Report Writing

Question 1

what order is a report written in?

Answer 1

• abstract
• introduction
• method
• results
• discussion
• references
• appendices

AIMRDRA
All Italian Meerkats Rage Due to Ravishing Armadillos

Question 2

what is included in the abstract?

Answer 2

summary of the study covering the aims, hypothesis, method, results and conclusions

usually 150-200 words

Question 3

what is included in the introduction?

Answer 3

outlines what a researcher intends to investigate

begins with a review of previous research

Question 4

what is included in the method?

Answer 4

design, sample, materials and apparatus, and procedure

Question 5

what is included in the results?

Answer 5

descriptive statistics (measures of central tendency/measures of dispersion)

inferential statistics (observed values and significance levels)

Question 6

what is included in the discussion?

Answer 6

summary of results

consideration of the relationship to previous research

comments on possible methodological problems and improvements suggested

suggestions for future research

Question 7

what is included in the references?

Answer 7

Harvard system of referencing - (author surname, initials, date of publication, title of article, title of journal, volume, page numbers)

name of journal is in italics

Question 8

what is included in the appendices?

Answer 8

examples of materials (e.g. questionnaire, standardised instructions, diagrams of research set up), raw data, conclusions