Writing Research Report

by Sultan Muhammad

Research report writing is complex procedure, it require guidance and skills to follow the rules of research report writing. The aim is to write about your research topic clearly so that the reader can easily understand the purpose and results of your research.

The Structure

A research report most contain following sections; preliminary, body and supplementary. Each of these main parts consists of a number of sections

Preliminary Material

• Title of report
• Table of Contents (optional)
• Abstract / Synopsis

Body of the Report

• Introduction
• Literature Review (some times part of Introduction)
• Methodology
• Statement of the report (what you want to do)
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Recommendations

Supplementary material

• Appendices
• References

Steps involved in research report writing

1. Analyze your task, what are expectations from your research work. Keep in mind the following questions when evaluate the task

* The purpose of your report

· Target population

* Limitation of your study

· Out line your plan

· Collection of data

· Keep record of your visits and material

· Keep record of books for References

Preliminary Material

Title of report

• Give crystal clear information of your research topic to the reader. It should be no longer than one sentence

• Table of contents:

List of all chapters, headings, sub heading and tables/graphs and give them page numbers

Abstract

• it give a very brief overview of the whole report. The abstract should be as brief as possible, not more than one informative paragraph

it give sufficient information to the reader about the report, including what the investigation has found.

Body of report

Introduction:

Introduction gives the background information and include a brief review of the relevant literature.what is the importance of the study.

Literature Review

Review of literature related to your topic is the most important part of your research report; the researcher should search already available data on the topic. In the light of literature review the researcher may structure his findings.

Methodology

Methodology means the method the researcher used in his research; what to do and how to do

• Usually written in passive voice
• written in past tense
• Give proper reference of material from other sources.
• Relevant diagrams, graphs and charts.

Results

Here the researcher give the findings of his research with out any interpretation

Discussion

Here researcher discusses the relevance of his results and findings in the light of literature review and purpose of statement.

Conclusion

Here the researcher draws the conclusion of his study, summaries the significant of his results, findings and highlight limitation of the study

Recommendations

In this section researcher include his suggestions and recommendation in the light of his finding for the purpose of improvement.

Supplementary material

References or Bibliography

This section includes references of the related material referred in the report in APA or MLA style. For examples;

Bell, P. (1970). Basic teaching for slow learners. London: Muller.

Hughes, J. (1973). The Slow Learner in Your Class (Nelson's Teacher Texts). london: Cengage Learning Australia.

Appendices

Any other extra information the researcher wants to add in his report. only the raw data should be presented in an Appendix