Reporting results

The standard approach to this section of a research article or dissertation is to present and describe the results in a systematic and detailed way. When reporting qualitative results, the researcher will highlight and comment on the themes that emerge from the analysis. These comments will often be illustrated with excerpts from the raw data. In text based studies, this may comprise quotations from primary sources. In quantitative studies, the results section is likely to consist of tables and figures, and writers comment on the significant data shown in these. This often takes the form of the location or summary statement, which identifies the table or figure and indicates its content, and a highlighting statement or statements, which point out and describe the relevant or significant data. All figures and tables should be numbered and given a title. More elaborate commentary on the results is normally restricted to the Discussion section. In research articles, however, authors may comment extensively on their results as they are presented, and it is not uncommon for the Results section to be combined with the Discussion section under the heading: Results and Discussion.

Referring back to the research aims or procedures

The first set of questions aimed to …
To compare the difference between …
Simple statistical analysis was used to …
The next question asked the informants …
Changes in X and Y were compared using …
Regression analysis was used to predict the …
To distinguish between these two possibilities, …
The first set of analyses examined the impact of …
The correlation between X and Y was tested using …
T-tests were used to analyse the relationship between …
The average scores of X and Y were compared in order to …
In order to assess Z, repeated-measures ANOVAs were used.

Referring to data in a table or chart
Table 1
Figure 1
shows
presents
provides
compares
an overview of …
the experimental data on X.
the summary statistics for …
the breakdown of X according to …
the intercorrelations among the nine measures of X.
the results obtained from the preliminary analysis of X.
The table below illustrates
The pie chart above shows
The top half of the table shows
The bottom half of the table shows
the proportion of different categories of …
As shown in Figure 1,
As can be seen from the table (above),
From the graph above we can see that
It can be seen from the data in Table 1 that
the X group reported significantly more Y than …
The results of the correlational analysis
The themes identified in these responses
The results obtained from the preliminary analysis of X
are shown
are set out
can be seen
are presented
are summarised
can be compared
in Table 1.
in Figure 1.
Highlighting significant data in a table or chart

What stands out in the table is …
Closer inspection of the table shows …
It is apparent from this table that very few …
The most interesting aspect of this graph is …
In Fig.10 there is a clear trend of decreasing …
What is striking about the figures in this table is …
What is interesting about the data in this table is that …
The differences between X and Y are highlighted in Table 4.
From the chart, it can be seen that by far the greatest demand is for …
From this data, we can see that Study 2 resulted in the lowest value of …
This table is quite revealing in several ways. First, unlike the other tables …
From the data in Figure 9, it is apparent that the length of time left between …

 

What stands out in this table
chart
figure
is the growth of …
is the high rate of …
is the dominance of …
is the wide range of …
is the rapid decrease in …
is the general pattern of …
is the difference between …
Stating a positive result

The mean score for X was …
Further analysis showed that …
A two-way ANOVA revealed that …
On average, Xs were shown to have …
Strong evidence of X was found when …
This result is significant at the p = 0.05 level.
The results, as shown in Table 1, indicate that …
A positive correlation was found between X and Y.
There was a significant positive correlation between …
The difference between the X and Y groups was significant.
There was a significant difference in X, t(11) = 2.906, p<0.01
There was a significant difference between the two conditions …

Stating a negative result

No increase in X was detected.
No difference greater than X was observed.
No significant differences were found between …
None of these differences were statistically significant.
No significant reduction in X was found compared with placebo.
No evidence was found for non-linear associations between X and Y.

X appeared to be unaffected by Y.
Only trace amounts of X were detected in …
There was no evidence that X has an influence on …
The Chi-square test did not show any significant differences between …
Overall, X did not affect males and females differently in these measures.
A clear benefit of X in the prevention of Y could not be identified in this analysis.

 

No statistically significant difference
correlation
between the means was found.
between the two groups was evident.
was observed between X and Y groups.
was found between X score and the Y scores.
Reporting positive and negative reactions

X occurred with successive increases in Y.
Increasing the strength of X led to a reduction in …
With successive increases in intensity of the X, the Y moved further to …
Following the addition of X, a significant increase (p<0.05) in the Y was recorded.

Combining X with Y did not produce …
Stimulation of X with Y did not increase the …
Different doses of X showed no measurable effect on …
When X cells were stimulated with Y, no significant difference in Z was detected.

