Friday, June 12, 2015

Chapter 5- Implications and Conclusions


The final sections of Chapter 5 are your chance to wrap up your study for the reader and leave them with most the important points. In the Implications section, you should first examine the potential impact for positive social change at the appropriate level for your study (individual, family, organizational, and societal/policy). Be careful that implications for social change do not exceed the study boundaries. In other words, be realistic, your study won't change the world, but it may have an impact in some small area. 

Next, you should describe methodological, theoretical, and/or empirical implications, as appropriate. Consider what we have learned from your study in terms of new methodology. Have you added to a theory or made some aspect clearer? Has your data provided an insight into your population that wasn't known previously? Finally, are there recommendations that you can make for practice, for example, for clinicians or health care providers? 

The final section of your dissertation is the Conclusions. You need to provide a strong “take home” message that captures the key essence of the study. What do you want people to remember about your study? These are your final words on your study, make them memorable, and clear! 

Next time I will begin a series on using theories to determine your research method. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu 

No comments:

Post a Comment