This document provides an overview and schedule for a dissertation writing workshop focused on chapters 4 and 5. The workshop objectives are to use a dissertation rubric to guide development of these chapters and learn effective writing tips specific to presenting results and conclusions. The schedule includes presentations on the rubric for chapters 4 and 5 as well as writing tips. Time is allotted for open consultation with faculty and writing center staff. Attendees are encouraged to actively participate and use the on-site time to draft chapters.

1. Dissertation Writing Workshop
Chapters 4 and 5
Gary J Burkholder, PhD
Center for Research Support
Annie Pezalla, MS
Writing Center

2. Objectives
• Use the dissertation rubric to guide
development of Chapters 4 and 5.
• Become familiar with and use effective
writing tips specific to Chapters 4 and 5.
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3. Schedule
• 8:30 – 11:30
– Presentation: Rubric (Chapter 4).
– Presentation: Writing Tips for Chapters 4 and 5.
– Open time for meeting with Faculty and/or
Writing Center staff member.
• 1:30 – 4:30
– Presentation: Rubric (Chapter 5).
– Open time for meeting with Faculty and/or
Writing Center staff member.
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4. Optimizing your Experience
• Attend to key points of the presentations.
• Ask questions!
• Maximize meeting times with faculty and writing
center staff member to get questions answered
related to writing your dissertation.
• Write as much as possible while you are onsite.
• Utilize faculty and writing center advising during the
remainder of your stay to continue writing. Try to
finish a draft of one or both chapters while you are
onsite.
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5. Dissertation Chapter 4
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6. Overall Goal for Chapter 4
• Presentation of the results.
– Description of demographics.
– Results of inferential analyses (Quantitative).
– Results of text analyses (Qualitative).
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7. Quantitative
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8. Organization
• Chapter 4 is structured around the research
questions and/or hypotheses addressed in
the study, reporting the findings related to
each.
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9. Research Tools
• Data collection instruments have been used
correctly.
• Measures obtained are reported clearly,
following standard procedures.
• Adjustments or revisions to the use of
standardized instruments have been
justified, and any effects on interpretation of
findings are clearly described.
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10. Consistency of Analyses
• Overall, data analysis (presentation,
interpretation, explanation) is consistent with
research questions or hypotheses and
underlying theoretical conceptual framework
for the study.
– Check: Consistency of hypothesis/research
questions between Chapters 1, 3, and 4.
– Check: Are the analyses consistent with what
was proposed in Chapter 3?
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11. Data Analyses
• Logically and sequentially address all
research questions or hypotheses.
• Where appropriate, outcomes of hypothesis
testing procedures are clearly reported (e.g.,
findings support or fail to support).
• Does not contain any evident statistical
errors.
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12. Tables and Figures
• As self-descriptive as possible, informative,
and conform to standard dissertation format.
• Are directly related to and referred to within
the narrative text included in the chapter.
• Have immediate adjacent comments.
– For example, any table notes are at the bottom.
• Are properly titled and captioned.
• Show copyright permission if not in the public
domain.
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13. Consistency of Findings
• The comments on the findings address
observed consistencies and inconsistencies
and discuss possible alternate
interpretations.
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14. Conclusion
• In a concluding section of Chapter 4,
outcomes are logically and systematically
summarized and interpreted in relation to
their importance to the research questions
and hypotheses.
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15. Qualitative
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16. Data
• The process by which data were generated,
gathered, and recorded is identified.
• The systems for keeping track of data and
emerging understandings (research logs,
reflective journals, cataloging systems) are
clearly described.
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17. Findings
• Build logically from the problem and the research
design.
• Are presented in a manner that addresses the
research questions.
• Discrepant cases and non-confirming data are
included in the findings.
• Patterns, relationships, and themes described as
findings are supported by the data. All salient data
are accounted for in the findings.
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18. Evidence of Quality
• A discussion on evidence of quality shows
how this study followed procedures to assure
accuracy of the data (e.g., trustworthiness,
member checks, triangulation, etc.).
Appropriate evidence occurs in the
appendixes (sample transcripts, researcher
logs, field notes, etc.). (May appear in
chapter 5.)