Highlighting interesting or surprising results

Of interest here is the increase in …
Interestingly, the X was observed to …
This result is somewhat counterintuitive.
Interestingly, this correlation is related to …
The more surprising correlation is with the …
Surprisingly, only a minority of respondents …
The most surprising aspect of the data is in the …
The correlation between X and Y is interesting because …
The most striking result to emerge from the data is that …
Interestingly, a significant interaction of X and Y was also observed.
It is worth noting that there were also differences in the ratios of …
The single most striking observation to emerge from the data comparison was …

 

This is a/an (rather) surprising
significant
interesting
remarkable
unexpected
disappointing
result.
outcome.
Surveys and interviews: Reporting response rates

The overall response to the survey was poor.
There were 53 responses to the question: ‘…?’
Thirty-two individuals returned the questionnaires.
The total number of responses for this question was …
The response rate was 60% at six months and 56% at 12 months.
Of the study population, 90 subjects completed and returned the questionnaire.
Of 150 patients who were sent invitations, 81 returned the reply slip, of whom 60 agreed to …
By the end of the survey period, data had been collected from 64 individuals, 23 of whom were …

 

Surveys and interviews: Reporting proportions

Over half of those surveyed reported that …
A minority of participants (17%) indicated that …
70% of those who were interviewed indicated that ….
Almost two-thirds of the participants (64%) said that ….
The majority of those who responded to this item felt that …
When asked whether …, 90% of the respondents reported that …
Just over half of those who answered this question reported that …
In response to Question 1, most of those surveyed indicated that …
When the participants were asked …, the majority commented that …
Of the 148 patients who completed the questionnaire, just over half indicated that …

Surveys and interviews: Reporting themes

Opinions differed as to whether …
Concerns were expressed about …
These views surfaced mainly in relation to …
Concerns regarding X were more widespread.
Five broad themes emerged from the analysis.
A common view amongst interviewees was that …
One concern expressed regarding X was whether …
This theme came up for example in discussions of …
The themes of X and Y recurred throughout the dataset.
Two divergent and often conflicting discourses emerged …
Issues related to X were not particularly prominent in the interview data.
A recurrent theme in the interviews was a sense amongst interviewees that …

Surveys and interviews: Reporting participants’ views

One interviewee argued that …
There were some suggestions that …
In all cases, the informants reported that …
There were some negative comments about …
Some felt that … , while others considered that …
This view was echoed by another informant who ..
Whilst a minority mentioned that…, all agreed that…
Only a small number of respondents indicated that …
A small number of those interviewed suggested that ….
For a small number of participants X was the reason for …
The majority of participants agreed with the statement that …
When asked about X, the participants were unanimous in the view that …

 

One
Some
A few
Several
A number of
The majority of
A small number of
The overwhelming majority of
informant(s)
participant(s)
interviewee(s)

felt that …
said that …
stated that …
reported that …
indicated that …
commented that …

attributed X to …
questioned whether …
expressed a desire for …
were reluctant to discuss …
were particularly critical of …
agreed with the statement that …

Surveys and interviews: Introducing excerpts

As one interviewee put it: ‘…’
One informant reported that …
One participant commented: ‘ …’
The comment below illustrates …
For example, one interviewee said: ‘…’
In one case, the participant thought that …
Another interviewee, when asked …, said: ‘…’
Other responses to this question included: ‘…’
Another interviewee alluded to the notion of …
Talking about this issue an interviewee said: ‘…’
Commenting on X, one of the interviewees said …
One individual stated that ‘…’ And another commented ‘…’

Transition: moving to the next result

If we now turn to …
Further analysis shows that …
Further statistical tests revealed …
Further analysis of the data reveals …
A comparison of the two results reveals …
Turning now to the experimental evidence on …
Comparing the two results, it can be seen that …
The next section of the survey was concerned with …
In the final part of the survey, respondents were asked …

Summarising the results section

These results suggest that …
The results also indicate that …
Overall, these results indicate that …
In summary, these results show that …
In summary, for the informants in this study, …
What emerges from the results reported here is that …
Together these results provide important insights into …
Taken together, these results suggest that there is an association between …
The results in this chapter indicate that … The next chapter, therefore, moves on to discuss the …