6. writing a research report

As a university student, you may be required to write a variety of reports for assessment purposes
A research report is one type that is often used in the sciences, engineering and psychology
Here your aim is to write clearly and concisely about your research topic so that the reader can easily understand the purpose and results of your research

1. Writing A Research Report

2. Why you need to write a research report? As a university student, you may be required to write a variety of reports for assessment purposes A research report is one type that is often used in the sciences, engineering and psychology Here your aim is to write clearly and concisely about your research topic so that the reader can easily understand the purpose and results of your research

3. Divisions and sections of a report

4. Content of Individual Sections

5. Effective Research Report Characteristics An effective research report has—at least—the following four characteristics: Focus : an effective report emphasizes the important information Accuracy : an effective report does not mislead the reader Clarity : an effective report does not confuse the reader Conciseness : an effective report does not waste the reader’s time

6. Working ahead You can begin writing the report of your study before you have actually done the study You can begin writing the introductory section of the report as soon as you have decided on the general approach your study will follow You can write the method section of the report before you have analyzed the data You can begin writing the results section of the report before you finish analyzing the data

7. Terminology Know your audience and what terms they understand Before you start writing the report, decide who your intended readers are Use short, descriptive labels Don’t refer to the same thing by two or more different names Don’t refer to the same thing by two or more different names

8. Abbreviations Avoid unfamiliar abbreviations Unfamiliar abbreviations make your report hard to read You may find that using abbreviations makes it easier for you to write the report Include the complete phrase at least once Be careful when you make up a new abbreviation Avoid long sentences Divide your long sentence to two short sentences

9. Stepwise writing of a research report Step 1: Analyze the task

10. Continued. Step 2: Develop a rough plan Use the section headings to assist with your rough plan Write a thesis statement that clarifies the overall purpose of your report Jot down anything you already know about the topic in the relevant sections

11. Continued. Step 3: Do the Research Plenty of time is needed for this step as it will take the most of your time Ensure you keep correct bibliographic details for all of the material you may later use in your report (you can use Mendeley or other referencing software)

12. Continued. Step 4: Draft the Body of Your Report Introduction is the purpose of your report The thesis statement will be useful here Background information may include a brief review of the literature already available on the topic so that you are able to ‘place’ your research in the field Some brief details of your methods and an outline of the structure of the report

13. Continued. Literature Review - If asked to do a separate literature review, you must carefully structure your findings It may be useful to do a chronological format where you discuss from the earliest to the latest research, placing your research appropriately in the chronology Alternately , you could write in a thematic way, outlining the various themes that you discovered in the research regarding the topic A gain , you will need to state where your research fits

14. Continued. Methodology - Here you clearly outline what methodology you used in your research i.e. what you did and how you did it It must be clearly written so that it would be easy for another researcher to duplicate your research if they wished to Clearly reference any material you have used from other sources Results - This is where you indicate what you found in your research You give the results of your research, but do not interpret them

15. Continued. Discussion - This is where you discuss the relevance of your results and how your findings fit with other research in the area It will relate back to your literature review and your introductory thesis statement Conclusion - This is a summary of the most significant results You should not include any new material in this section Sometimes you could indicate some areas where your research has limits or where further research would be useful

16. This includes suggestions for what needs to be done as a result of your findings Recommendations are usually listed in order of priority

17. Continued. Step 5: Draft the Supplementary Material References or Bibliography - This includes all references used in your report or referred to for background information Appendices - These should add extra information to the report If you include appendices they must be referred to in the body of the report and must have a clear purpose for being included Each appendix must be named and numbered

18. Continued. Step 6: Draft the Preliminary Material Title of Report - Make sure this is clear and indicates exactly what you are researching Table of Contents - List all sections, sub headings tables/graphs appendices and give page numbers for each Abstract/Synopsis - This gives a very brief overview of the report in a condensed form

19. Continued. Step 7: Polish Your Report The final step is checking your report to ensure you have followed all of the guidelines as outlined in your course information

20. Structure of thesis Title page : Vary according to the institute Acknowledgment : you may acknowledge the help of people List of Contents : vary according to the institute Abstract : Brief summary of your thesis Introduction : Explain what you are up to and why it is important Literature Review : review related research in chronological order Materials and Methods : How you did your research? Results : include your findings Discussion : you have to link your results with those of others Conclusion : to conclude your main findings Appendices : may include questionnaires, letters, consent form etc. References : all the articles cited in the main text

21. Research Article vs Thesis

22. Structure of a research article Acknowledgments Funding Authors Contribution Competing interests Affiliations of authors Title of the research article Abstract Introduction/background Methods with subheadings Results in the same order as methods Discussion Conclusion Abbreviations References