How To Write General Discussion

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My foolproof formula for the General

Discussion Chapter of your thesis
Students doing postgraduate studies, e.g., Honours, Masters, and Ph.D.s,

usually need to deliver a final thesis at the end of their candidature. I assist
many students with staying on track with their theses, and with thesis
planning and review.
I am very conscious that many students don’t have the financial means to
access this sort of personalised support, so I am passionate about finding ways
to provide free and accessible advice and guidance where I can.
1
One of the things that consistently seems to cause a lot of stress during thesis
writing is the final General Discussion Chapter. This chapter is the
culmination of the thesis and students are often feeling a little lost as to what
exactly to include here. They are often concerned about it being repetitive and
overstating aspects they have already covered in previous chapters: and this is
a valid concern.
It’s important to stand back a bit here and note that it is very rare for the
General Discussion chapter to be published as a journal article. This is not the
case for the preceding body/data chapters, which generally are intended for
publication as standalone papers. Even the opening General Introduction of
the thesis is sometimes published in the form of a literature review.
So, what does this mean? Well, this means that the only people that are really
ever likely to read the General Discussion chapter are as follows:
• your supervisors
• your thesis examiners
• future highly engaged postgraduate students trying to work out how to
write their own discussion chapter – haha!
• your mum! (and anyone else you’ve roped in to reading the damn thing!)
2
And, let’s face it, all that really matters here is what your thesis examiners
think of the General Discussion chapter! This is somewhat liberating to realise.
With this in mind, I have come up with a basic “Discussion Formula” to ease
this stress and make writing the General Discussion nice and straightforward,
while also ensuring that you nail what the thesis examiners are expecting and
looking for. When you use this formula approach, you can think of it as a “plug
and play” exercise – yay!
For this to work, you first need to start doing some brainstorming. You can
start this at any stage of your candidature. A lot of ideas are going to be
swirling around in your head throughout your candidature, and at the end this
usually becomes all-consuming! Fun times!
You want to be brainstorming

items for two specific lists:
- LIST A: What are your

unique contributions to
knowledge?
- LIST B: What are you

worried about?
Let’s unpack both of these a bit more…
LIST A: What are your unique contributions to knowledge?
Remember that for a Ph.D. to be awarded, for example, you must

demonstrate that you have made a new and original contribution to
knowledge. This is what a Ph.D. is defined as! So, we really want to make sure
you drive home exactly how you have done this. Make your examiners’ job
easy!
3
When brainstorming for LIST A, ask yourself the following:
1. In what ways have you made a new and original contribution to

knowledge?
2. What do we now know that we didn’t know before?
3. What is now possible, as a result of this work?
LIST B: What are you worried about?
It is never a good idea to try and ‘hide’

anything when it comes to research and
writing a thesis. No thesis, no project, no
study, is ever perfect. And research is
never really finished – it’s just a
springboard into more research! When
doing your brainstorming for LIST B you
want to be upfront about any perceived shortcomings. And in fact, you will see
below that we are actually going to turn them into nice, big, fat, positives!
Ask yourself the following when making LIST B:
1. What do you wish you had more time to do?
2. What is missing?
3. What doesn’t make total sense, and therefore needs more research?
4. What are the remaining “holes”/gaps?
5. What might your examiners be thinking as they read through the thesis?
4
Once you have LIST A and LIST B, you can write the General Discussion using
my nifty formula, which goes like this:
1. Opening paragraph (no heading required): restate main question of

thesis, followed by specific aims from thesis Introduction, then provide
overview of techniques used to address aims and, finally, a single
sentence or two outlining what ‘answer/s’ you found to your main
question.
2. Write a series of paragraphs based around LIST A – one paragraph for

each of your LIST A points with its own specific bolded heading.
− Outline how each LIST A point was arrived at and it is really good if
you can show that this conclusion was arrived at in more than one
way/in multiple chapters – this shows high level synthesis of ideas and
will make the examiners really happy!
− Link back to chapters explicitly when discussing key points, e.g., “As a
result of this thesis, we now know that xxxxx (Chapter 2) and that this is
due to xxxx (Chapter 3)”. You can have as many paragraphs here as you
have points in LIST A, but aim for at least 3 if you can.
3. Future Directions (as bolded heading). This section can have sub-
headings in italics. Each sub-section will be based around LIST B. See
what we are doing here? We’re turning any perceived ‘shortcomings‘
into the much more exciting and palatable ‘future directions‘ #winning!
− So, if you have 3 big “holes”/unanswered questions in your thesis, you

can turn these into 3 italicised subheadings.
− When you expand on each, aim for an underlying vibe of positivity and
excitement
4. Concluding remarks (as final bolded heading).
− Restate briefly what you found as key takeaways in your thesis from
point 2 in the formula above). “In summary, this thesis has...”
− Then remind us again why your work is new/novel/a key contribution
to knowledge.
− Finish up with the main finding of your thesis, as it relates back to your
original question in the thesis Introduction.
5
That’s it! You’re done! Usually, when following this formula, the Discussion
chapter ends up being just 6 or so pages, which is a good thing. You can get
straight to the point and stop overthinking it.
Now your supervisors, examiners (and your mum – haha!), will wrap up their
reading with complete certainty that you have made an original contribution
to knowledge and an appreciation for all of the exciting possibilities that have
now opened up as a result of all of your hard work! Well done!
If you found this helpful, and you have the means, please consider buying me a
coffee to say thanks, via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/janinerix
You can find more of my ideas and resources @ www.janinerixlearningsolutions.com

Photos by Andrew Neel, Elisa Ventur Unsplash, Kvalifik, Ava Sol, and Bruce Mars on Unsplash
Last updated 26 April 2022

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www.janinerixlearningsolutions.

My foolproof formula for the General

Students doing postgraduate studies, e.g., Honours, Masters, and Ph.D.s,

You want to be brainstorming

- LIST A: What are your

- LIST B: What are you

Let’s unpack both of these a bit more…

LIST A: What are your unique contributions to knowledge?

Remember that for a Ph.D. to be awarded, for example, you must

1. In what ways have you made a new and original contribution to

2. What do we now know that we didn’t know before?

3. What is now possible, as a result of this work?

LIST B: What are you worried about?

It is never a good idea to try and ‘hide’

Ask yourself the following when making LIST B:

1. What do you wish you had more time to do?

4. What are the remaining “holes”/gaps?

1. Opening paragraph (no heading required): restate main question of

2. Write a series of paragraphs based around LIST A – one paragraph for

− So, if you have 3 big “holes”/unanswered questions in your thesis, you

4. Concluding remarks (as final bolded heading).

You can find more of my ideas and resources @ www.janinerixlearningsolutions.com

Last updated 26 April 2022

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