Drafting Your Research Report

1. Drafting Your Research Report

2. The Style of the Draft A research report is a type of objective, formal writing. Therefore, you should avoid making the paper personal and subjective, and you should avoid using informal language. • DO NOT use words such as I, me, my, mine, we, and our. • DO NOT state opinions without supporting them with facts. • DO NOT use slang, informal language, or contractions.

3. A rough draft is just that – it is rough, or unfinished. As you draft, do not worry about matters that you can take care of later, such as details of spelling, grammar, usage, and mechanics. Instead, concentrate on getting your ideas down in an order that makes sense. • Use your outline as a guide. Explore each main point, supporting the idea with evidence from your note cards. When you use information from a note card in your draft, include the source number from the note card and circle it. Noting the source number is extremely important because during revision you will have to find the source in order to document it.

4. Using Graphic Aids • Use graphic aids to present a lot of information in a little space. If you use a graphic aid from a source, or if you use information from a source to crate a graphic aid, then you must credit the source of the information. • Tables should be labeled “Table 1,” “Table 2,” and so on. Other graphic aids should be labeled “Fig. 1,” “Fig. 2,” and so on. Place the label after the figure and follow it with a caption that is either the title or a description of the graphic aid. Follow it with a source credit.

5. Fig. 1. The United States in 1812. Adapted from Miriam Greenblatt, America at War: The War of 1812 (New York: 1994) 39.

6. Writing the Introduction The introduction of a research report should accomplish two purposes: • It should grab readers’ attention. • It should present the report’s thesis statement. In addition, the introduction may define key terms, supply necessary background information, or both. The introduction can be of any length, although most introductions are one paragraph long.

7. Capturing the Readers’ Attention There are many ways to capture readers’ attention in an introduction. You can begin with… • An unusual fact • A question • An anecdote (a brief story that makes a point) • An analogy (a comparison between the topic and something with which readers are already familiar) • A paragraph that compares or contrasts • With examples

8. Writing the Thesis Statement • To create your thesis statement, you can simply rewrite your statement of controlling purpose. Be sure to include any changes you have made in your topic during research. However, avoid using the phrase, “the purpose of this report” in your final thesis statement.

9. Notice how that phrase is eliminated in the following example… • Controlling purpose: The purpose of this report is to discuss the causes of the War of 1812. • Thesis statement: An understanding of the causes of the War of 1812 is necessary to appreciate how the United States finally gained its true independence as a nation.

10. Writing the Conclusion Like an introduction, a conclusion is usually one paragraph long. The most common way to conclude a research report is to restate the main idea and your main arguments in support of that idea.

11. Writing the Conclusion In addition, you may wish to use the conclusion to… • Tie up any loose ends left in the body of your paper • To explain what accepting your thesis statement might mean • To ask readers to take some action • To explain the importance or value of what they have learned from the report • To make predictions about the future. The conclusion is an opportunity to be imaginative. Almost anything is acceptable as long as it leaves readers satisfied that you have covered the subject well.