Preparing research report

PROF DR. AB. RAHIM BAKAR

Preparing research report

Preparing a research report involves other activities besides writing; in fact, writing is actually the last step in the preparation process. Before writing can take place, the results of the research project must be fully understood and thought must be given to what the report will say. Thus, preparing a research report involves three steps: understanding, organising and writing. The general guidelines that should be followed for any report or research paper are as follows:

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Consider the audience:

The information resulting from the study is ultimately of importance to users, who will use the results to make decisions. Thus, the report has to be understood by them; the report should not be too technical and not too much jargon should be used. This is a particular difficulty when reporting the results of statistical analysis where there is a high probability that few, if any, of the target audience have a grasp of statistical concepts. Hence, for example, there is a need to translate such terms as standard deviation, significance level, confidence interval etc. into everyday language. This is sometimes not an easy task but it may be the case that researchers who find it impossible do not themselves have a sufficiently good grasp of the statistical methods they have been using.

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M 1sd (A) M 2sd (B) 1sd is 14.74 M = 115.2

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Be concise, but precise:

On the one hand, a written report should be complete in the sense that it stands by itself and that no additional clarification is needed. On the other hand, the report must be concise and must focus on the critical elements of the project and must exclude unimportant issues. There is a great temptation, on the part of inexperienced researchers, to seek to convey all that they did in order to obtain information and to complete the research. This is done almost as if the researcher is afraid that the audience will not other wise appreciate the time, effort and intellectual difficulties involved. What the researcher has to come to realise is that he/she will be judged by the contribution towards solving the marketing problem and not by the elegance or effort involved in the research methodology

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Understand the results and drawing conclusions:

The managers who read the report are expecting to see interpretive conclusions in the report. The researcher must therefore understand the results and be able to interpret these. Simply reiterating facts will not do, and the researcher must ask him/herself all the time "So what?"; what are the implications. If the researcher is comparing the client's product with that of a competitor, for example, and reports that 60 percent of respondents preferred brand A to brand B, then this is a description of the results and not an interpretation of them. Such a statement does not answer the 'So what?' question.

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CONTENTS OF RESEARCH REPORT/ARTICLE

1. Title
Title of the study: brief, unique, and interesting

Omit obvious words and phrases such as A study on . . . and An investigation of . . . whenever you can as well.

Authors: major contributor first Contacts: address, affiliation, email, and so on You might also include other information on the title page such as contract number, a security classification such as CONFIDENTIAL, or a copy number depending on the nature of

the report you are writing.

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Abstract

Abstract summarizes the whole paper Most frequently read by people Abstract should stand alone 200 words or so An abstract is an accurate representation of the contents of a document in an abbreviated form (Porush 75). An abstract can be the most difficult part of the research report to write because in it you must introduce your subject matter, tell what was done, and present selected results, all in one short (about 150 words) paragraph. As a result, you should usually write the abstract last.

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An abstract serves an important function in a research report; it communicates the scope of your paper and the topics discussed to your reader, and, in doing so, it facilitates research. Abstracts help scientists to locate materials that are relevant to their research from among published papers, and many times scientists will only read a papers abstract in order to determine whether the paper will be relevant to them. Considering your audience and their needs will help you to determine what should be included in your abstract.

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Introduction: Construction sites are major contributors to nonpoint source (NPS) pollution. However, a lack of personnel to enforce erosion control regulations and limited voluntary compliance means that few developers apply effective erosion control. Research problem: New approaches are needed to increase erosion control on construction sites if this source of NPS pollution is to be significantly reduced. Body: This study tests whether an economic advantage exists for developers who use vegetative cover for erosion control, independent of advantages gained in addressing environmental or regulatory concerns. Improving residential lot appearance from muddy brown to green grass may increase the appeal of the lot to buyers. Results: A market survey shows that homebuyers and realtors perceive vegetated lots to be worth more than unvegetated lots, and this increased value exceeds the cost of seeding. Conclusion: Thus, developers can now be encouraged to invest in vegetative cover because of the potentially high return on the investment.

