Preparation of a Research Report

1
Preparation of a Research Report

• Literature review

2
General Guidelines

• An outline is extremely important
• Involves identification and ordering of major
  topics.
• Headings followed by subheadings.
• Much easier to reorganize an outline than a
  narrative.

3
General Guidelines

• Analyze each reference in terms of your outline.
• Determine under which sub-heading each reference
  belongs.
• Each reference may be under more than one
  sub-heading.

4
General Guidelines

• Opinion pieces or reports may only be included in
  the introduction.
• Formal research studies only within the Review of
  Related Literature.

5
General Guidelines

• Analyze references under each sub-heading.
• If three references say essentially the same
  thing
• Do not fully describe each one.
• Make a summary statement, and cite three sources
  (i.e. pg. 54).

6
General Guidelines

• Give meaningful overview of past research.
• Organize and summarize in a meaningful way.
• Discuss references least related to your precise
  problem first.
• Discuss most relevant references last.

7
General Guidelines

• Analyze contradictory studies.
• Remove your own bias.
• Try to explain why two different studies arrived
  at two separate conclusions.

8
General Guidelines

• Conclude Literature Review with a brief summary
  of the literature and its implications.
• Clearly indicates the logic you have followed.
• Enhances your implications and tentative
  conclusions.

9
Moving forward

• Putting the pieces together

10
General Guidelines

• Use a highlighting pen.
• Look for progress, not perfection.
• Keep ideas flowing
• You can edit, revise and
• Find documentation later.

11
General Guidelines

• Literature review requires technical writing.
• Facts must be fully documented.
• Source of research study must be cited.
• If general terms are important to your topic
• You must define it in relation to your problem.
• i.e. Achievement What do you mean by it?

12
General Guidelines

• Organize content logically.
• Direct your writing to a particular audience.
• Has basic understanding of topic.
• Needs more insight to fully understand.
• Limit big/difficult words, avoid jargon.

13
General Guidelines

• Start each major section with a brief overview of
  the section.
• i.e. In this section, three main issues are
  examined. The first is
• End each major section with a summary of the main
  ideas.

14
Headings

• Look at various studies you have collected
• View
• Headings used
• Sections discussed
• Types of results commonly reported and
• Determine a similar format for your review

15
General Information

• A research report is written in the past tense.
• Provide accurate descriptions for the reader.
• Relate aspects of the study that accurately
  reflects what was done and what was found.

16
General Rules for Writing

• Abbreviations and contractions are discouraged.
• APA should be American Psychological Association.
• Couldnt should be could not.

17
General Rules for Writing

• Research report should be written in a clear,
  simple, and straightforward style.
• Proof read at least twice.

18
General Rules for Writing

• Correct spelling and punctuation are expected.
• Pronouns such as I are avoided.

19
General Rules for Writing

• Authors of cited references are usually referred
  to by last name only in the main body of the
  report.

20
General Rules for Writing

• If the first word of a sentence is a number, or
  if the number us nine or less, numbers are
  usually expressed as words. Otherwise, numbers
  are expressed as Arabic numerals.

21
Format and Style

• Use the APA style handouts/on line sources.
• Clear, straightforward, simple, and scholarly
  style.
• Also see table 21.1 in the text for things to
  avoid.

22
Sections of the Report

• Title page / Table of contents
• Introduction section
• Overview/description of the Problem
• Review of the Related Literature
• References