Hello (to all social science students - and anyone else who might be able to help) ...

I'm trying to write my conclusion chapter and am, well, stuck (I've spent all day looking at notes and have managed big fat '0'). Part of my thesis consists of two 'interview analysis' chapters and I'm not sure how to approach these in my conclusion. Do I just summarise the main findings (of my entire thesis) in my conclusion ... or am I supposed to 'add' new stuff into the equation to?

I'm really confused (my supervisor is away at the moment, so am trying to get something constructive done so I don't spend lots of days doing nothing!!!).

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Goods

I had a major problem with this chapter also. In fact, I am sure I posted about it in Jan/Feb time as I was struggling also. In my humble opinion, this chapter needs to be more than simply a review of findings from both your previous chapters. Obviously the chapter can be structured around this but it needs to think more about the implications of your findings, how reserch could usefully take the findings of your thesis forward. It is more an overall 'so what' chapter. Okay, you have done all this fantastic work, but what does it really mean?

I also had a section for overall strengths / weaknesses and tried to tie the whole thesis together. It is also a point for mentioning more recent work in relation to your findings (stuff published since you did your lit review chapter).

Hope this helps! That is what I was told, so of course others may have differing opinions.

Hi Goods, my supervisor keeps drumming in that the conclusion chapter is "what you know from your thesis, what you might know (results that are less clear), and what you still need to find out" - maybe it helps to structure it around that in some way? I'm still one chapter away from the big C so dont know how helpful this way of looking at it will be yet!!

Hi Dr Fluffy/KitKat

I've taken your comments on board, and they've (genuinely) really helped ... so here's a big THANK YOU!

Cheers :)

No problem, glad to be of service. Good luck, you must be close to the end!