Research Report Preparation Material
Writing
a Research Report
Structure
You must carefully read your course information details to ensure that you
comply with what the lecturer/tutor stipulates. A report is typically made up
of three main divisions:
(1)
Preliminary
material,
(2)
Body
and
(3)
Supplementary
material.
Each of the sections contains a
different kind of content. Refer to the tables below:
Broad Divisions |
Individual Sections |
(1)
Preliminary material |
·
Title of Report ·
Table of Contents (not always required) ·
Abstract/Synopsis |
(2) Body of
report |
·
Introduction ·
Literature Review (sometimes included in the
Introduction) Methodology ·
Results ·
Discussion ·
Conclusion ·
Recommendations (sometimes included in the
Conclusion) |
(3)
Supplementary material |
·
References or Bibliography ·
Appendices |
Individual
Sections |
Content
of Each Section |
Title of
Report |
Concise
heading indicating what the report is about |
Table of
Contents (not always required) |
List of major
sections and headings with page numbers |
Abstract/Synopsis |
Concise
summary of main findings |
Introduction |
What you
researched and why |
Literature
Review (sometimes included in the Introduction) |
Other relevant
research in this area |
Methodology |
What you did
and how you did it |
Results |
What you found |
Discussion |
Relevance of
your results, how it fits with other research in the area |
Conclusion |
Summary of
results/findings |
Recommendations
(sometimes included in the Conclusion) |
What needs to
be done as a result of your findings |
References or
Bibliography |
All references
used in your report or referred to for background information |
Appendices |
Any additional
material which will add to your report |
STEP
1 Analyse the Task:- As with any assignment task, you must
first analyse what is expected of you. This involves careful reading of the
assignment task as outlined in your course information book. You may find the
following questions useful when analysing the task:
·
What is the purpose of the report?(It
could be analysing, persuading or reporting on an investigation.)
·
Who is the audience for the report?
·
What is the word limit?
(Many
times the word limit only includes the body of the report.)
·
What is the topic of the report? (The
topic may be specified by the lecturer, but other times you will have a
choice.)
·
What is the expected format of the
report?
STEP
2 Develop a Rough Plan:- Use the section headings (outlined above) 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.
STEP
3 Do the Research Steps 1 and 2 will guide your research
for this report. You may need to report on other research on a particular topic
or do some research of your own. Keep referring to your analysis and rough plan
while you are doing your research to ensure that you remain on track. Give
yourself plenty of time for this step, as the research phase of your work will
usually take the most time of any step in producing your report. Also, ensure
you keep correct bibliographic details for all of the material you may later
use in your report.
STEP
4 Draft the Body of Your Report
Introduction
-
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.
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. Again, you will need to state where your research fits.
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.
·
It is usually written in a 'passive'
voice (e.g. the participants were asked to fill in the questionnaire attached
in Appendix 1) rather than an 'active' voice (e.g. I asked the participants to
fill in the questionnaire attached in Appendix 1).
·
Clearly reference any material you have
used from other sources. Clearly label and number any diagrams, charts, and
graphs. Ensure that they are relevant to the research and add substance to the
text rather than just duplicating what you have said. You do not include or
discuss the results here.
Results
-
This is where you indicate what you found in your research. You give the
results of your research, but do not interpret them.
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/findings. 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.
Recommendations
-
This includes suggestions for what needs to be done as a result of your
findings. Recommendations are usually listed in order of priority.
STEP
5 Draft the Supplementary Material
·
References
or Bibliography - This includes all references used in
your report or referred to for background information. This must be done using
the referencing convention specified by your lecturer/tutor.
·
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.
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 for more.
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. For more detail on how to do this well, please refer to the
Learning Guide Editing Your Own Work.
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