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(A) Guide for Writing Research Papers based on Styles Recommended by the American Pyschological Association provides detailed guidance for preparing a research paper, including formats for references based on the style required for submission to journals published by the American Psychological Association How to Write a Scholarly Research Report provides a brief introduction to and description of sections of a scholarly report How to Write a Technical Report provides a good overview of what a research report should contain, describes the order of the sections of the report, and offers guidelines on preparing a report Research Helper describes four steps for completing a research paper - prepare, find, think, share and reflect The Research Process outlines a simple and effective strategy for finding information for a research paper and documenting the sources you find Steps in Research and Writing Process describes the steps involved as: Select a topic, frame a central research question, survey the topic, locate materials, re-evaluate your research strategy, re-evaluate your topic and research strategy, develop your supporting argument, use sources fairly, write, revise, edit and proofread. Know what is expected Before you start writing, make sure you know the reporting requirements of the organization you will submit your report to. Your university may have a specific format and style for the preparation of research reports. If so, find out what these are and follow them. Later, you may be responsible for preparing a report for a government ministry or a nongovernmental organization that sponsored research you directed. Their reporting requirements may be different from those of your university. Before preparing a report for an organization, you will want to find out how the organization wants reports prepared. If specific instructions are not provided, you may want to use an internationally recognized style for preparing a research report. Writing for a journal publication often involves still different requirements. Start well before deadlines Instead of waiting until just before your report is due, start writing early. This will allow you time to organize your thoughts, prepare a rough draft of the material, and then have time to do what all writers do: revise and revise until a carefully organized and well written product is produced. Writing sections of a report as you complete each phase of a project can make writing a lot easier and less stressful. After you finish your review of literature, for example, you can write the first section of your report. This could cover the statement of the problem, formulation of a theoretical framework and development of hypotheses as well as the review of the literature. The section of methods can be completed after you prepare your design. Upon completion of the analyses, you can describe how you analyzed your data and what you found. At this stage, you can also prepare rough and then final copies of tables or graphs you will later include in your report. If you follow this approach, at the end of the project you only have to add the conclusions, recommendations, and other final material. Try to write each section of your report as you proceed through your project. This will give you time to review your entire report when you finish to make sure it meets all the expected requirements. |