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Writing the Research Report: Elements of APA Style and Reader Expectations

This presentation covers the objectives of writing a research report, what readers appreciate in good writing, elements of APA Style, special grammatical issues, academic integrity, parts of the research report, and proofreading. It provides guidelines for accurate, clear and concise writing that meets the expectations of readers.

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Writing the Research Report: Elements of APA Style and Reader Expectations

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Presentation Transcript

  1. Slides to accompany Weathington, Cunningham & Pittenger (2010), Chapter 5: Writing the Research Report

  2. Objectives • What Readers Appreciate in Good Writing • Elements of APA Style • Special Grammatical Issues • Academic Integrity • Parts of the Research Report • Proofreading

  3. Readers’ Expectations • Focus • Writing has a purpose and clear boundaries • Organization • Writing follows a logical sequence • Integration • Writing conveys a complete story

  4. Elements of APA Style • Strive for accuracy, brevity, and clarity • Write for a specific audience • Typically other scientists • Use unbiased language • e.g., sex- and race-neutral • Integrate numbers and text carefully, following guidelines in the manual

  5. Special Grammatical Issues • Use active voice whenever possible • “We designed this study to test…” • Use past tense when referring to the work of other researchers and to your own results • Be careful with your pronouns • Study box 5.1 for commonly misused words

  6. Academic Integrity • Based on you giving fair credit where credit’s due • Whenever you state a fact or report someone else’s findings you need to cite the origin of that information • Academic dishonesty = plagiarism • Don’t go there • Review Box 5.2 and the APA manual for citation examples

  7. Parts of the Research Report • Title page • Abstract • Introduction • Method • Results • Discussion • References

  8. Crafting the Introduction

  9. Method Section Subsections • Participants • Materials/Measures • Procedure

  10. Results Section Issues • Follow APA manual guidelines for reporting results of statistical tests • Use tables and figures sparingly and when they are more efficient than displaying statistical information in the text

  11. Discussion Details

  12. Proofreading • Do it – seriously • Computer spellchecker is NOT a substitute for actual proofreading • Read it aloud to yourself and have someone else listen (if you can find someone)

  13. What is Next? • **instructor to provide details

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