WRITING THE RESEARCH REPORT & CITING RESOURCES

BUSN 364 – Week 15Özge Can

Non-Reactive Research

Type of social research in which people are not directly studied

Examples: Physical traces Existing statistics/ secondary data Content analysis of documents

Content Analysis

You gather and analyze the content of a text

Text is analything written, visual or spoken as a communication source: Books, newspaper and magazine articles,

advertisements, speeches, official documents, films or videotapes, tv programs, musical lyrics, photographs, websites...

Content Analysis

After you gather the data, you analyze them with statistics in the same way that an experimenter or survey researcher

Coding system => A set of instructions or rules used in content analysis to explain how the symbolic content from text is systematically converted into quantitative data

What we measure? Frequency, direction, intensity, connections

Writing the Research Report A research is not complete until you

share the results with others

After designing your study, gathering data and analyzing the data;

=> it is time to communicate the findings to others through a research report

Research Report

It is a written document that communicates the methods and findings of a research project to others.

It is more than a summary of findings: It is a detailed record of the whole research process

It tells others what you, as the researcher, did and what you discovered

Research Report

In addition to findings, it also includes: The reasons for initiating the project A description of the steps of the

research A presentation of data A discussion of how the data relate to

the research question/ topic

The Writing Process

Your audience You must always know for whom you are writing Communication is most effective when it is

tailored to a specific audience

Style and tone Communicate the research clearly, directly and

honestly The style should be formal; you should be “to the

point” The tone should be a little bit distant and

professional

The Writing Process

Organizing your thoughts Writing is hard work and requires

diligence Follows a sequence of steps that

ultimately result in a final product:

Something to write about: research question/ topic

Composing an outlineRevise this outline whenever needed

The Writing Process

Back to library You will need to return to the literature

after completing data collection and analysis.

Because: New studies might be published You may now have new questions in mind Properly citing references; it also helps to

avoid plagiarism

Plagiarism

Stealing another person’s ideas without properly citing the original source

One should cite the sources of both directly quoted words and paraphrased ideas.

Take careful notes and identify the exact sources of ideas, phrases to avoid unintentional plagiarism

“The way to learn to write is by writing”

How to Write?

Writing process has three major steps:

Prewriting => prepare to write by arranging notes on the literature, making lists of ideas, outlining, completing citations and organizing comments on data analysis

Composing => get your ideas onto paper; work on the complete report from beginning to end

Rewriting => evaluate the report by improving coherence, proof-reading, checking citations and etc.

How to Write?

Rewriting involves two processes: revising and editing

A) Revising => Correction process in which a writer adds ideas or evidence and deletes, rearranges or changes them to improve clarity and better communicate meaning

B) Editing => Clearing up the more mechanical aspects of writing, such as spelling, grammar, usage, verb arrangement, tense, sentence length and paragraph organization

Suggestions for Ending Writer’s Block:

Begin writing as early as possible Take a break and then return Begin in the middle Motivate yourself to write; use mental

triggers Break the writing into small parts Do not expect perfection

Sections of a Research Report

The sections of a research report roughly follow the

sequence of steps of a research project:

Abstract/executive summary Presentation of the problem Description of the methods Results and tables Discussion Conclusions

Sections of a Research Report Abstract or Executive Summary

It gives information on the topic, the research problem, the basic findings and any unusual research design or data collection features

Reports of applied research that are written for practitioners have a longer summary called “executie summary”.

Sections of a Research Report Presentation of the Problem

The first section of the report defined the research problem.

It can be placed in one or more sections with titles such as: “Introduction”, “Problem Definition”, “Literature Review”, “Hypotheses”, “Background Assumptions”

Should include a statement of the research problem and a rationale for what is being examined

Sections of a Research Report Description of the Methods

This section of the report describes how you designed the study and collected the data.

It goes by several names: “Methods”, “Research Design” or “Data”.

Maybe subdivided into other parts such as “Sampling”, “Measures” or “Research Setting”

Sections of a Research Report Description of the Methods

This section answers several questions:1.What type of study (e.g. experiment, survey)

was conducted?2. Exactly how were data collected (e.g. study

design, type of survey, time and location of data collection, experimental design used)?

3. How were variables measured? Are the measures reliable and valid?

4. What is the sample? How many participants are involved in the study?How were they selected?

Sections of a Research Report Results and Tables

After describing methods of data collection, sampling and measurement, you present the data

It only represents the data; does not discuss, analyze or interpret it

One should make choices about how to present the data (e.g. proper statistics, tables and charts)

Sections of a Research Report Discussion

It gives the reader a concise, unambigious interpretation of its meaning

It is separated from “Results” so that a reader can examine the data and arrive different interpretations

Sections of a Research Report Conclusions

Restating the research question and summarizing the report (sometimes titled “Summary”)

Last part of the report. After conclusion, there are the references and appendixes

References should contain only the resources that you referred in the text/report

Appendixes: additional info that might be useful for understanding the study and study results

Citing Resources – Some Useful Links APA style in general:

http://www.apastyle.org/ APA style tutorial: “Citation in text” &

“Reference list” http://www.apastyle.org/learn/tutorials/basics-

tutorial.aspx Other examples of APA style:

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guides/citations.html

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/ http://www.westerntc.edu/library/citationstyles.asp