How do I write a research report? (Part 1)
Engineers, scientists, and managers write research reports to communicate the results of research, field work, and other activities. Often, a research report is the only concrete evidence of your research, and the quality of the research may be judged directly by the quality of the writing and how well you convey the importance of the findings. Even if you don’t consider yourself a writer, then it is still important to consider clarity, organization, and content when you are presenting your research in a research report.
Fortunately, research reports, which are similar to research articles, technical reports, lab reports, formal reports, or scientific papers (to name a few), have a fairly consistent format that will help you to organize your information clearly. Most research reports contain the same major sections, although the names of the section vary widely, and sometimes it is appropriate to omit sections or add others. If you are submitting a research report for a class or to an organization, check for specific requirements and guidelines before beginning to write your research report.
Where should I begin?
Since a research report is the vehicle through which you will share your research with others, you should have completed most of your research before beginning to work on the report. When your research is completed, and you have already gathered all the necessary data and interpreted it, you are ready to begin thinking about the content of your research report. It is a good idea to start by conducting a literature search in your area of research. This will help you to see what has been published on your topic in the past and will give you sources to use in writing your own report. You can conduct a literature search by browsing through journals important in your field or by conducting a key word search through library databases. After you have finished your research and conducted a literature search, the prewriting exercise below will help you to think through the information you have to present, and the answers that you provide will be easily become the basis for your report and will save you time later in the writing process. Of course, depending on the application of your report, some of the questions might be more useful than other in crafting a first draft.
Take out a piece of paper and write down your answers to the following questions, or open up a text editor or word processor window. Write the following questions down and start to answer.
- Describe the purpose of your research. Are you presenting the results of research, outlining a new theory or method, and/or offering a new interpretation of old data?
- Describe the most important feature of your research.
- Make a list of anyone how contributed to your research and who could be involved in writing the research report. Describe the contribution they might make to your research report.
- Compile a list of works by other researchers that you used in your own research or that related to your search.
- Describe the ways in which your research proves or disproves other researcher’s work.
- Describe the background of this subject.
- Describe what you expected to find before you began your research. How did your project change over time? How did your results differ from your expectations?
- Describe your results. How did you check your result? How can you best represent them? With text, in a table, with a figure, etc?
- Describe the consequences of your research. What does it mean for the subject? How will it affect future research on this subject?
- Describe your ideal audience for your report. Who would be most impacted by your research? Who would best understand the consequences of your research?
- If you are seeking to publish your report, describe the journals in which you would like to see your research appear. What are the specific requirements for these journals? Additionally, what type of language should you use in writing your report? Look carefully at journals to which you are interested in submitting. How do writers describe their experiment data?
- Consider the specific guideline under which you are working. If relevant, make a list of the sections you are required to include in your report. If you have freedom in choosing sections to include, make a list of the sections you think will be necessary to include.
Next part: Who is my audience and what will they expect?