Page 336 - English for Writing Research Papers
P. 336
325
18.16 How long should the paragraphs be?
Your aim is to allow your reader to quickly understand how your results add to the
current state of the art.
As with the Introduction (see 14.9 ), your Discussion should thus not be one long
paragraph or a series of very long paragraphs.
The moments to begin a new paragraph in the Discussion are when you:
• change topic, or you look at a different aspect of the same topic
• move from talking about one result to another result
• mention another author with similar or different results
• justify any differences between your work and the literature
• want to talk about the consequences of what you have just been describing
• talk about the limitations of your work
• talk about the implications of your study and any future research lines
• draw conclusions
However, for some of the points above you will certainly need more than one para-
graph. Consider having a series of sub-headings within the Discussion, and under
each heading you can have one or more paragraphs.
If you print your Discussion you will immediately see the undesirable effect of hav-
ing long paragraphs. They are not inviting for the reader.
