How to write a results section for a research paper | RISE Research

TL;DR: The results section of a research paper presents your findings clearly, without interpretation. It is one of the most misunderstood sections in academic writing, and one of the most important for journal submission and university applications. This guide explains exactly how to write a results section for a research paper as a high school student: what to include, what to leave out, how to present data, and what separates a publishable results section from a weak one.

Introduction

Most high school students think the results section is where you explain what your data means. It is not. The results section is where you report what your data shows, precisely and without commentary. Interpretation belongs in the discussion section. Mixing the two is the single most common structural error in high school research papers, and it is one of the first things a journal reviewer will flag.

Understanding how to write a results section for a research paper requires a shift in thinking. You are not making an argument here. You are presenting evidence. Every sentence in a strong results section either reports a finding, references a figure, or provides a statistical value. Nothing else belongs.

This guide walks through the process step by step, with specific examples of what strong and weak results sections look like, the tools that help you present data clearly, and the points where students working alone most often go wrong.

What is a results section and why does it matter for your research paper?

The results section is the part of a research paper where the researcher reports all findings from their study, presented in a logical order, supported by data, figures, and tables, without interpretation or opinion. It answers the question: what did you find? It does not answer: what does it mean?

The results section sits between the methodology and the discussion in a standard research paper structure. It is the evidentiary core of your paper. Without a clear, well-organised results section, your discussion has no foundation and your conclusions carry no weight. Journal reviewers read the results section closely to assess whether your data actually supports your claims. University admissions readers, when evaluating a published paper as part of an application, look at the results section to understand the scope and rigour of your work. A weak results section signals that the researcher does not fully understand their own data. A strong one signals exactly the opposite.

If you are working toward publication, understanding how to write a results section for a research paper at a standard that meets journal requirements is not optional. It is the difference between acceptance and rejection. You can read more about the full publication process in our guide on how to publish a research paper.

How to write a results section for a research paper: a step-by-step process for high school students

Step 1: Organise your findings before you write a single sentence. Before writing, list every finding your study produced. Group related findings together. Decide on a logical order, either chronological (the order in which you collected data), by research question (if you had more than one), or by importance (primary findings first, secondary findings after). Students who skip this step write results sections that jump between unrelated findings, confusing the reader and obscuring the strength of the data. A clear organisational structure is not cosmetic. It is analytical.

Step 2: Report each finding with its corresponding data value. Every claim in the results section must be accompanied by a specific number, percentage, statistical measure, or direct reference to a figure or table. Do not write: "Most participants reported feeling anxious." Write: "68% of participants (n=47) reported anxiety scores above the clinical threshold on the GAD-7 scale (see Figure 2)." The second version is verifiable. The first is not. Verifiability is what separates academic reporting from opinion.

Step 3: Use figures and tables to present complex data, not to decorate the paper. If your study produced numerical data across multiple variables or time points, a table or figure communicates that information more efficiently than prose. Each figure and table must have a number and a descriptive caption. Every figure and table you include must be referenced in the text. A table that appears in your results section but is never mentioned in the prose might as well not exist. Use tools like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel to create clean, accurate charts, and export them at high resolution for submission.

Step 4: Report statistical significance where applicable. If your study used quantitative methods, report the relevant statistical test, the test statistic, the degrees of freedom, and the p-value. For example: "A paired t-test revealed a statistically significant difference between pre- and post-intervention scores (t(32) = 3.41, p = 0.002)." If you are not yet familiar with statistical testing, this is a critical area to address before writing your results section. Many high school students conducting quantitative research skip this step because it feels intimidating, but journals require it, and omitting it weakens the paper significantly.

Step 5: Keep interpretation out of the results section entirely. Every time you write a sentence that begins with "This suggests," "This shows that," or "These findings indicate," you are writing discussion, not results. Move those sentences to the discussion section. The results section states what happened. The discussion section explains what it means. Keeping these two functions separate is a discipline that takes practice, but it is one of the clearest markers of a well-trained researcher.

