Guide to Scientific WritingResults
The results section is, as you would expect, where you present the results of your study. This section is often short, depending on how complicated the experiment was and how much data you need to present. In the results, you need to present your data in an easily understandable way (often using tables and figures), state your results, and give any statistical support for your data. However, you should not interpret your results in this section; that is saved for the discussion.
Writing your results
It is often helpful to make your figures, graphs, etc.) and tables before writing the Results section. The figures and tables should be chosen to illustrate points relevant to the questions you posed in the introduction, not to summarize all the data you collected. Don’t include both tables and figures if the tables don’t add any new information not shown in your figures. Do not include your raw data, unless you wish to use it as an illustration. (When you wish to show raw data for some reason, they can be included in the Appendices).
Once you’ve completed your figures and tables, writing the Results section amounts primarily to a simple description of them. Highlight important trends and statistical differences, as relevant to your questions, but do not interpret them. For example, “Oak leaves are significantly larger on the northern side of trees” is appropriate. However, continuing the sentence with “… because of lower light levels” is not appropriate.
Check out a dissected Results section