The Perfect Landing: Surefire Techniques to Write Excellent Summary of Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations of a Research Paper with Examples

March 23 2018, By Ayodeji Solomon

The summary phase of a research is where all the chapters before that point come to summit. How do I really mean? Let me explain...

This article is the holy grail of writing, as it brings you the big, scary words in research world in a digestible way.
Just as the headline implies, “Safe Landing”. How would this metaphor feel? On a windy, rainy day, you were driving past on a highway in the dark of the night. With thick dark, tall evergreens, coupled with the fears of late-night robbers. With the wind pounding against your motion, sweeping your tires off the road. You see trees falling off behind you.

You are narrowly escaped them like the movement of a dance. The mud on the road kicked on your wind screen, holding back the wiper. You are not at peace. It feels like years apart since you last smiled.

And suddenly, somehow someway, all these calm down in their clashes and something else emerges:

You discovered a new, better, safer and quicker way that leads to your destination. This feels good!
You keep driving. There's an ease in your drive. The sight of your destination seems clear and bold, right in front of you.
How sweet will it be to share your experience with people at home? You take a deep breath.
Moments ago, you only wanted one-thing -to survive.

Just like in that moment when clarity strikes. That's exactly what it is when you get to the fifth chapter of a research paper. You present a summary of the findings you reported I'm the previous chapters. Then, a discussion of the findings, and relating it to what others discovered, with the theoretical framework. Finally, you make recommendations based on those findings.
Let's dive into it's anatomy.

WRITING THE SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:

The first step to writing a perfect Summary of findings is going through the objectives of the study all over again. Your findings should be in line with the stated objectives of the paper. Never derail from the aim of the study.

One way of making sure your summary of findings is in line with the stated objetives in the introductory chapter, is to scan through the document from the beginning to chapter four. As each line passes, assume your mind as a radar, trying to detect key facts or findings and linking them to the specific objectives of the study. To make this easier, you can jot down those points. Your aim here is just to state your findings and not to re-explain theories.
In that token, ruthlessly cut off flimsy details. This will surely be the bricks and mortal you'll build your chapter five with.

The second thing to do is to paraphrase those ideas in past-tense tone. With your words in a reader-friendly manner, even the novice would easily understand.

Here's another rule of thumb: don't be tempted to include your comments, evaluation, or what's not in the previous chapters of the paper. The worst thing you'll do is to copy and paste from the previous chapters. That said, let's quickly peek on the door that reads, “Findings”.

‘’The first objective of the study was to examine the influence of technological advancement in educational development in Nigeria. Findings from the study revealed that the Internet, Social Media, Electronic Books, Online Journals have made learning easier with an improvement in academic performance of students. With a significance level of 0.05, hypothesis analysed in the paper revealed that there is a positive relationship between Technology advancement and educational development in Nigeria, as majority of the respondents asserted and strongly believed that Technological Advancement have significantly improved learning and teaching of Accounting''.

CONCLUSION:
Pay close attention here. This is most sensitive aspect people get wrong while writing a research paper.
In this part, what you want to do is take the reader out of the veil of statistics. Basically, you conclude with the interpretation of your findings, putting other writers view (whether inline with your argument or not) into perspective.

I don't want you to go off the rail. Consider it as a discussion where you want to indicate the how's and why's of all your hypothesis: What are the limitations, implications of the results, and how your findings relates to previous researches in your literature review.
And finally, what else could make your chapter-five stand out and do what it's supposed to do.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Now that you have shown your results and supported them, the next thing is to show how the new-found policies would be implemented. The following are the guidelines that will help you hit the nail on the head:

1. First know that recommendations is a form of written prescriptions that officially show materials and the steps to follow in carrying out the new policy.
It should be addressed to persons, organizations, who are identified with the research problem. You'll also discuss what problems would be corrected, or avoided with the help of the research.

2. Present the solutions in precise, logical, easy and feasible terms. Recommendations are practical suggestions that will solve the problem that was researched.

3. Above all, you'll be able to suggest how the research could be forwarded by future researchers. Perhaps, based on your limitations, like equipment, time and other things. While you can also give insight to a sector of your research that's worth being investigated, never recommend a topic beyond the scope of your study.
4. As opposed to other parts of the chapter five of a research paper, this part should be written in the simple present tense.

Obviously, with all these amazing facts, firmly rooted in your mind, I believe writing concise summary-chapters will be effortless for you. Nothing more. Enjoy yourself.

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