How to write a Results section of a research paper

What belongs in a Results section of a research paper?

Organise actual, relevant findings around a research question, hypothesis, or named theme. Report findings in a logical order, use past tense where appropriate, and refer to each included table or figure in the text. Retain relevant null, negative, mixed, or unexpected findings. Explain why findings occurred, compare prior work, and make implications in Discussion unless the assignment explicitly combines sections.

Fictional quantitative learning example

This fictional learning example is invented for practice; it is not a real dataset, statistical output, study result, table, figure, or text to submit. To examine a fictional association between weekly planning and assignment completion, a fictional linear regression reported an invented positive association. The fictional Results paragraph refers readers to an invented Table 1 and names only the fictional comparison it displays. It does not claim why planning helped, recommend an intervention, or treat invented values as evidence.

This learning example models a reportable relationship and display reference without inventing a causal or significance claim. In a real paper, check analysis, values, labels, citations, uncertainty, and local reporting conventions.

How to build a Results section step by step

1. Confirm the Results contract. Check whether the assignment separates Results from Discussion or combines them; confirm headings, required data or themes, display conventions, reporting style, word limit, and whether the study is completed or proposed.
2. Reopen the research question or hypothesis. List questions, hypotheses, qualitative themes, or required outcomes and choose the reader-friendly order in which findings answer the task.
3. Inventory actual reportable findings. Return to verified outputs, coded material, quotations, tables, figures, and analytic records. Do not draft from memory or create a value, theme, participant account, result, or significance statement because a model has a place for it.
4. Select relevant and representative evidence. Choose findings that answer the question, including relevant null, negative, mixed, or unexpected outcomes. Do not reproduce every raw observation or select only material that supports a preferred conclusion.
5. Choose a logical reporting order. Organise by question, hypothesis, key comparison, theme, or other explicit reader path rather than collection chronology.
6. Make tables and figures do distinct work. Check labels, notes, units, captions, and numbering. Refer to each included display in the text, highlight the needed finding, and avoid repeating every value visible in a display or caption.
7. Report factual outcomes precisely. Name the analysis, finding, pattern, theme, comparison, or uncertainty accurately and use language matching the actual measure and record. Do not turn observation into cause, explanation, recommendation, or proof.
8. Protect the Results boundary and reverse-check. Move explanations of why results happened, prior-study comparison, implications, and recommendations to Discussion unless the task explicitly combines sections. Recheck every item against the source record, display, method, question, and final Discussion claim.

A fictional learning example can show reporting order, but use only verified analysis, tables, figures, and course conventions in submitted work.

Use Results guidance, then follow your assignment's reporting rules

USC Libraries explains that Results report study findings in a logical sequence without bias or interpretation, focus on findings critical to the research problem, distinguish reportable results from raw material, and retain relevant negative results. UC Irvine Libraries advises writers to present representative data in logical order, use meaningful statistics, refer to each included table or figure in text, and reserve evaluation of significance for Discussion. Sacred Heart University Library likewise recommends concise, factual reporting relevant to the question, non-duplication between displays and prose, and careful handling of negative results and appendices. Check instructor, department, journal, and discipline requirements when they use another structure or combine Results and Discussion.

Results self-check

• Have you confirmed the Results/Discussion contract for this assignment?
• Does each paragraph answer a research question or report a named theme with an actual finding?
• Have you removed speculation, explanation, literature comparison, implication, and recommendation where a separate Discussion is required?
• Have you reported relevant negative, null, mixed, or unexpected findings?
• Does every included table or figure appear in the text without duplicating all its values?
• Have you checked statistics, quotations, themes, raw data decisions, and display labels against verified records?

Open Results phrases · Interpret findings in Discussion · Recheck the Methods path · Return to the research question · Match language to the result · Connect results to argument · Keep records and source use traceable · Verify citations and source records · Use the section planner.