Doing Field Projects. John Forrest

Each chapter here will have specific advice about the presentation of data as well as advice on adding explanatory notes. As needed, get in the habit of using pseudonyms as well as disguising the location of events (wherever possible) to preserve confidentiality.

      Part 3. Analysis and Conclusions

      This section is much more than a simple declaration of whether your conclusions matched your expectations at the start of the project or not. This part of your presentation lets you delve freely into an analysis of your data as well as draw a variety of conclusions. These conclusions may take many forms. Sometimes you discover that your original research question was misguided or posed badly. Sometimes your intention was to establish a hypothesis in order to show it was false (the null hypothesis). Or, maybe you discovered that hypothesis formation was unnecessary or unhelpful. Sometimes your research design was badly conceived or your data are muddled. There are a thousand and one ways in which what you intended to do in a project and what you actually did do not coincide. This part of the presentation is your opportunity to critique yourself as well as to offer your formal conclusions.