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Introduction

Explain why your topic is interesting Summarize what other researchers have done about the topic or relevant topics Make a statement of problem (It was the purpose of the study to examine the relationship between PCSA of calf and the jump performance) Introduction does not have to be too technical and does not have to involve too field-specific jargons. Mention your hypothesis (e.g. The increased step length will increase the magnitude of vertical ground reaction force)
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Methods

Methods present all the details of the study methodology Subject Equipment Experimental design Statistics

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Results

Results present the results of the study in a form which conveys their meaning Consider the best way of presentation Figures: figures should be self-explanatory with the corresponding caption; units, axes, and legends Tables: tables should be self-explanatory with the corresponding caption; units Word descriptions
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Results present the results of the study in a form which conveys their meaning For example, suppose you monitoring how long it takes to approve or disapprove a credit application for a customer. From your control charts (assume the process is in control), you have estimated the process average to be 14 working days and the standard deviation to be 2 days. After constructing a histogram on the days to approve or disapprove a credit application, you discover that it is bell-shaped.

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Since the process is in statistical control, you know that about 67% of the time, it will take 12 to 16 days to process a credit application; 95% of the time it will take 10 to 18 days; and 99.7% of the time it will take 8 to 20 days.

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Table 6: Correlation among the selected variables

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For example, the three unique correlation coefficients show there is a positive correlation between employees' number of years of education and their current salary. This positive correlation coefficient (.661) indicates that there is a statistically significant (p < .001) linear relationship between these two variables such that the more education a person has, the larger that person's salary is. Also observe that there is a statistically significant (p < .001) negative correlation coefficient (-.252) for the association between education level and previous experience, indicating that the linear relationship between these two variables is one in which the values of one variable decrease as the other increases. The third correlation coefficient (-.097) also indicates a negative association between employee's current salaries and their previous work experience, although this correlation is fairly weak.

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Chi-square goodness of fit

A chi-square goodness of fit test (equivalent to one sample t-test) allows us to test whether the observed proportions for a categorical variable differ from hypothesized proportions. For example, let's suppose that we believe that the general population consists of 10% Indian, 10% Thai, 10% Chinese and 70% Bumiputra. We want to test whether the observed proportions from our sample differ significantly from these hypothesized proportions.
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These results show that racial composition in our sample does not differ significantly from the hypothesized values that we supplied (chi-square with three degrees of freedom = 5.029, p = .170).

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Table 1: Gender by Type of Schools

X2 (df=1) = 0.047, p = .828

These results indicate that there is no statistically significant relationship between the type of school attended and gender (chi-square with one degree of freedom = 0.047, p = 0.828).

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Table 3: Demographic information of respondents

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Data presentation

Easy-to-understand tables and graphics will greatly enhance the readability of the written research report. As a general rule, all tables and figures should contain: 1. Identification number corresponding to the list of tables and the list of figures 2. A title that conveys the content of the table or figure, also corresponding to the list of tables and the list of figures, and 3. Appropriate column labels and row labels for tables, and figure legends defining specific elements in the figure.
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Conclusion and Discussion

Summarize the findings and implications of the work Do not present specific results which should be mentioned in Results Present what can be concluded from the results Discussion puts into context the results of the study Highlight the key findings Show the interaction with other research Implication of findings Possible future research arising Accept or reject hypotheses
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References

Give credits to whom they are due." This is where you cite formally all your sources of information. It is your formal manner of saying "Thank you." Moreover, "Fair is Fair." In addition, enumerating your sources of information offers your readers the opportunity to verify or redo your study. References is a list of all the work referred to within the main body of the text All referenced work should be listed Different journals specify different formats The reference format for a journal article is usually different from one for a book

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Appendices

These are your provisions for any "excess baggage." Attached all relevant materials (tables, graphs, computations, photos, CDs, etc.) cited or used in the study- all those relevant stuff that you did not include in the body of your report for reasons that they would only clutter your presentation
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