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An Overview of a Research Report

Learn the purpose, format, and essential components of a research report following APA style. Understand how to structure sections, avoid biases, and use proper language for clear communication. Discover tips for writing a concise yet informative report.

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An Overview of a Research Report

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  1. An Overview of a Research Report • The Written Report: Purpose and Format • The primary purpose of a written report is communication. The research report should be able to tell others what we did and what we found. • We need to provide enough information to enable other researchers to make critical evaluations of procedures and a reasonable judgement about the quality of the experiment. • We want to provide enough information to enable others to replicate and extend the findings.

  2. Social Psychological papers are written in American Psychological Style. • The goal is to provide objective information. Not to entertain the reader, express opinions, or to talk about personal life experiences. • Need to be parsimonious-the author attempts to give complete information in as few words as possible • Avoid gender and ethnic biased language • Avoid language with negative overtones

  3. Major Sections • A Descriptive Title • An Abstract • An Introduction • A Methods Section • A Results Section • A Discussion Section • A List of References

  4. Introduction • Tells the readers what you are doing and why. • Introduces your hypothesis and how you will test it. • After reading the introduction the reader should know the following: • What is the problem you are studying? • What does prior literature in the area say about the problem? • What is your hypothesis? • What thinking lead up to that hypothesis? • What is the overall plan for testing the hypothesis? • Do you make any specific predictions about the outcome of the study? • State your hypothesis explicitly in your introduction. • Introduction should be no longer that two pages.

  5. APA Style • General Format • Your essay should be typed, double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5 X 11 inches) with margins of 1 inch on all sides. Your final essay should include, in the order indicated below, as many of the following sections as are applicable, each of which should begin on a separate page:

  6. APA Style • title page, which includes a running head for publication, title, and by-line and affiliation • abstract • text: including Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections • references • appendixes • author note • footnotes/endnotes • tables • figure captions • figures

  7. Basic APA Style Guidelines • I have outlined the major points of APA style that will be important for your paper. • Running Head is an abbreviated title and appears in capitals. • Title is centred; note that ‘page 1’ starts on the title page. • Authors name and institutional affiliation appears below the title. • .

  8. Margins should be at least one inch on top, bottom, right, and left sides of the page. • Abstract appears on a separate page following the title page and the first sentence are not indented. • Title on First Page of non-Abstract material must match the title on your cover page exactly. • Double spacing must be used throughout the document. • Level 1 Headings are centred and consist of both uppercase and lowercase letters. Use these for your major headings, i.e. Introduction, Methods Results, and Discussion

  9. Level 3 Headings are flush left, underlined and consist of uppercase and lowercase letters. Note these typically follow level 1 headings. These are like sub-headings, i.e. within a methods section you will have subheadings: participants, materials, etc. • Citations can appear in various forms as presented in this sample outline. • Statistical symbols are underlined (i.e. M, SD, t (75)= 2.90. p<. 05, r=. 67. • Decimals that represent correlations are written without the zero placeholder (i.e., .34 not 0.34)

  10. References are written on a separate page and authors for each citation used in the text is listed alphabetically and the first line is indented for each entry. • Reference: Single-Author Book • Alverez, A. (1970). The savage god: A study of suicide. New York: Random House. • Reference: Book with More than One Author • Natarajan, R., & Chaturvedi, R. (1983). Geology of the Indian Ocean. Hartford, CT: University of Hartford Press. • Hesen, J., Carpenter, K., Moriber, H., & Milsop, A. (1983). Computers in the business world. Hartford, CT: Capital Press.

  11. Reference: Journals/Periodicals • Use inclusive page numbers. Do not use the abbreviations "p." or "pp." • Heyman, K. (1997). Talk radio, talk net. Yahoo!, 3, 62-83. • Maddux, K. (1997, March). True stories of the internet patrol. NetGuide Magazine, 88-92.

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