Report writing

Students in a number of faculties are required to prepare research reports. While you should always check with your lecturer for the specific requirements of an assessment task, reports generally contain common elements and follow the basic format as outlined below.

Before you begin to write a report, consider the following:

Title

Your title should be brief, specific and informative - if possible, it should indicate the nature and scope of your study. Include key words in your title so that your work can easily be accessed by electronic methods.

Abstract

An abstract is a concise summary that enables readers to quickly assess the contents and direction of your paper. It should be brief (around 5% of the total), written in a single paragraph and should cover:

The information in the abstract must be presented in the same order as it is in your paper. The abstract is usually written last when you have developed your arguments and synthesised the results. Read more about abstracts.

Introduction

After reading the introduction your reader should understand exactly what your report is about, and may include background information and aims and objectives. Key terms may also be introduced and defined in this section. Introductions to research reports generally include the rationale for the present study (why are you interested in this topic? Why is this topic worth investigating?) along with an outline of the research questions and hypotheses (the assumptions or propositions that your research will test).

Literature Review

Not all research reports have a separate literature review section. In shorter reports, the review is usually part of the introduction. Read more about writing a literature review. Conclude your literature review by linking key findings to your study.

Methodology

The purpose of the methodology section is to detail how you conducted your research so that others can understand and replicate your approach. You need to briefly describe the subjects (if appropriate), along with any equipment or materials used and the approach taken. If the research method or method of data analysis is commonly used within your field of study, then it is appropriate to simply reference the procedure and not describe it in detail. If, however, your methods are new or controversial then you need to describe them in more detail and provide a rationale for your approach. The methodology is conventionally written in the past tense.

Results

This section is a concise, factual summary of your findings, listed under headings appropriate to your research questions. This is not the section for an elaborate discussion of your results - analysis of your results occurs in the discussion section. Raw data, or details about the method of statistical analysis used should also not be included here but should appear in the appendices.

Present your results in a consistent manner. For example, if you present the first group of results as percentages, then present all of your figures in this way. It is confusing for the reader and difficult to make comparisons of data if later results are presented as fractions or as decimal values.

Notes on visual data representation:

Discussion

This section of your report is where you interpret your results and explain their significance within the context of other research. Consider the adequacy of your sampling techniques, the scope and longevity of your study, any problems with data collection or analysis and any assumptions on which your study was based. This is the place to discuss any disappointing results, the problems of making meaningful conclusions with limited samples, or the difficulty of conducting the research (for example, it is difficult to conduct interviews with five year old subjects). Try to keep the discussion clearly focused to the reason for the report. The discussion may include some recommendations, or you may be asked to present the recommendations or conclusion separately (see below).

Checklist for the discussion

Recommendations/Conclusion

The conclusion is generally fairly short and should follow on naturally from points raised in the discussion. In this section you should discuss the significance of your findings.

Further, consider the practical implications of your results and any recommendations you may be able to make. For example, if your research is on reading strategies in the primary school classroom, what are the implications of your results for the classroom teacher? What recommendations could you make for classroom teachers?

Appendices

Appendices are where you store materials that support your research but which are inappropriate to include in the body of your paper. However, only include selected material that directly supports your report. Examples of such materials include:

Different data needs to be in separate labeled appendices and must be referred to in the body of the report (for example Appendix A, Appendix B).

Appendices are placed at the end of a report, and the contents are not included in the word count.

References

All departments have different guidelines as to how references are to be presented. It is important to check the preferred format, style of references and presentation requirements in your own department.

Only use secondary references (for example (Bloggs 1990, cited in Smith 1997)) if the original source (in this example, Bloggs 1990) cannot be easily obtained.

Reference lists, where you list only the authors whom you have cited in your paper, are commonly required in disciplines that use in-text referencing. Many lecturers cross-mark the in-text references against the reference list.

Read more information about referencing.

Further Reading

Index