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In this article, I’m going to take a look at the empirical chapter, which is the core of the thesis, and the discussion chapter, which is the synthesis between the core and the background and where you relate your findings to the broader thesis and literature.
Normally spread over a number of chapters, this is where the magic happens, where the examiner will see if you have what it takes to call yourself Doctor.
In this article, we will be looking at how to structure both your empirical and discussion sections.
If you’ve been working through our other resources on how to structure your thesis, you’ll know we can break a thesis down into three sections: background, core and synthesis. The empirical chapter comprises the core of your thesis. The discussion chapter makes up the synthesis part of your thesis.
The core of the thesis is where you present your results, findings, and so on. It can easily consist of several chapters, and they typically form the bulk of the contribution that the thesis makes.
The synthesis, though, is where you tie the core to all of the background discussions. So, your job is to take those empirical discussions and relate them back to the theory (or develop theory, if that is your goal) and, certainly, the existing literature (and the gaps you highlighted in your literature review), research questions, aims and objectives. It is here that you critically examine your own findings in light of the existing literature and theory. The outcome is a series of conclusions, which you then explore in the conclusion to the thesis as a whole.
The empirical section/chapter is somewhat straightforward, as it is a logical extension of the discussions in the background sections of the thesis. The discussion section/chapter poses more problems and is something that many students struggle with. I hope that by the end of this article, you'll have a better idea of how to approach yours.
With that in mind, let's begin.
There is a very important distinction that needs to be made between the empirical and discussion sections/chapters.
It is a common misconception that the empirical chapters are the place for your analysis. Often this confuses the reader. In fact, you need to split the empirical facts and discussion of those facts into two distinct sections or chapters.
Remember that a typical PhD has four sections:
Introduction - where you summarise and introduce the research and its contribution
Background - where you lay the foundations (in your literature review, theory framework, and methods)
Core - where you present the findings
Synthesis - where you relate the core to the background
The empirical chapters are where you present the facts of your study. They are the 'core' of the thesis. The discussion is where you interpret and discuss your findings in relation to the thesis and wider discipline.
The job of a discussion chapter then is to critically examine your findings with reference to the discussion in the background chapters of the thesis (introduction, literature review, theoretical framework and methods) and to make judgments as to what has been learnt in your work. In essence, the job of a discussion chapter is to tell the readers what your findings (may) mean.
For more on the importance of keeping these sections distinct (and important exceptions), click here to read an extended guide.
It's important to note that the form your empirical chapter will take - or indeed if you have one at all - will depend heavily on the nature of your thesis and the discipline in which you're working.
Broadly speaking though, the emphasis in the empirical section or chapter is on factual recount and summary. You’ll be categorising your findings into particular themes and using a variety of visual elements (tables, figures, charts, and so on) to present your results. You need to show the reader what your data 'looks like'. You need to do it well, too. If you present data in a messy way, your examiner might think that your thinking is messy.
By the time you have finished your empirical chapter, your reader should be able to answer six questions:
What are the results of your investigations?
How do the findings relate to previous studies?
Was there anything surprising or that didn't work out as planned?
Are there any themes or categories that emerge from the data?
Have you explained to the reader why you have reached particular conclusions?
Have you explained the results?
The reason many students struggle to write their discussion chapters is that they lack the confidence needed to make the kinds of knowledge claims that are required. The discussion chapter is where you start to develop your scholarly authority, and where you start to make truth claims about your interpretation of what's going on. By implication, that means it is where you start to agree or disagree with existing literature and theoretical ideas.
Another reason why students struggle is that they fail to realise the significance of their findings or, put differently, they don't think their findings are significant enough in their own right.
One of the biggest obstacles is synthesising your empirical data and being able to critically discuss it in relation to this broader context. For a detailed guide on how to do this, click here.
When you're writing, you need to make sure that your discussion section addresses the following questions:Â 1