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Chapter 20: Reporting Your Research Introduction In the previous chapters you learned how to design a research project and how to collect and analyze your data. In this final chapter, we describe how to do the last but extremely important step in the research process - that of reporting your research to others. A well organized, clearly written report will invite the interest of readers and increase the use of your research results. A poorly organized and badly written report will discourage persons from reading it. As a result, no matter how well you conducted your investigation, all your efforts could be wasted because readers will not try to figure out what you are telling them. The purpose of scientific reporting is to contribute to understanding of some problem. To achieve this objective, your report must describe clearly and fully what you have investigated (the statement of the problem), how the study was conducted (the design that was used), how the data were collected and analyzed, and what was discovered. In addition, reports often include ideas for new approaches to the study of some problem or new problems for investigation. These objectives can only be achieved if your report is well organized and written in clear, understandable language. The importance of clear communication applies to all the ways you might choose to report your results. As a student, you probably will have to prepare a written report for the research project you are required to do. In addition, you may choose to prepare a manuscript for publication in a journal, deliver talks based on your research, or to communicate your research findings in a local newspaper or magazine. Each of these ways of reporting requires writing about your research. Improving your writing There is no secret to good writing. Each person has his or her own style. There are ways, however, for improving our writing skills. We offer some well tested guidelines for more effective writing. We focus on preparing research reports since this may be a requirement you have to meet, but the guidelines apply to other forms of reporting mentioned above. In addition to the guidance we provide in this chapter, you may want to visit any of the following Web sites. Each of these sites contain suggestions and instruction on how to write a research report: Final Year Projects provides practical advice and assistance on all aspects of writing a final year project, thesis or dissertation; written primarily for undergraduate students, but has wide value for preparing any research paper; includes guidance related to getting started, reviewing the literature, references, time management, and other topics Formatting provides detailed guidelines on how to prepare a research report; gives the approximate number of pages for each section of a report (Introduction, Methods, etc.); describes how to cite references in a report; and shows how to construct tables and figures |