The discussion section is one of the most read parts of a journal article.

I have worked with graduate students who have wondered about the difference between the results section of a journal manuscript and the discussion section. Just recently, I reviewed a manuscript where the authors confused the two. They treated the discussion section as if its only job is to summarize the results. Rookie mistake. 

The Purpose of the Discussion Section

The purpose of the discussion section is to establish the contribution of the research. It returns to literature reviewed earlier in the manuscript and establishes what it adds to the literature. It positions the results in the literature by pointing what it confirms, disconfirms, adds, and leaves unanswered. 

In a methodological manuscript, the contribution is relative to a new twist on the way a research method was used and what was gained from it. In a content-oriented manuscript the contribution is about what new was learned about a construct, theory or phenomenon. 

A sentence or two stating the contribution to the literature will transfer to the abstract.

A Strategy for Organizing the Discussion Section- Parallel the Introduction

There is a trick to organizing the discussion section. In the first paragraph, re-state the purpose and summarize key results. Organize the next section to parallel the organization of the introduction. The introduction lays out an argument for the need for the research. The discussion section can be organized to address the same key points. It returns to the need, inserts it back in the literature, and identifies what was learned through the research that adds to the literature or, in some cases, contradicts it. 

Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are part of the discussion section as well.