Reflection 107
in his thesis, where he had explored in detail how each case had linked into the
framework of the novel—thus identifying consistent patterns in the cases—would
not work across a larger set of examples. My impression was that crossing this hur-
dle was genuinely a challenge for him, as it changed how he thought about the out-
comes of his research. Instead of reasoning about whether something did or didn’t
happen in a novel, in effect he now had to assess or measure the extent to which
it happened. He needed to use the initial cases to identify specific criteria against
which subsequent cases could be evaluated. He then worked through a couple of
cases to show how he assessed them against these criteria, as examples to show the
reader what he was doing.
The next step was to assess all forty cases against the criteria, and report just
the assessment; the cases themselves could be sketched in a few lines each (these
sketches were in an appendix) with the details recorded in his research notes, but not
directly reported. Given this tabulation of the cases, he could then proceed to draw
his broader conclusions. However, in doing this he also needed to acknowledge that
he had been somewhat selective in choosing the cases, and as a consequence real-
ized he had to weaken his conclusions. As Jackie had done, he shifted away from a
somewhat dogmatic position to arguments that were more reflective.
As for so many elements of thesis writing, the best examples are likely to be
theses in your research area. I suggest you locate a couple of theses that have results
chapters for research that is similar in approach to your own, then use the frame-
work presented here to review these results chapters and identify their strengths
and weaknesses. Your task then is to reproduce the strengths and address the weak-
nesses, to produce a good results chapter for your own work.
Reflection
In each of the four cases above, the process of assembling a results chapter led the
students to reflect on their results and to some extent re-interpret them. Perhaps, you
might argue, this reflection should have happened earlier. My sense is that it can’t
happen earlier—it is the discipline of writing it all down in a coherent form that al-
lows identification of issues.
On that reasoning, there are two lessons. One is that the writing of this chapter
should not be left too late. Indeed, the writing of all of the chapters shouldn’t be
neglected, but this one is particularly important, because no student wants to be in
the position of changing what their thesis is about at the last moment.
The other lesson is that doing research is a continual cycle of activity, learn-
ing, reflection, and refinement. It doesn’t stop when the method is ‘proved’ or the
results or gathered or even, often, when the thesis is submitted. You should expect
to continue to have new insights about your work—and, perhaps unfortunately, to
find new problems in it as well—for a long time after the bulk of your investigation
is complete. You should always be prepared to look at your work with a critical eye
and, if there is a problem to address or a refinement to make, then do so.