expository manner and that they also employ a variety of rhetorical moves to argue for the validity of scientific facts and knowledge claims (p.126). Her findings are summarized in the following table:
Activity2-3: Commentary in results section
Carefully read the results section from Appendix 1, marking any commentary elements. Discuss in groups and answer the following questions:(1) How are the results organized in this paper? (2) In your estimation, which of the following types is it most like?
Use the checklist below to evaluate your results.
My results section ...
focuses on my most important results.
is clear and concise.
lets my graphs and tables do the talking: I only describe general trends.
has not omitted anything important.
describes every table, graph and figure that is included.
describes not discusses.