The research report: conclusions and recommendations

THESES and dissertations are usually organized into five chapters. The Abstract precedes the five chapters, namely: Chapter 1 – Introduction, Chapter 2 – Literature Review, Chapter 3 – Methodology, Chapter 4 – Results, Analysis and Interpretation, and Chapter 5 – Conclusion and Recommendations. In some universities, Chapter 4 dwells only with the Results and Findings (or Analysis). Hence, Chapter 5 is titled Discussion (or Interpretation), Conclusions and Recommendations, followed by the Bibliography & Appendices. Some universities add a Chapter 6 – Interventions (arising from the Recommendations in Chapter 5).

Writing Chapter Five – Conclusions and Recommendations. This begins with a succinct recapitulation of Chapters 1 to 4 under the Introduction section of Chapter 5. The Introduction section consists of the context in which the study was conducted: questions being raised about the research topic, knowledge gaps, etc., the circumstances that inspired the researcher to undertake this study, relevant information drawn from the literature review, or an unanswered inquiry from a lecture. A brief sentence in the same paragraph describing this personal life, or career, or academic encounter with the research topic without recounting details, would suffice.