英语科技论文写作—— Discussion and Conclusion

来源：华中科技大学外语学院 英语科技论文写作

主讲人：陈玉红

 

Discussion and Conclusion:

This is the last major section of the paper, followed by the list of references. In this section, you step back and take a broad look at your findings and your study as a whole. It moves the readers back from the specific information reported in the methods and results sections to a more general view of how the findings should be interpreted.

 

Alternative titles:

Discussions (讨论)

(2) Results and discussion (结果与讨论)

(3) Evaluation of results (对结果的评价)

(4) Analysis (分析)

(5) Growth arguments (引发的论题)

(6) Application and analysis (应用与分析)

(7) Performance analysis (性能分析)

 

Conclusions:

(1) Conclusions (结论)

(2) Summary (总结)

(3) Summary and conclusions (概括及总结)

(4) Concluding remarks (总结)

(5) Final remarks (总结)

(6) Conclusions and future work (结论及后续工作)

(7) Conclusions and future/further research (结论及后续研究)

(8) Conclusions and open problems/ questions (结论及存在的问题)

(9) Conclusion and future directions (结论及后续研究方向)

(10) Open problems (不足之处)

 

What should be discussed?

1. Do the results of the present study accord with the original research design? If not, why?

2. According to these results, what conclusion or inferences may be made? And why?

3. Do these results or theoretical analysis accord with the ones of other researchers? If not, why?

4. Is there any suggestion of further study or research methodology to identify or provide disproof for the results?

5. Do these results support or disagree with the present assumptions or theories?

6. Are there any practical applications of these results? What are they?

 

First Information Elements In Discussion Specific Reference to the Study

A reference to the main purpose or hypothesis of the study.

A review of the most important findings, whether or not they support the original hypothesis, and whether they agree with the findings of other researchers.

Possible explanations for or speculations about the findings.

Limitations of the study that restrict the extent to which the findings can be generalized.

 

Later Information Elements in Discussion General Statements about the study

Implications of the study (generalizations from the results);

Recommendations for future research and practical applications.

 

The writing approach of conclusion:

The conclusion part should be written from specific to general, which is just the opposite of the Introduction part.

It moves the readers back from the specific information reported in the methods and results sections to a more general view of how the findings should be interpreted.

 

Organizations of the discussion

• A comparison and contrast of the results of the present study with the original research design (hypothesis or assumption)
  • a general review of main purpose or hypothesis, and the most important findings in the present study
  • main differences and similarity between the present study and the original design
• Further explanations of the results
  • to show the significances of the main results
  • to imply the limitation of some parts of the results
• some inferences and indications for further study based on the comparison and contrast
  • a focus on the relationship of the present study with the previous

 

Organizations of conclusion

• An outline of the present study
  • focus on the main concern of the research design(总结、回顾论文各部分主要内容）
• Final statements related to the results
  • conclusive implications for further research（讨论该研究在更加宽泛的研究背景下的意义）
• Practical applications of this study
  • some possible benefits of the findings（展望该研究未来的发展趋势）

 

Presentation

The proper use of the present tense and the past tense

• the use of the present tense implies the general conclusion while the use of the past tense indicates the tentative results of the present study
•  the past tense is more frequently used to explain the results of the present study while the present tense is frequently used to offer a general inference
• the past tense is used to show the limitations of the present study

 

The choice of the modal verbs

•  “may” or “might” is more frequently used to show the inferences, the implications and possible applications.
•  “should” “could” “would” are frequently use to present suggestions

 

Expressions for Restating Hypothesis

1. It was anticipated

2. The theory led us to infer that older workers in speed jobs would have

3. In line with this that poorer hypothesis, we assumed performance

4. The results seem in- than young

consistent with our workers.

hypothesis

Expressions for Suggesting Implications

These findings suggest

These findings imply

These findings lend support to the that

These findings assumption

These findings lead us to believe

These findings provide evidence

 

An Example of Discussion:

The decremental theory of aging led us to infer that older workers in speed jobs would have poorer performance, greater absenteeism, and more accidents compared with other workers.//

The findings, however, go against the theory. The older workers generally earned more, were absent less, had fewer accidents and less turnover than younger ones.// One possible conclusion is that the requirements of the speed jobs in the light manufacturing industry under study do not make physical demands on the older workers to the limits of their reserve capacity. The competence and experience of the older workers in these specific jobs may have compensated for their reduced stamina…//

This study has taken a step in the direction of defining the relationship between age, experience, and productivity in one particular industry. It is possible of course that other industries with a different complex may produce entirely different results. In addition, it is important to emphasize that methodological problems in the research design limit our interpretations.//

The approach outlined here should be replicated in other manufacturing plants, as well as in other occupational areas in light, medium, and heavy industries in order to construct a typology of older worker performance in a variety of jobs.

