What can you say after you've said everything that you've already said? The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 1994) covers Discussion in a little over a page. The advice is to “evaluate and interpret…, examine and qualify …, and draw inferences from [the Results] … Emphasize any theoretical consequences … [and defend] the validity of your conclusions” (p. 18). You encounter three guiding questions:

• What have I contributed here?

• How has my study helped to resolve the original problem?

• What conclusions and theoretical implications can I draw from my study? (p. 19).

The Publication Manual offers a few thoughts about organizing the section; (a) open with a “clear statement of support or nonsupport for the original hypothesis,” (b) link your findings with other work, (c) mention shortcomings (but don't flagellate yourself), and (d) speculate some but not too much. Finally, avoid repetitiveness, polemics, and triviality.

Relatively lean counsel. Surprisingly, most textbooks on research methods also say little or nothing about “Discussion.” This chapter will attempt to fill this gap. Besides the Publication Manual, it draws on a variety of resources; a quick Internet check revealed more than a thousand entries on “Writing the research report,” and that only scratched the surface.