What to write in data analysis
How to analyze your data and write an analysis chapter.
welcome to this week and this week what
we're talking about is your analysis
chapter because at this stage you've
collected all your data and now you need
to think about it and you present them
in their findings chapter naive to think
about what am I going to put in my
analysis chapter so I'm speaking to dr.
bernadette quinn today so thanks for
joining us bernadette and so let's start
with what's the difference between the
flying news and the analysis chapter
because sometimes people find that
difficult yeah what i mean is it is a
hard one I mean I the way I look at it
is the findings chapter is and it's very
descriptive so it's what you're found
you know how many who are they where are
they so it's very very descriptive and
all you've really put into your findings
chapter are your findings you know you
haven't really commented on it yourself
and neither have you gone back to your
literature chapter and now this is where
the analysis differs from the findings
and sorry once you move into your
analysis chapter now your job is to
interpret those findings and now you
must be really careful not to be
repeating your findings that's the
problem isn't it often is that what you
read in the analysis is the same as the
findings really try not to do that and I
suppose the key thing is what you're
trying to do here is to pull out what is
important
among those findings so you'll find a
chapter you've got a great mass of
update or whatever type it is but not
all of it is equally important so the
first thing you got to do is you've got
to sift through let's find you the
videos well which is important and which
is not and that's the way of doing that
yes that is the skill there yeah well
it'll come from your understanding of
the matter that you're sorting so if
you've really you know gone into your
list gone out and found something you
now are an expert Donna so you're very
knowledgeable on it and you just have to
trust yourself
trust your instinct I mean what is
important I mean in your findings I
suppose have people been saying similar
things over and over again and it's
something coming up all the time it's
something looking problem massing or or
it is something I'm really you know
grasping your attention and it also
comes down to teams doesn't is that we
have to sort of start thinking now but
exactly like what are the key issues and
also start thinking back to what you
raised in your lit chapter because a
certain extent the findings chapter
actually doesn't really bear much
relation to what you did in your little
chapter your findings is just this
massive description it and to be honest
it can be very boring yeah
and that is what you have to watch out
for as well in your analysis then as you
say you are you're going to pull out
what's important you're going to add in
your interpretation of that and then
secondly you're going to now link it
back into the list so what has it been
saying and where does your findings
connect with the link absolutely
wherever you can find connections that's
what you're going to write about because
that's what matters and it's also
important isn't it the difference is
that the findings isn't going to have
any references in it because we're not
referring back to anything whereas the
analysis is back to the thing about
trying to tie back in what you've
identified in the literature to see are
you finding the same thing or
differently so in your finest chapters
is not in there but findings nothing
else where's in the analysis chapter
there's your commentary on the findings
which is newbs you haven't done that in
the finest Junction plus there is the
reintegration out of the literature so
you'll be saying things like as Smith
2005 wrote about in his study of tourism
destinations in Dublin we see that it's
in the kind of thinking are dissimilar
things are crying it doesn't really
matter whether it's match or an off
match and I'm sorry but what matters is
that you can connect your fight back
into it yeah yeah yeah okay and the
other thing that's very important is
what isn't it that some students miss is
this to bring back into research
questions that they forget what were the
research questions that I wrote in my
methodology chapter and I've seen some
students quite successfully use the
research questions as their headings if
you like and then work on underneath
them and that means that it's much more
structured perhaps and and it provides
focus for the chapter that can work
quite well you were to ask me what makes
a good analysis chapter I mean I think
that's a key thing the structuring like
think of the reader the reader has read
through the findings and possibly that
there's been a little bit information
overall there and now they really need
you to show them what's important and
you do this by theming your analysis I
would say so you pull out the big themes
and then you use those as your section
heads and very often as you say there'll
be words in there that have come from
your research question or have come from
your objectives and and it's very
important to note that the analysis
chapter is what makes the breaks that
the dissertation or thesis I mean that's
the doc differentiates the really good
students from the not-so-good students
and it's very important students don't
leave it til the end and just sort of
write off you know five ten pages of
more or less repetition but that's the
one of the most important chapters maybe
after that it review that they pay
attention to I mean we're looking to see
is your work going to
is it going to contribute it doesn't
matter how large or how small but it
should add some new piece of of
knowledge and this is where you want to
make it in the analysis and the sort of
the so part question so far as the
purpose of the dissertation what have
you found that actually makes why did
you bother doing this because it shows
me that x y&z yeah that's true but I
think one of the key problems of people
find is you know what goes into the
findings workers into the analysis and
you know that does take an awful lot of
work but if you try and kind of stick to
the couple of basic rules that the
findings are just the pure description
what you found and then don't repeat
that then once you go into the analysis
here don't repeat you know you you
really mustn't do that reverb or the
reader sailing yes and that is hugely
important yeah and I mean there's a
reason why in our marking structure we
have different markings you know that
the analysis is what is what we're
marking not just the findings when it
gets to that point yeah you know takes a
weak skill to pull out what is important
and you know the reader is looking for
that and also takes time students need
to give themselves time to work out one
another you know you can only really do
that well if you've engaged with your
research and you really become
comfortable with what you're doing and
then it's all going to come to the fore
in your analysis chapter okay great
thanks very much so hopefully that will
gives you some helpful tips in terms of
thinking about the differences between
your findings and analysis chapter and
also the important thing to note is to
give yourself enough time to write your
analysis chapter and to engage in enough
analysis and so that you're getting a
good mark for that section of the
dissertation or thesis see you next time
