Presenting research findings and conclusion

Research findings

It is the principal outcomes of a research project; what the project suggested, revealed or indicated.
This usually refers to the totality of outcomes, rather than the conclusions or recommendations
drawn from them.

Findings are basically the key outcome of the investigation. It is basically a key fact which you can
discover during an investigation. Research findings are facts and phrases, observations, and
experimental data resulting from research.

It’s important to note here that “finding” does not always mean “factual information” because
conductive research relies on results and implications rather than measurable facts.

For example, A researcher is conducting research for measuring the extent up to which globalization
impacts the business activities of firms. The findings of the research reveal that there has been a great
increase in the profitability of companies after globalization. An important fact which researcher has
discovered is that it is globalization which has enabled firms to expand their business operations at the
international level.

HOW TO PRESENT RESEARCH FINDINGS

Know your audience in advance

Know who is there, their interests/jobs/methodological bugbears, and their names. It's great in a Q&A
when a presenter responds to a question and begins with the name of the person who asked.

Tailor your presentation to that audience

Surprisingly, many don’t do this and just present 'their research' and expect people to want to think
through why it is relevant

Highlight the context

If there is a policy or practice context, highlight this - more so than theoretical/methodological context
(though you should briefly allude to these to highlight you know your onions).

Policy or practice recommendations

If there are policy or practice recommendations, you must draw these out - at the end of the day,
people in these organisations are using research-based evidence as a means to making decisions - so
help them make those decisions
5

Include recommendations that are actionable and that help your audience.

Don’t just have recommendations that say 1) we need to do more research and 2) my research has
highlighted that this issue needs more funds. Both are acceptable as part of wider recommendations;
the latter needs to explain how funds would be spent and on what.

Time and practise what you do

If you have a 10m slot, pace out the sections (context/meat/conclusions) so that you don’t spend 8m on
context and then overrun.

Avoid powerpointlessness

Focus should be you, not your over-detailed slides. When I see someone with a 10m slot and 20 slides I
groan (NB: #guilty). Just because a paragraph has a bullet point in front of it, it doesn’t mean it is a bullet
point. Try www.prezi.com as a ppt alternative. Its cool. Here's my attempt at a prezi.

Visualise your data: try infographics!

Look at manyeyes and informationisbeautiful for inspiration. If you've got data tables, make sure they
are ledgible from 10ft! If you put your data tables on google docs it also means your audience can then
access them.

Keep it simple

This is difficult, but keep it simple, avoid jargon. People will probably only remember 3 points at the
most.

10

Don't conclude its all just about the methodology you have used

From my experience, people don’t want to be told that different methods produce different results, that
the evidence is inconclusive - ie all the richness that researchers care about. Hopefully you can bring this
out in the Q&A.

11

Keep your write-up flawless

The content you have written for showcasing your research findings has to be entirely free from
grammatical errors, punctuation mistakes, and syntactical errors. Make sure all the grammar mistakes
are rectified minutely to make your paper completely flawless
12

Before and after

The actual 'presentation' is only part of it. Put your slides on www.slideshare.net or your blog so that
afterwards people can get them and comment on them. Ask them for questions in advance. Connect
with them on www.LinkedIn.com afterwards

PRESENTing Research conclusion

A well-written conclusion provides you with several important opportunities to demonstrate your
overall understanding of the research problem to the reader. These include:

1. Presenting the last word on the issues you raised in your paper. Just as the introduction gives a
first impression to your reader, the conclusion offers a chance to leave a lasting impression. Do
this, for example, by highlighting key points in your analysis or findings.

2. Summarizing your thoughts and conveying the larger implications of your study. The
conclusion is an opportunity to succinctly answer the "so what?" question by placing the study
within the context of past research about the topic you've investigated.

3. Demonstrating the importance of your ideas. Don't be shy. The conclusion offers you a chance
to elaborate on the significance of your findings.

4. Introducing possible new or expanded ways of thinking about the research problem. This does
not refer to introducing new information [which should be avoided], but to offer new insight
and creative approaches for framing/contextualizing the research problem based on the results
of your study.