 

Example of Discussion:

The results show that small changes in the selected network parameter values may have different (i.e. high or low) influences on the probabilities of the hypothesis nodes, i.e. on the network output, as discussed in Section 3 using Fig. 2 as an example. However, it can also be seen in Fig. 4 that, despite this finding, the defined state of the case variable (node) has little influence on the network output.

 

Another example of Discussion:

Under the conditions shown in Table 1, the [O] and [N] concentrations increase monotonically with treatment duration, reaching an asymptotic limiting value after approximately 20 s. (table indicated)

…Even though the vacuum systems had no leaks and the gases were ultra pure, some chemically bonded oxygen was detected following all nitriding treatments. This can readily be explained by the fact that… (finding + explanation)

 

Example of Conclusion:

This paper has presented a framework for classifying models for intelligent system design in the context of satisfaction-based approximation spaces….(first sentence of conclusion)

Hence, it is appropriate to use approximation methods to measure the extent that experimental models are to a degree a part of a set of models representing a standard. (last sentence of conclusion.)

 

Example of Summary of Conclusion:

We have shown that it is possible to produce well-defined, micrometer-scale chemical patterns on polymer substrates (BOPP in this case) using a simple, one-step plasma treatment method. (first sentence)

Although this method is, at present, somewhat time consuming, the quality of its surface chemistry may be advantageous. (A later sentence, showing a qualification.)

 

Tips for this Section

• Information
  • Include various elements of information, depending on the problems encountered, results obtained, possible applications, and further research needed.
  • Move from specific results to general implications.
• Language
  • Use past tense to refer to original hypothesis
  • Use simple present/past or modal auxiliaries when explaining your results.
  • Use tentative verbs to make implications or recommendations or to suggest applications.

 

Typical sentences for contrast the findings with the original hypothesis

• The research investigated the differences between…/The results (data) show that … The possible reason is…
• The aim of the research was to…In the present study, it was found that… because
• This study attempted to investigate …However, the findings show that…; It is found that …results in…
• It was originally assumed that…; The result show… This suggests that…
• Existing theories suggested that…The results, however, show… This evidence led us to infer that. ..Thus,…

 

Sentences for further explanation of the results (PP76-80)

• One reason for this could be that inadequate use of … increased…
• It is possible that an erroneous value was attributed to (due to)…
• It may be that the error in Equation caused the inaccuracy of…
• This inaccuracy seems to show that the materials used are…

 

Sentences for Inferences/conclusion

• These results indicate/suggest/show/imply that…
• The data reported here imply/ confirm that…
• Our conclusion is that…
• Therefore we may infer that…
• These findings support the hypothesis that…
• It appears/seems/suggests) that…
• Our data provide the evidence that…

 

Sentences for Implying Limitations

• The proposed model in this study is based on the …
• Our analysis neglects several potential important conditions.
• The method of the research design is accurate, but cannot implemented in real time applications.
• Only three groups of samples were tested .
• An experiment employing different TM Scanning approaches might produce different results.
• We recognized that the method adopted here does not cover the variety and complexity of melting rate …
• We readily admit that….may not fully identify…

 

Sentences for further study suggestion

• Further research could explore the possibility to apply….
• A further experiment should be conducted with…
• In the future, the effect of.. will be examined.
• Another interesting topic would be to examine how…
• An important direction for further work might be…
• The results in the study may lead to the development of effective methods for…
• In the future, we will investigate the ….
• Researchers of this paper are now conducting experiments with …
• lWe suggest/ recommend that …

 

讨论部分常用的实义动词：

Reported/ show/ characterized/ suggests/ used / intended/ contradict./ suggest /

prevail/ focused/ enables/ speculate/

maintain/ compared./ focused. claimed/

Shows/ tends/ represent

语言功能有： 描述、阐释、比较、分析、论证、主张解释等等广义的修辞手段。

可能再次用到前面使用过的例子来证实论文的发现。