Report Writing & Referencing

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Report Writing Referencing

• A lecture for Year 1 B.Ed students
• By Karen Dellar
• Study Learning Centre
• RMIT University

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A Report

• Is a structured written presentation directed to
  interested readers for a specific purpose, aim or
  request
• Its function is to
• Give an account of something,
• Answer a question
• Offer a solution

3

• What is the difference between an Essay and a
  Report???

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Essay Report
Establish a proposition or responds to a question
or proposition
Investigates, presents and analyzes information
to help make decisions or account for decisions.

• Has linked and fluent paragraph structure

• Has defined sections with (sub)-headings and
  numbering

Uses fluent sentence structure to express ideas.

• Uses lists and bullet points for clarity and
  brevity

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Essay Report
Sections are easily identified and can be read in
isolation.
Needs to be read as a whole

• Is a factual and objective presentation of data.

Presents a writers opinion or interpretation
(albeit supported with evidence.)
Has a specific audience appropriate to its
purposes.
Is aimed at a broad academic audience
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Essay Report
Ideally, completely text based
Includes diagrams, tables and graphs
Large amounts of supporting information are
included in appendices.
Supporting information is woven into the text
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The difference???
Report
Essay
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An Effective Report is

• Appropriate to its purpose and audience
• Accurate
• Logical
• Clear and concise
• Well organized under headings

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General Structure of a Report

• Transmittal document ( for business purposes)
• Title page
• Table of contents
• Abstract/Executive Summary
• Introduction
• Discussion
• Conclusions
• Recommendations
• Bibliography

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More Detailed Structure of a Report

• Title
• Executive summary / Abstract
• Table of Contents
• 1. Introduction
• 1.1 Purpose of the report
• 1.2 Issues
• 1.3 Research methods
• 1.4 Limitations and assumptions

 
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Structure of a Report

• 2. Discussion
• 2.1 Literature Review
• 2.1.1. Issue 1
• 2.1.2. Issue 2
• 2.2 Method
• 2.2.1 . Procedure
• 2.2.2 . Sample Size
• 2.3 Discussion and analysis of data
• 2.3.1. Issue 1
• 2.3.2. Issue 2
• 2.3.3. Reliability /accuracy of data

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Structure of a Report

• 3. Conclusions
• 4. Recommendations
• 5. References
• 6. Appendices

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• The Assignment The Case Study of a Childs
  Literacy

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The report is about your student
A (unique) Title
Literacy Needs of C21
Needs analysis of student
Related to your student
Childs background
Actual Reading Test and Analysis of observations
Childs Involvement with Reading
Recommendations for student
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Use literature to support what you want to say
about your student
literature
Literacy Needs of C21
Needs analysis of student
Related to your student
literature
Actual Reading Test and Analysis of observations
Childs background
literature
Childs Involvement with Reading
Recommendations for student
literature
literature
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A recommended procedure

• Complete all observations and analyses of student
  first.
• Think about the overall picture of your student,
  the main issues, strengths or needs.
  With these in mind
• Write up the background, observations and
  analyses
• Compile supporting material for appendices
• Write the Recommendations
• Write the Introduction

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A recommended procedure

• Final compilation of reference list /
  bibliography
• Write Abstract (if required)
• Insert Table of Contents

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• Referencing APA Style

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You must cite a reference source when you use

• a direct quote
• information expressed in your own words (ie.
  paraphrase)
• statistics
• diagrams, tables, graphs
• photos

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You do not need to cite a reference when you use

• Your own personal experience or opinion
• Common knowledge (definition?)

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In-Text Referencing

• DeFazio (1999) claims that referencing
  conventions for technological resources will
  become more consistent with wider use.
• Conventions for referencing the internet will
  gain greater consistency with increased use in
  scholastic work. (DeFazio, 1999)
• The rules for referencing sources are formulaic
  and very strict (DeFazio, 1999, p.107)

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Paragraph Example (APA)

• Disadvantaged groups within society also
  experience inequalities in health care. Thompson
  (1999) states that a persons health has a direct
  relationship to their social and economic
  standing within the community. Groups with a low
  socioeconomic status have poorer health than
  those with a high socioeconomic status (National
  Health Strategy, 1998). The high infant
  mortality rates for Indigenous Australians and
  the lower life expectancy for Aboriginal women
  (Brown, 2001) are two examples that show
  inequalities in health care for particular groups
  within the Australian community. Therefore, for
  health programs to be more effective, the
  community needs to look at

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Other examples

• Use of et al. for 3 to 5 authors of a book or
  journal article
• Harter, Schmidt and Hayes (2002) argue that
  individual, group and organisation level factors
  are related to performance and retention.
• Harter et al. (2002) also state that job
  satisfaction is important and is directly related
  to retention.
• Secondary sources
• Brown and Martin (as cited in Harmon, 2002) have
  reported a case study of a student with differing
  literacy issues in his first and second
  languages.

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The Reference List

• A new page at the end of your assignment
• Arranged in alphabetical order according to
  authors surname
• Includes all references cited in-text

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Reference List Entry

• DeFazio, T. (1999) Studying in Australia a
  guide for international students, Sydney, Allen
  Unwin.

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• Some useful APA Resources

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RMIT Referencing Sites

• Quick Guide http//mams.rmit.edu.au/x3tdu4s30085.r
  tf
• Longer Version http//mams.rmit.edu.au/szq3g615ahb
  dz.rtf

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APA Electronic Style Guide 2007(now available in
library catalogue)

• https//login.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/connect?sess
  ionsRpltsIS8Yazv9fnurlhttps//login.ezproxy.lib
  .rmit.edu.au/login/digital/ereserve/APAguide/style
  _reference.pdf

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Google APA Referencing

• http//library.curtin.edu.au/research_and_informat
  ion_skills/referencing/apa.pdf
• http//www.library.jcu.edu.au/LibraryGuides/apa.sh
  tml
• http//www.lib.monash.edu.au/tutorials/citing/apa.
  html

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The main reasons for referencing

• To show you have read widely on a topic you
  have identified important ideas in other writers
  research
• To draw on experts to support the points you are
  making and hence make them more persuasive
• To allow the reader to locate, check and follow
  up the sources used

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Plagiarism

• If you do not indicate the sources of your ideas,
  it could appear that you are wrongfully claiming
  another authors ideas or words to be your own
• This is known as plagiarism

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How to avoid plagiarism

• Become familiar with the
• American Psychological Association (APA)
  referencing system
• Develop a system to record bibliographic
  information for all sources you use
• Take careful notes and develop a system to
  distinguish
• Text you have copied from the
  source
• Text you have paraphrased or
  summarised
• Your own ideas

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How to avoid plagiarism

• Include APA in-text referencing (author, date)
  with every draft
• Compile your reference list as you write your
  assignment
• Get into the habit of paraphrasing appropriately

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Paraphrasing Preferred Please

• Lecturers usually prefer paraphrasing to direct
  quotations.
• Why?

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Quotes..
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, (Thingo, 1999,
p.22)
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, (Thingo, 1999,
p.22)
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Paraphrasing

• Shorter
• To the point
• More elegant

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Task change this quote to a paraphrase

• Smith (1999) states, Children rely mainly on
  parents for gender stereotypes (p. 12).

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Suggestions

• Smith (1999) states that parents are important
  gender stereotypes for children.
• Parents play an important role as gender
  stereotypes for children (Smith, 1999).

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Paraphrasing

• What strategies did you use to complete the task?