Writing a Research Report PDF

Writing a Research Report Research is a systematic and scientific way of investigating and gathering information to answer a particular problem, establish facts, and reach conclusions. Conducting a research can be done in various fields such as arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences,...

Writing a Research Report Research is a systematic and scientific way of investigating and gathering information to answer a particular problem, establish facts, and reach conclusions. Conducting a research can be done in various fields such as arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, technology, and health sciences.  survey, interview, questionnair Research e, instruments: experiments and observations. Research papers in various fields: A survey report is a paper which presents the results of the author’s research. A field report is usually used in the field of social sciences to link theory and application. It usually contains the authors observations when out on the field and an analysis using theoretical concepts from the discipline. Although research papers are formal in tone and style, field reports can be personal and simple.  A laboratory or scientific technical report is written by those in the sciences mainly to persuade others to accept or reject a hypothesis, record the details for future researches, and document a current phenomenon for future reference or comparison. Criteria to consider in choosing a Research Topic: A research topic should be A relevant topic addresses a particular problem or issue. relevant. It should be Interest and natural curiosity in the topic will encourage greater commitment to the research. interesting. It should be something the researcher could undertake within It should be his/her ability and with the given timeframe. -It should not be too broad or too narrow, and must be manageable. achievable using available financial, human and material resources. The following table shows how a topic is narrowed down and developed into a thesis statement: From the example above, the possible specific research questions are as follows: 1. How does too much dieting lead to starvation? 2. How does too much dieting lead to loss of strength? 3. How does too much dieting lead to different diseases?  1. It should be clear, especially for the layperson. 2. It should require the gathering of Qualities data to answer it. of a Good 3. It should address an observed problem or issue. Research 4. It should be manageable in terms Question of skills and resources. 5. It should be ethical. 6. It should have a practical use.  A research report is an expanded paper that presents results and interpretation of a phenomenon so Writing a that readers can better understand. Research It is not a summary of different articles or ideas that are presented Report uncritically, nor it is a series of quotations and a compilation of unsubstantiated opinion.  1. The title page contains an informative title which describes the content of the paper, name of the Parts of a author/s and addresses, and date when it is submitted. The following Research are examples of informative titles. Report Effects of Facebook on Academic Achievement of First Year Students Development and Validation of a Software for Detecting Plagiarism 2. The abstract contains the summary of findings and conclusions. It briefly presents the context of the study, research questions or objectives, methodology, major findings, conclusions, and sometimes implications with minimal number of citations and statistical data. Its length ranges from 100 to 250 words. 3. The introduction explains the current state of the field of discipline and identifies research gaps addressed by the research. It also presents the research focus in a way that it addresses the identified gaps and puts the research topic in context. Its length usually ranges from three to five paragraphs. 4. The literature review contains summary and synthesis of all available sources directly related to the study. There are two sections in the literature review: related concepts and the related studies. Related concepts explain some of the fundamental concepts needed by readers to better understand the study. In this section, some concepts and theories are defined, explained and described. Related studies are based on previously conducted studies directly related to the paper. 5. The methodology contains the processes and steps taken in gathering data for the research. This section contains the context and participants, the instruments used, data gathering procedure, and data analysis. 6. The results factually describe the data gathered. This section contains tables and graphs that summarize the collected data. Along with the tables and graphs are their respective interpretations. The flow of the results section should follow the flow of the research questions/problems. It is expected that for each research problem, corresponding results are presented. 7. The discussion presents the why’s of the results. This section provides explanation for all the results in relation to the previous studies presented in the literature review. You need to restate your research problems in the first paragraph as well as the major findings. The succeeding paragraphs should explain whether the study supports or rejects the previous findings and explains the reason for this. The discussion must follow the flow of the research questions. 8. The conclusion contains the restatement of major findings, limitations of the study, recommendations and implications. 9. The references section contains the different sources used in the study. These may be academic books, journals, and other online sources. Its format depends on the school, teacher or field of study. Steps in Writing Research Report: 1. Select and narrow down the topic. You may use any prewriting technique such as freewriting, clustering, listing and brainstorming to focus on a topic. 2. Conduct preliminary research by gathering the initial references. 3. Formulate the thesis statement and research questions. 4. Prepare a preliminary outline. 5. Gather additional references. Use the preliminary outline as a guide for this stage. 6. Prepare the prefinal outline. 7. Prepare the necessary instruments for your research. 8. Pilot the instrument and revise accordingly. 9. Gather the data. 10. Prepare the tables and graphs and analyze the collected data. 11. Write the methodology and results section. 12. Write the introduction and literature review. 13. Write the discussion. Be sure to link the literature review to the discussion section. 14. Write the conclusion. 15. Write the abstract. 16. Prepare the reference list. List all items that are cited in the body of your paper. 17. Edit and format your paper. Guidelines in Writing a Research Report: 1. Fifty to seventy-five percent of the paper should be devoted to the results and discussion. 2. Be sure to cite all your sources whether they are paraphrased or directly quoted. 3. Use direct quotation sparingly. Paraphrase as much as possible. 4. Strictly follow the required documentation style. 5. Topics should be relevant, interesting, current and manageable in terms of resources, skills and time. They should not be too sensitive and controversial as well. 6. Research questions should directly address the given topic or thesis statement. 7. Use simple language and avoid verbose words.  1. Use clean and good quality 8 ½ x 11 white bond paper with minimum substance 20. Guidelines 2. The margin on the top, bottom and right of the paper should be in 1 inch and on the left is in the in 1 ½ inches. Format of 3. Use font size 10-12 and font style of either Times New Roman or Arial. Research 4. Lines and paragraphs need to be double Paper spaced. For the reference list/ bibliography, single space is utilized. 5. The pagination is flushed on the upper left part of the pages. 6. Titles that has more than one line should follow the inverted pyramid. Other Types of Reports and Samples Laboratory Reports are written to describe and analyze a laboratory experiment that explores a scientific concept. The simple report is generally only two to five pages long, and usually consists of the following: Aims Discussion Method Conclusion Results References Narrative Report Narrative report writing is the process of writing a report in a story-like manner. Most narrative reports are used in the legal and medical world. It narrates events in a sequential manner that has a beginning, body, and conclusion. Write T if the statement is true and F if false. 1. A research report has similar format of an academic essay. 2. A thesis statement guides the flow of a research report. 3. The abstract should be written prior to writing a conclusion. 4. An informative title is preferred when writing a research report. 5. Conclusion contains the details of the findings obtained from the study. 6. Gathering references can be done recursively. 7. It is better to have as many direct quotations as possible. 8. Majority of the paper’s content should be devoted to the literature review. 9. Survey instruments should be aligned to research questions. 10. Tables and graphs for the gathered data are presented under the introduction section. 11. The discussion section presents the procedure undertaken to complete the study. 12. The introduction contains the purpose and current state of the field of discipline. 13. The literature review contains the explanation of relevant concepts and related studies. 14. The methodology contains the description of participants and instruments. 15. Two different documentation style can be used in one research report.