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19. 5 Writing Tips for Chapter 4
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20. Tip # 1: Select the right tool for
the right job
• You have 3 main tools for presenting your results:
prose, tables, and figures. Your choice of tools
depends on several things.
– How many numbers you need to report.
– How much time (or patience) your audience will
have to grasp your data.
– Whether your readers need exact values.
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21. Tables vs. Text
• Only use tables to simplify text that otherwise would be dense
with numbers.
• From your APA manual:
(Dense)
– The mean final errors (with standard deviations in
parentheses) for the Age x Level of Difficulty interaction were .
05, (.08), .05 (.07), and .11 (.10) for the younger participants
and .14 (.15), .17 (.15), and .26 (.21) for the older participants
at low, moderate, and high levels of difficulty, respectively.
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22. Tables vs. Text
• Only use tables to simplify text that otherwise would be dense
with numbers.
• From your APA manual:
(Better)
Standard
Mean error rate deviation Sample size
Level of Younger Older Younger Older Younger Older
difficulty
Low .05 .14 .08 .15 12 18
Moderate .05 .17 .07 .15 15 12
High .11 .26 .10 .21 16 14
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23. Tip #2: Summarize patterns
• Find a generalization that fits most of the data.
• Report a few illustrative numbers from the
associated table or figure.
• Describe exceptions to the general pattern.
- DO NOT repeat all the numbers in a table.
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24. An example report…
Of the total superintendents surveyed, 61 (39.1%) had obtained a
doctorate degree. Within this category, 34 (55.7%) were servant leaders,
and 27 (44.3%) were nonservant leaders. A total of 15 superintendents
were education specialists, an official title defined in this state as having
all of their doctoral credits for formal coursework; however, deficient the
credits and final product of a doctoral study. Within this cohort of 15, 7
(46.7%) were servant leaders, and 8 (53.3%) were nonservant leaders. In
the most widespread category of this demographic, 80 (51.3%)
superintendents had obtained a master’s degree as their highest level of
formal education. Of these superintendents, 38 (47.5%) were designated
servant leaders, and 42 (52.5%) as nonservant leaders. Table 10 presents
a visual summary of the data from SASL response data.
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25. The corresponding table…
Table 10
Self-Assessment of Servant Leadership Information for Highest Academic Degree
Obtained Results
Total
Servant leaders Nonservant leaders
Highest degree
obtained N % N % N %
BA 0 0 0 0 0 0
MA 38 47.50 42 52.5 80 51.3
Ed. Specialist 7 46.7 8 53.3 15 9.63
Doctorate 34 55.7 27 44.3 61 39.1
Totals
79 77 156
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26. A better report
Of the total superintendents surveyed (N = 156), 61 had
obtained a doctorate degree, and about half of this
group were servant leaders (n = 34). Eighty
superintendents had obtained a master’s degree as
their highest level of formal education; about half of this
group, too, were servant leaders (n = 38). Table 10
presents a visual summary of the data from SASL
response data.
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27. A better table
Servant leaders Nonservant leaders Total
Highest degree
obtained n % n % N %
MA 38 47.5 42 52.5 80 51.3
Ed. Specialist 7 46.7 8 53.3 15 9.6
Doctorate 34 55.7 27 44.3 61 39.1
Totals 79 77 156
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28. Tip # 3: Define your terms
• Reporting results often requires technical
language. To make sure that your readers
comprehend your information, define your terms,
acronyms, and symbols.
- Unfamiliar terms (“opportunity cost,” standardized
mortality ratio,” SES, LBW, PSA, etc.)
- Terms that have more than one meaning (significant,
considerable, appreciable, big, etc.)
• How do you know what to define?
– Carpenter analogy
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29. Tip # 4: Avoid regressive
material
• Your readers don’t need a detailed description of
how you approached writing up p = .08, the steps
to calculate a mean, why you right-justified the
numbers in your table, or why you chose a
stacked bar chart rather than a pie chart.