Rules

When writing the conclusion to your paper, follow these general rules:

 State your conclusions in clear, simple language.

 Do not simply reiterate your results or the discussion.

 Indicate opportunities for future research, as long as you haven't already done so in the
discussion section of your paper.

The function of your paper's conclusion is to restate the main argument. It reminds the reader of the
strengths of your main argument(s) and reiterates the most important evidence supporting those
argument(s). Make sure, however, that your conclusion is not simply a repetitive summary of the
findings because this reduces the impact of the argument(s) you have developed in your essay.

Consider the following points to help ensure your conclusion is appropriate:

2. If, prior to your conclusion, you have not yet explained the significance of your findings or if you
are proceeding inductively, use the end of your paper to describe your main points and explain
their significance.

3. Move from a detailed to a general level of consideration that returns the topic to the context
provided by the introduction or within a new context that emerges from the data.

The conclusion also provides a place for you to persuasively and succinctly restate your research
problem, given that the reader has now been presented with all the information about the topic.
Depending on the discipline you are writing in, the concluding paragraph may contain your reflections
on the evidence presented, or on the essay's central research problem. However, the nature of being
introspective about the research you have done will depend on the topic and whether your professor
wants you to express your observations in this way.

II.  Developing a Compelling Conclusion

Strategies to help you move beyond merely summarizing the key points of your research paper may
include any of the following.

1. If your essay deals with a contemporary problem, warn readers of the possible consequences of
not attending to the problem.

2. Recommend a specific course or courses of action.

3. Cite a relevant quotation or expert opinion to lend authority to the conclusion you have reached
[a good place to look is research from your literature review].

4. Restate a key statistic, fact, or visual image to drive home the ultimate point of your paper.

5. If your discipline encourages personal reflection, illustrate your concluding point with a relevant
narrative drawn from your own life experiences.

6. Return to an anecdote, an example, or a quotation that you introduced in your introduction, but
add further insight that is derived from the findings of your study; use your interpretation of
results to reframe it in new ways.

7. Provide a "take-home" message in the form of a strong, succient statement that you want the
reader to remember about your study.

Problems to Avoid

Failure to be concise

The conclusion section should be concise and to the point. Conclusions that are too long often have
unnecessary detail. The conclusion section is not the place for details about your methodology or
results. Although you should give a summary of what was learned from your research, this summary
should be relatively brief, since the emphasis in the conclusion is on the implications, evaluations,
insights, etc. that you make.

Failure to comment on larger, more significant issues

In the introduction, your task was to move from general [the field of study] to specific [your research
problem]. However, in the conclusion, your task is to move from specific [your research problem] back
to general [your field, i.e., how your research contributes new understanding or fills an important gap in
the literature]. In other words, the conclusion is where you place your research within a larger context.

Failure to reveal problems and negative results

Negative aspects of the research process should never be ignored. Problems, drawbacks, and challenges
encountered during your study should be included as a way of qualifying your overall conclusions. If you
encountered negative results [findings that are validated outside the research context in which they
were generated], you must report them in the results section of your paper. In the conclusion, use the
negative results as an opportunity to explain how they provide information on which future research
can be based.

Failure to provide a clear summary of what was learned

In order to be able to discuss how your research fits back into your field of study [and possibly the world
at large], you need to summarize it briefly and directly. Often this element of your conclusion is only a
few sentences long.

Failure to match the objectives of your research

Often research objectives change while the research is being carried out. This is not a problem unless
you forget to go back and refine your original objectives in your introduction, as these changes emerge
they must be documented so that they accurately reflect what you were trying to accomplish in your
research [not what you thought you might accomplish when you began].

Resist the urge to apologize

If you've immersed yourself in studying the research problem, you now know a good deal about it,
perhaps even more than your professor! Nevertheless, by the time you have finished writing, you may
be having some doubts about what you have produced. Repress those doubts! Don't undermine your
authority by saying something like, "This is just one approach to examining this problem; there may be
other, much better approaches...."