Step 6: Report negative or null results honestly. If your hypothesis was not supported, report that clearly. If a variable showed no significant effect, state that. Selective reporting, presenting only the findings that support your hypothesis, is a form of research misconduct. It also weakens your paper, because reviewers will look for the complete picture. Null results have scientific value. Reporting them honestly demonstrates integrity and methodological confidence. For more on this, see our post on how to turn negative results into valuable research takeaways.

The most common mistake at this stage is conflating results with discussion. Students write sentences like: "The high anxiety scores among social media users suggest that platform design is harmful to adolescent mental health." That sentence belongs in the discussion. The results section should read: "Participants who reported daily social media use exceeding three hours scored significantly higher on the GAD-7 than those reporting under one hour of daily use (M = 11.3 vs. M = 7.1, p = 0.004)." Report the finding. Save the interpretation.

Where most high school students get stuck with results sections

Three specific points in the results-writing process cause the most difficulty for students working independently.

The first is deciding what to include. Students often collect more data than they need and struggle to determine which findings are relevant to their research question and which are peripheral. Including everything produces an unfocused results section. Including too little leaves the reader without enough evidence to evaluate the claims in the discussion.

The second is statistical reporting. Students who design quantitative studies without a strong background in statistics frequently reach the results stage and realise they do not know how to run the appropriate tests, interpret the output, or report the values in the correct format. This is not a writing problem. It is a methods problem that surfaces at the results stage.

The third is figure design. A poorly labelled figure, a chart with unlabelled axes, or a table with inconsistent decimal places signals a lack of attention to detail that reviewers notice immediately.

A PhD mentor addresses all three of these problems directly. At the results stage, a mentor reviews the full dataset with the student, identifies which findings are primary and which are secondary, confirms that the correct statistical tests have been applied, and checks every figure and table against journal submission standards. This is not guidance a student can replicate by reading a style guide. It requires someone who has submitted papers to journals and knows what reviewers expect. You can see the range of subject areas RISE Research mentors cover on our mentors page.

If you are at this stage and want a PhD mentor to guide you through writing your results section and the full research process, book a free 20-minute Research Assessment to see what is possible before the Summer 2026 Cohort I Deadline.

What does a good results section look like? A high school example

A weak results section makes general claims without data and blends reporting with interpretation. A strong results section reports specific, quantified findings in a logical order, references figures and tables correctly, and contains no interpretive language. The difference is not stylistic. It is structural.

Here is a weak example from a study on sleep and academic performance:

"Students who slept less did worse on their tests. This is probably because sleep deprivation affects memory consolidation, which is an important part of learning. Most students in the study were sleep deprived."

This paragraph makes a claim without a data value, offers an interpretation in a section that should contain none, and uses vague language ("most students") instead of a specific figure.

Here is a strong version of the same finding:

"Students reporting fewer than six hours of nightly sleep scored an average of 14.2 points lower on standardised mathematics assessments than those reporting eight or more hours (M = 61.3 vs. M = 75.5, SD = 8.4 and 7.9 respectively; see Table 1). This difference was statistically significant (t(88) = 5.67, p < 0.001). Sixty-three percent of participants (n=57) reported sleeping fewer than six hours on school nights."

The strong version reports a specific finding, provides the statistical test and result, references the relevant table, and contains no interpretation. Every sentence is verifiable. That is what a publishable results section looks like.

If you are building toward a full research paper, our guide on how to write a high school research paper covers the complete structure from introduction to conclusion.

The best tools for writing a results section as a high school student

Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel are the most accessible tools for running basic descriptive statistics and producing charts. Both allow you to calculate means, standard deviations, and frequencies, and to generate figures that can be formatted for academic submission. Excel has a broader statistical function library, but Google Sheets is free and sufficient for most high school-level quantitative studies.

JASP is a free, open-source statistical analysis program designed to be more accessible than SPSS. It runs t-tests, ANOVA, correlation analyses, and regression models, and it produces output formatted for academic reporting. For high school students conducting quantitative research, JASP is the most practical step up from spreadsheet-based analysis.

