· Background/Literature Review
You need to let your reader know what knowledge and ideas have already been established on a topic and what their strengths and weaknesses are.
1. Present in the form of an essay. It should try to integrate and summarize the research rather than just listing study after study. In essence, you’re summarizing what is and is not known.
2. The essay should take the reader from topic to topic. The literature on a topic is cited during the discussion of that topic. Research with similar findings can be cited together.
3. You should emphasize the findings of previous research and point out trends and themes in the literature. After reviewing many articles on the topic, you can try to group together the findings or results of these articles.
4. You can also point out a gap in the literature. For example, if you can’t find something on your topic, you can point it out. Example: “These studies do not consider the relationship between…”
5. When describing a specific organization/company, use a separate heading
6. Use direct quotations sparingly. Paraphrasing is the best way to explain the main ideas.
7. CITE YOUR SOURCES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
8. Conclude this section with the research questions, research objectives and/or your hypotheses.
· Methodology
You need to provide information on the research design such as:
1. Sampling: how did you include people/artifacts/groups to participate in your research projects? What sampling method did you use? Random? Nonrandom? Be very specific. What was the response rate (if possible)? Consent form?
2. Participants: who are they? (demographic description) If you have any descriptive statistics about the demographic, you include it here.
3. Variables: identify the concepts that you studied. You should explain how you measured these.
4. Material: Describe t
he material you used to collect your data (if conducting content analysis, include coding sheet, if conducting survey, include survey, if conducting interviews, include interview questions, etc.). All the material used will be put in an appendix.
he material you used to collect your data (if conducting content analysis, include coding sheet, if conducting survey, include survey, if conducting interviews, include interview questions, etc.). All the material used will be put in an appendix.
5. Procedures: what are the various actions that you took in order to conduct this study?
The method section should utilize subheadings to divide up different subsections.
· Results
The result section follows the section on methods. Here are some guidelines:
- Organize the results section around the hypotheses, research objectives or research questions
- Statistical procedure are named only; it’s not necessary to show formulas or calculations
- Present descriptive statistics before inferential statistics
- Organize large numbers of statistics in tables, and give each table a number and descriptive title.
- When describing the statistics presented in a table, point out only the highlights.
- Statistical figures (i.e. bar graphs) should be professionally drawn but used minimally.
- Spell numbers that are less than ten.
- For qualitative research, describe steps taken to ensure the trustworthiness of the data (not based on researchers’ opinions)
- For qualitative research, provide a specific description of the method of analysis
- For qualitative research, use the major themes as subheadings
- For qualitative research, you can quote directly participants.
· Discussion
The Discussion section is the last section of a research report and typically uses a heading like: “Discussion and Conclusions” or “Conclusions and Implications”
- Consider starting the discussion with a summary
- Early in the discussion, refer to the research hypotheses, research objectives, or research questions stated earlier
- Point out whether results of the current study are consistent with the results and expectations described in the literature review/background
- Interpret the results by offering explanations for them
- Mention important strengths and limitations as separate headings
- It is inappropriate to introduce new data or new references in the discussion section
- When possible, state specific implications (actions that individuals or organizations should take based on the results).
- Be specific when making recommendations for future research.
· References
· Appendices