Writing up findings that don’t align and discussing them
So basically my thesis is due VERY soon and it’s my first time writing up a thesis. I am up to the discussion section and am finding it incredibly hard to start writing. For context, my course does not allow us to get feedback from our supervisors on the discussion section.
My survey and lab findings do not align with each other in the sense that my hypothesis is only partially supported for my survey findings and not supported at all for my lab findings. Saying that though a lot of my lab work has been optimisation and it is very early mechanistic work (so if this mechanism doesn’t explain our data, there’s other possible explanations that haven’t been explored yet). My survey explores a novel cohort where there is no previous literature in this context, there is a little bit of literature about similar cohorts for other body sites but also not many papers there.
Where do I begin? If there isn’t a lot of previous literature do I refer to literature from other body sites, other bacteria, as similar cohort or exposures as possible?
I understand have to write a brief overview, refer to my findings in the context of literature and if it is supported or conflicts current data, strengths/limitations, significance and future directions… but how do I ACTUALLY start writing especially when literature is sparse. Any advice would be appreciated