The Related Work chapter is where you review and summarize existing literature and studies that are directly relevant to your research topic. You discuss the methodologies, findings, and limitations of these studies. This chapter helps to establish the context of your work and highlight how your research fills a gap in the existing knowledge.
The Discussion chapter, on the other hand, is where you interpret and explain your own findings in the context of the overall research. Here, you also compare your results with those from the existing literature, but the focus is different. You’re not just summarizing what others have found, but you’re critically analyzing how your results align with or differ from theirs. You discuss why these similarities or differences might exist and what they mean for your research question.
So, while both chapters involve a comparison with existing literature, the focus and purpose of that comparison are different. In the Related Work chapter, the comparison helps to set the stage for your research, while in the Discussion chapter, it helps to interpret and give meaning to your own findings.
The Related Work chapter
is where you review and summarize existing literature and studies that are directly relevant to your research topic. You discuss the methodologies, findings, and limitations of these studies. This chapter helps to establish the context of your work and highlight how your research fills a gap in the existing knowledge.The Discussion chapter
, on the other hand, is where you interpret and explain your own findings in the context of the overall research. Here, you also compare your results with those from the existing literature, but the focus is different. You’re not just summarizing what others have found, but you’re critically analyzing how your results align with or differ from theirs. You discuss why these similarities or differences might exist and what they mean for your research question.So, while both chapters involve a comparison with existing literature, the focus and purpose of that comparison are different. In the Related Work chapter, the comparison helps to set the stage for your research, while in the Discussion chapter, it helps to interpret and give meaning to your own findings.