Results

As in the previous chapters the findings begins with a Preamble, a paragraph

describing
what will be covered or accomplished in this chapter. This might begin with a brief
narrative of
how you will conduct your data analysis and coding, a concise version of the
strategy and
measurement section, from the Research Methods chapter, minus the
measurements. In the
findings chapter the researcher will describe and define (analyze) the data
collected, and only the
data collected without assigning importance, value, or meaning. This shows that the
researcher
understands what has been collected and remains neutral and unbiased in
confronting the
phenomena of the data. Ascribing importance, value, or meaning is the task of the
final chapter,
Discussion. Quantitative researchers might begin by relating briefly some of the
interesting
results from the statistical analysis. Then all research studies would review the data
in relation to
the following headings:
Sample
Discuss those who actually participated if you have human interaction, whether this
is
general descriptions of the sample if you did not collect demographic information,
or more
specific descriptions if you have more specific demographic information. It is
important to be
sure to use pseudonyms for the participants, others they name, and their
organizations.

Methodologies that depend on sources other than human participants should offer a
brief
description of the materials they use. In a quantitative study this information is
often captured in
the aggregate. So you can use information in frequency tables or descriptive tables
to discuss
and display trends regarding the sample of participants. Dont go overboard, keep
the tables
presented interesting and relevant.