2012 report writing

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WRITING & EDITING your Research Education Report

Raffles Institution

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LECTURE OBJECTIVES

Consider these questions: Why is it important to learn how

to write an academic report? How do we write an academic

report? How do we edit our report to

achieve coherence?

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REASONS – Three Ps

Practicality. You need this skill till the end of your academic career

Practice makes permanent. Have a head start over others if you start early

Present insightful critiques of research articles

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OVERVIEW

An academic report is broadly divided into four main sections:

- Introduction- Methods- Results- Discussion You might want to use different

headings but the Content of your Written Report (WR) should cover these four broad sections.

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OVERVIEW

Four questions to think about:1. What is your research topic?2. How you went about

investigating your topic?3. What have you found?4. What are the implications of

your findings?

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OVERVIEW

Recommended length?? Rough approximation…- 1/3 Introduction- 1/3 Methods & Results- 1/3 Discussion (Key assessment

criteria to be noted, cannot be too short!) – refer to Assessment

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SCORING TIP!

Always keep in mind the assessment rubric

Make sure your WR addresses these assessment rubrics!

2012 Report Writing Assessment Rubrics (Product) Form pg 36.doc

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INTRODUCING YOUR PROJECT

What is the Introduction? Not the introductory paragraph of a

GP essay!! Covers the background of your topic Ends with a statement of what you

are examining or investigating for RE (i.e. your research objective)

Broadly relates to the first part of your task

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3 essential ingredients for an excellent introduction:

1. A strong justification for your choice of topic To bring out the significance of your

topic. To set your topic within an

important context.

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2. Having sufficient sources to substantiate your ideas or support your arguments

Conduct a literature review if information is insufficient.

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3. A clear research objective State clearly what you seek to

investigate for your project worke.g. to explore the feasibility of your proposed idea; to examine the effectiveness of your implemented idea, etc

This leads us nicely to the next section: Methodology

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DESCRIBING YOUR METHODOLOGY

Important but often omitted section If omitted, the reader is left

wondering where you had obtained your data from

This section tells the reader what you did to answer your research question, e.g. conducted a survey and an email interview, etc

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2012 Writing a Research Report (Y1).doc

Copyright (c) 2008 J&C Research Consultants Pte. Ltd.13

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PRESENTING YOUR RESULTS

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REPORTING YOUR RESULTS(recapitulation of prev

lecture…)

1. State your research objective and describe your methodology before reporting your results

AN EXAMPLE: To explore the marketability of our new

proposed product [research objective], a survey was conducted with 120 respondents from RI [methodology]. The respondents were all males, aged … (Describe the survey sample)

Results showed that … [report your results]

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REPORTING YOUR RESULTS

2. Present a finding by first stating the conclusion and then support it with relevant data or the results from your analyses.

This is followed by the interpretations derived from the data.

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FROM PREVIOUS EXAMPLE Results showed that males were willing

to pay more for the new proposed product than females [conclusion from the data].

On average, male respondents indicated that they are willing to spend $35 on the product, as opposed to females who are willing to pay only $25 [relevant data].

Hence, it is recommended that marketing strategies should focus more on male consumers who are willing to pay more for the product [interpretation/inference].

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NOTE (once again…)

Difference between reporting the results and interpreting it

Reporting is describing what the data show e.g. On average, males were willing to spend $35 on the new product while females will pay only $25

Interpretation involves a discussion of the implications (that is, we should focus marketing efforts on male consumers).

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3. Use figures purposefully

Data with only two categories (such as Yes/No and Aware/Not aware) do not require a figure.

Figure 1. Respondents who thought the exhibition was

a success

65%

35%Yes

No

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3. Use figures purposefully

Use bar charts instead of pie charts to present information more clearly.

Figure 2. Reason that captured respondents'

attention

30%

35%

10%

25%Colour

Music

Film

Others

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35

30

25

10

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35

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Colour Music Film Others

Per

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Figure 2. Reason that captured respondents' attention

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3. Use figures purposefully (cont’)

Note that pie charts are seldom used in academic reports

Captions for figures are placed at the bottom, not at the top.

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35

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25

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35

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Colour Music Film Others

Per

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Figure 2. Reason that captured respondents' attention

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REPORTING YOUR RESULTS4. Honesty is the best policy:

Integrity issues when reporting results

If the results did not turn out as expected, this is also a finding which means you might have to rethink your prior assumptions.

Do NOT falsify your results A plausible reason for unexpected results is

your methodology, e.g. convenience sampling (i.e. asking friends to respond to the survey), administering of survey, how questions were phrased, etc

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Copyright (c) 2008 J&C Research Consultants Pte. Ltd.25

REPORTING YOUR RESULTS4. Honesty is the best policy:

Integrity issues when reporting results (cont’)

Discuss what was learnt from the research process and offer suggestions for how the project could be improved upon in future research

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DISCUSSING YOUR FINDINGS (reminder) Common mistake: Many projects

fail to score a good grade because students interpret and discuss their findings very superficially.

Students can end their projects with an in-depth discussion of their project at these three levels:

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DISCUSSING YOUR FINDINGS

i) Interpret your results Summarise all the key findings from

your data. E.g. Overall the results from our survey

showed that our proposed exhibition is a feasible approach to showcase the life and work of our groundbreaker. Specifically, … (provide a summary of the key findings and their implications)

Provide an answer to the research objective stated in the introduction (gives closure to the entire project).

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ii) Discuss your methodology (i.e. the strengths and limitations)

Recognise that the data you collected is not 100% accurate, hence cannot take the results at face value.

Present the strengths of your research Acknowledge the limitations of your project

work (e.g. non-probability sampling, administering of survey, how questions were phrased, issues that were not examined, etc)

Offer suggestions for future research

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iii) Consider the broader implications of your results

End the report by linking it back to the introduction

Relate the implications of your results to the wider context that you have based your project

Revisit the challenges described in the introduction and offer suggestions or principles based on your results.

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EDITING TIPS FOR A COHERENT REPORT

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1. Start with the method section ensure essential information is

reported.

2. Work on the results section make sure results are clearly

presented and properly interpreted

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3. Complete the introduction bring out the significance of your

topic, check for proper referencing and proper substantiation of ideas

4. Tidy up the discussion to mirror the introduction ensure that the report ends with a

thorough and in-depth discussion

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Exemplars from Previous Years

•Most final RE Final Report longbin.pdf

•2009 Y1 RE Exemplar Final Report_Gambling_with comments.doc

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Reminders

All reports should be ring bound into a booklet.

Proper in-text citation using APA format

Do not plagiarise! Claims of plagiarism over PhD for

ce minister to drop his title.docx

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Group Report

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FURTHER READING

For more information on report writing, please refer to Project Works Volume 3: Strategies for Effective Report Writing.

2012 report writing

Business

Transcript of 2012 report writing