TEALE FENNING

Nick Raine-Fenning · Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 11:32 am Post subject: The Introduction & Discussion

I now review several articles every week and this has fine tuned my own writing. One of the easiest mistakes to make is to write too long an introduction and discussion. A lot of what people write in their introductions could be moved to the discussion or better still simply deleted. Remember what these important aspects of a manuscript are for:

Introduction

This should sell your work.

To do this you need to briefly review the current literature critically appraising its deficiencies and showing why there is a need for your work. Do not make the mistake of writing a mini-review on the subject - you have to be invited to do this normally and that means you are an expert!

The end of the introduction should clearly outline why your work is novel and valid and finish with a statement about your hypothesis.

Discussion

The discussion is often used by people to represent their results - this is wrong. The discussion is a very important part of the paper as it allows you to address any deficiencies in your own work and plan future work which is always relevant as the vast majority of studies generate more new ideas than solve them! The discussion is the place to address the relevance of your findings / results and explain the reasons for them.

I suggest the following approach:

1. state what you have found that is new

2. stress what is novel about your study i.e. look back to your hypothesis

3. say how your findings agree with the literature and consensus

4. say how your findings differ from the literature and consensus

5. make suggestions as to why there are similarities and differences

6. address any limitations (be reasonable - do not undermine your own work - this is the job of the reviewer! some humility does help on occasion however and there are usually good reasons for any problems)

7. outline further work

NB stick to your hypothesis and results and do not read too much into your findings unless this is truly validated.

That's 7 paragraphs, maybe 8-9 if you have a few good or interesting findings, in total.

Just like the introduction, do not use your discussion to write a review on the subject.
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