• Make those decisions, do those calculations, and
create your charts and tables, but don’t write
about how or why you did so. Instead, present the
fruits of those labors, following the examples from
your favorite article or published Walden
dissertation.
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30. Tip # 5: Accept the need for
revision
• Embrace the fact that writing your results
will be an iterative process.
- Draft tables and charts with a pencil and paper before
creating a computerized version.
- Outline key findings before you describe a complex
pattern.
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31. Dissertation Chapter 5
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32. Overall Goal for Chapter 5
• Analysis of results in the context of the
literature described in Chapter 2.
• Implications for further research, practice,
and social change.
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33. Introduction
• The chapter begins with a brief overview of
why and how the study was done, reviewing
the questions or issues being addressed and
a brief summary of the findings.
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34. Interpretations of the Findings
• Includes conclusions that address all of the
research questions.
• Contains references to outcomes in Ch. 4.
• Covers all the data.
• Is bounded by the evidence collected.
• Relates the findings to a larger body of
literature on the topic, including the
conceptual/theoretical framework.
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35. Implications for Social Change
• The Implications for Social Change are
clearly grounded in the significance section
of Chapter 1 and outcomes presented in
Chapter 4. The implications are expressed in
terms of tangible improvements to
individuals, communities, organizations,
institutions, cultures, or societies.
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36. Recommendations
• Action
– Should flow logically from the conclusions and
contain steps to useful action.
– State who needs to pay attention to the results.
– Indicate how the results might be disseminated.
• Further Study
– Point to topics that need closer examination and
may generate a new round of questions.
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37. Qualitative Studies
• Includes a reflection on the researcher's
experience with the research process in
which the researcher discusses possible
personal biases or preconceived ideas and
values, the possible effects of the researcher
on the participants or the situation, and
her/his changes in thinking as a result of the
study.
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38. Conclusion
• The work closes with a strong concluding
statement making the “take-home message”
clear to the reader.
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39. 5 Writing Tips for Chapter 5
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40. Tip # 6: Avoid generalizations
• Generalizations encourage blanket or sweeping
statements.
– Ex: “All” “Every” “None” “Never”
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41. Tip # 7: Address
counterargument
• Pretending there are not two sides does not make
one side true.
– “After I interviewed the teachers at Alpha School, I
discovered that all teachers hate the No Child Left
Behind Act” (Pezalla, 2010, p. 9).
• Tackle the best points of the other side.
• Look for intersections.
• This is not a cage match; it is research.
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42. Tip # 8: Avoid Logical Fallacies
• Slippery slope fallacy:
– If we commit to Action A, it will invariably lead to
dramatic and negative Outcome Z (A>Z).
– If we do not work with at-risk middle school boys
in reading, they will inevitably end up in jail.
• Correlation vs. causation confusion:
– “After the remedy, test scores improved”
(Pezalla, 2010, p. 20).
– The rooster crowing before dawn does not mean
that his noise made the sun rise.
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43. Tip # 9: Be humble
• Avoid praising yourself too much.
– Ex: The methods outlined in chapter 3 represent a
major breakthrough in the design of distributed
systems…”
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44. Tip # 10: Acknowledge your
good work
• Avoid criticizing yourself too much.
– Ex: “Although the technique employed in the current
study was not earthshaking…”
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45. Rubric Writing Quality Indicator
• Writing Style and Composition:
– Written in scholarly language (accurate, balanced,
objective, tentative). The writing is clear, precise, and
avoids redundancy. Statements are specific and topical
sentences are established for paragraphs. The flow of
words is smooth and comprehensible. Bridges are
established between ideas.
– Scored on a Likert scale, ranging from 1 (must be revised
and resubmitted) to 5 (approved with commendation)
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46. Rubric Writing Quality Indicator
• Organization and Form:
– Is logically and comprehensive organized, using
subheadings where appropriate
– Has a professional, scholarly appearance
– Is written with correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling
– Includes citations for the following: Direct quotes,
paraphrasing, facts, and references to research studies
– Includes in-text citations in the reference list.
Scored on a Likert scale, ranging from 1 (must be revised
and resubmitted) to 5 (approved with commendation)
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