Writing a research report requires following specific guidelines for content and structure. The report should have an introduction that provides context and states the purpose of the research. The body should include sections on methodology, results, and discussion that relates the findings back to previous research. Effective reports are focused, accurate, clear, and concise. They also define any terminology or abbreviations used. The conclusion summarizes key results and recommendations. Careful planning and referencing of sources is important for drafting a high-quality 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
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
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
• Again, 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
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