ATLAS.ti and NVivo are qualitative data analysis tools, but both have student pricing tiers and free trials. If your study involved interviews, surveys with open-ended responses, or textual analysis, these tools help you code and organise qualitative findings systematically before writing them up. Without a structured coding process, qualitative results sections tend to be anecdotal rather than analytical.

Zotero is a free reference manager that helps you keep track of the sources you cite when referencing prior studies within your results section. If your results section compares your findings to benchmarks from published literature, accurate citation is essential. Our guide on how to cite sources in a research paper covers APA, MLA, and Chicago formats in detail.

Grammarly or the Hemingway Editor can help you check sentence clarity and flag overly complex phrasing. The results section should be precise and readable. These tools do not replace subject knowledge, but they help you catch passive voice, run-on sentences, and unnecessary complexity before submission.

Frequently asked questions about writing a results section for a research paper

How long should a results section be in a high school research paper?

A results section for a high school research paper is typically 300 to 600 words, plus any figures and tables. Length depends on the complexity of your study and the number of findings. The goal is completeness, not length. Every finding relevant to your research question must appear. Nothing irrelevant should be included.

Students often write results sections that are either too short (because they omit data values) or too long (because they include interpretation). Focus on reporting every relevant finding with its corresponding data, and stop before you begin explaining what the findings mean.

Can you use first person in a results section?

Most academic journals prefer third person or passive voice in the results section, though some fields and journals accept first person. Check the author guidelines for the specific journal you are targeting. In general, writing "Participants reported" or "The analysis revealed" is safer than "I found" for formal academic submission.

When in doubt, follow the style of published papers in your target journal. Reading three or four results sections from papers in that journal will tell you more about acceptable style than any general guide.

What is the difference between results and discussion in a research paper?

The results section reports what the data shows. The discussion section explains what the data means, why it matters, and how it connects to existing literature. Results are objective. Discussion is interpretive. A sentence that begins with "This finding suggests" belongs in the discussion. A sentence that reports a specific data value belongs in the results.

Keeping these two sections clearly separated is a discipline that journal reviewers assess directly. Papers that blur the boundary between results and discussion are harder to evaluate and are more likely to receive revision requests.

Do you need to include figures and tables in a results section?

Figures and tables are not always required, but they are expected whenever data is complex enough that prose alone would be difficult to follow. If your study produced numerical data across multiple groups or time points, a table or figure communicates that information more clearly than a paragraph of numbers. Every figure and table must be referenced in the text and must have a clear, descriptive caption.

Students who omit figures from data-heavy results sections often produce prose that is dense and hard to evaluate. Reviewers expect visual presentation of complex data as standard practice.

How do you write a results section for a qualitative research paper?

A qualitative results section organises findings by theme or category rather than by statistical measure. Each theme is supported by direct quotations or specific examples from the data. The structure is: name the theme, describe what the data showed within that theme, and provide a representative quotation or example. Avoid generalising without evidence, and avoid interpreting in the results section, even in qualitative work.

Qualitative results sections are often longer than quantitative ones because the evidence is textual rather than numerical. Organisation is critical. A well-coded dataset, using a tool like ATLAS.ti or even a structured spreadsheet, makes this section significantly easier to write.

Conclusion

Writing a strong results section requires three things: a clear organisational structure, specific data values for every finding, and the discipline to keep interpretation out entirely. These are learnable skills, but they take practice and, ideally, feedback from someone who has reviewed academic papers at the journal level.

The results section is not where most students expect to struggle. It is not the introduction or the literature review. But it is where a significant number of papers fail at the submission stage, because the data is present but not reported in a way that meets journal standards. Getting this section right is what separates a paper that gets published from one that gets rejected. You can see what published results look like across a range of subjects in the RISE Research publications portfolio, and read about the outcomes RISE scholars achieve on our results page.

The Summer 2026 Cohort I Deadline is approaching. If writing your results section is a step you want to get right with expert guidance behind you, schedule a free Research Assessment and we will match you with a PhD mentor who has done this in your subject area.