Tips for writing the Discussion and Conclusions Chapter

Herewith some tips I gave to a PhD student who just completed his data analysis (the Findings chapter):

1. You can choose to split the Discussion and Conclusions into two chapters, or combine them into one chapter (explain why you choose to do either one in Chapter 1. 

2. The chapter should present your answers to each research question, one-by-one. 

3. While presenting your answer to every question, you should compare your answer to others' answers (from Literature Review). 

4. This means you need to update your Literature Review after answering this chapter. 

5. Draw conclusions from the answers to each research question. 

6. After that, discuss knowledge contributions and practical contributions

7. Finally, explain the theoretical implication and practical (application) implications to the nation. 

8. Suppose some limitations of your study, and suggest possible future studies.