Discussion Moves & Associated Academic Phrases

A strong relationship between X and Y has been reported in the literature.
Prior work has noted the importance of … 
In reviewing the literature, no data was found associating X and Y. 
As mentioned in the literature review, ...
Very little was found in the literature on the question of ..... 

 

The results of this study indicate that .......
This experiment did not detect any evidence for ......
On the (central) question of X, this study found that ......
The current study found that ......
The most interesting finding was that ...... 
Another important finding was that .....
The results of this study did not show  … 
In this study, X were found to cause .....  

 

Surprisingly, X was found to .......
One unanticipated finding was that ..... 
It is somewhat surprising that no X was noted in......  
Contrary to expectations, this study did not find a significant difference between ....... 

 

This study produced results which corroborate the findings of a great deal of the previous work in this field. 
These findings of the current study are consistent with those of Smith and Jones (2001) who found ...... 
This finding supports previous research into this area which links X and Y.
This study confirms that X is associated with ......
This finding is in agreement with Smith's (1999) findings which showed .......
There are similarities between the attitudes expressed by X in this study and those described by (Smith, 1987, 1995) and Jones (1986)
These findings further support the idea of Jones (1986).....

 

However, the findings of the current study do not support the previous research.
However, this result has not previously been described.
In contrast to earlier findings, however, no evidence of X was detected.
Although, these results differ from some published studies (Smith, 1992; Jones, 1996), they are consistent with those of ......

 

There are several possible explanations for this result.
A possible explanation for this might be that ..... 
This result may be explained by the fact that ..... 
It is difficult to explain this result, but it might be related to ......
It seems possible that these results are due to ......   
This inconsistency/discrepancy may be due to ......
This rather contradictory result may be due to ......
There are, however, other possible explanations. 
The observed increased in X could be attributed to ..... 
The observed correlation between X and Y might be explained in this way. ..... 

 

The value of X suggests/indicates/implies that a weak link may exist between .....
It is therefore likely that such connections exist between .....
It can thus be suggested that ......
It is possible to hypothesise that these conditions are less likely to occur in ......
It is possible/likely/probable therefore that ...... 
Hence, it could conceivably be hypothesised that ......
These findings suggest that ...
It may be the case therefore that these variations ...

 

From the above it can be concluded that ...
In general, therefore, it seems that ....
It is possible, therefore, that ....
Therefore, X could be a major factor, if not the only one, causing ....
It can therefore be assumed that the ....
The findings of this study strongly suggest that ....

 

However, more research on this topic needs to be undertaken before the association between X and Y is more clearly understood.
Further research should be done to investigate the ....
Research questions that could be asked include ....
Future studies on the current topic are therefore recommended.
A further study with more focus on X is therefore suggested. 
Further studies, which take these variables into account, will need to be undertaken.
Further work is required to establish this.
In future investigations it might be possible to use a different X in which...
This is an important issue for future research.

 

From the above discussion therefore it is clear that this research has contributed to…