Good morning all,

Just a quick question- I'm thinking about my discussion chapter and I'm spotting loads and loads of limitations within my current study that I've accumulated along the way over the last (almost) four years.

I'm very worried that I'll be heavily criticised for not acknowledging these limitations earlier on during my PhD! I'm trying to redefine this, ie learning curve etc etc and that acknowledging my limitations is a strength of my thesis (?!).

How is everyone else approaching their limitations within your discussion chapter(s)?

I think you have to defend the methodology you chose in your final conclusions chapter. That's what I did very clearly, restating the methodology up front. Then I talked about my big findings, arranged by topic/theme. And, near the end, I talked more about the limitations in the context of future research that could be done. But I was always really clear to justify what I'd done.

I agree, discussion chapter is where you bring together all the stuff you have done and talk about it ( at least that is what I am going to do :$. Then when you get to the final chapter, that is where the limitations go - that where you can also tell them the bit you want to research next in the light of the findings you have made. :-).