TSL3133 Topic 14 Writing the Action Research Report

Lecturer: Yee Bee Choo
IPGKTHO
Topic 14

(Fraenkel, Wallen & Hyun, 2012, p.616)
Proposal Vs Report

Proposal Vs Report
Proposal Report
Before conducting the research. After conducting the research.
Writes about what will take place. Write about what has taken
place.
Use future verb tense (i.e. will) to
describe the action.
Use the past verb tense (i.e. was)
to describe what has already
occurred.
Ends with the methods or
procedures.
Incorporates results and future
research directions after
collecting and analysing the data.
(Creswell, 2012, p.268)

Action Research Report
1. • The Context/ Background
2. • Literature Review
3. • Focus/ Aspect of the Practice to Improve
4. • Implementation of Action Plan
5. • Data Collection Methods
6. • Data Analysis and Interpretation
7. • Reflection and Implications
8. • Plan for Further Action
9.
• Citation of References: American Psychological
Association (APA)
(Topic 14 in RMK for TSL3133)

• After completion of research activities, the
researcher has to report the entire activities
that are involved in research process
systematically in writing.
• For clear and easy understanding of readers,
writing a good research report requires
knowledge of the types of research reporting,
rules for writing and typing, format and style
of research reporting and the body of the
report.

• Research reports mainly take the form of a
thesis, dissertation, journal article and a paper
to be prescribed at a professional meeting.
• Research reports vary in format and style.

• For example, there are differences found in a
research report prepared as a thesis or
dissertation and a research report prepared as
a manuscript for publication.
• The dissertation and thesis are more elaborate
and comprehensive. While research papers
prepared for journal articles and professional
meeting are more precise and concise.

Format
• Format refers to the general pattern of
organisation and arrangement of the report.
• It is an outline that includes sections and
subsections or chapters and subchapters or
headings and subheadings followed to write
research report.
• All research reports follow a format that is
parallel to the steps involved in conducting a
study.

Format
• The APA (The Publication Manual of the
American Psychological Association) format is
widely followed because it eliminates formal
footnotes.
• It provides detailed information about
research format for all types of research
reports on various behavioural and social
science disciplines.
• APA format Version 6 should be followed.

Style
• Style refers to the rules of spelling,
capitalisation, punctuations and typing
followed in preparing the report.
• A researcher has to follow some general rules
for writing and typing a research report.

Rules in Report Writing:
1. The research report should be presented in a
creative, clear, concise and comprehensive style.
• Literary style of writing is to be replaced by
scientific and scholarly style reflecting precise
thinking.
• Descriptions should be free from bias, ambiguity
and vagueness.
• Ideas need to be presented logically and
sequentially so that the reader finds no difficulty
in reading.

2. The research report should be written in a
clear, simple, dignified and straight forward
style, sentences should be grammatically
correct.
• Colloquial expressions, such as ‘write up’ for
report and ‘put in’ for insert should be avoided.
• Even great ideas are sometimes best explained in
simple, short and coherent sentences.
• Slang such as ‘kids’, ‘gotta’, etc should be avoided.

3. Research report is a scientific document but
not a novel or treatise.
• It should not contain any subjective and
emotional statements.
• Instead, it should contain factual and objective
statements.

4. Sexist language should be replaced by non-
sexist language.
• Male or female nouns and pronouns (he and
she) should be avoided by using plurals.
• For example, write children and their parents
have been interviewed rather than child and
his parents were interviewed.

5. Instead of using titles and first names of the
cited authors, last name is needed.
• For example, instead of writing Professor John
Dewey, write Dewey. .

6. Constructed forms of modal auxiliaries and
abbreviations should be avoided.
• For example, shouldn’t, can’t, couldn’t should not be used.
• However, abbreviations can be used to avoid repetition if
the same has been spelled out with the abbreviation in
parentheses.
• For example, researcher can write NCERT if he/she has
used NCERT in parenthesis in his/her earlier sentences like
National, Council of Educational Research and Training
(NCERT).
• There are few exceptions to this rule for well-known
abbreviations such as IQ.

7. Use of tense plays an important role in writing a
research report.
• Past tense or present perfect tense is used for
review of related literature and description of
methodology, procedure results and findings the
study.
• Present tense is appropriate for discussing results
and presenting research conclusions and
interpretations.
• Future tense, except in research proposals, is
rarely used.

8. Economy of expression is important for writing a
research report.
• Long sentences and long paragraphs should be
avoided.
• Short, simple words are better than long words.
• It is important that thought units and concepts
are ordered coherently to provide a reasonable
progression from paragraph to paragraph
smoothly.

9. Fractions and numbers which are less than
ten should be expressed in words.
• For example, six schools were selected or fifty
percent of students were selected.

10. Research report should not be written
hurriedly.
• It should be revised many times before
publication.
• Even typed manuscripts require to be
thoroughly proofread before final typing.

11. Typing is very important while preparing research
report.
• Follow the rules of typography on:
– Font: Arial
– Font size: 11
– Spacing: double, justified
– Margin: 2.5 cm (from top, down, right)
4.0 cm (from left)
(Buku Panduan Penyelidikan Tindakan IPGM, p. 68)

Mechanisms of Writing Dissertations and
Theses
• The main sections of a dissertation and thesis
are
(i) Preliminary pages,
(ii) Main body of the report and
(iii) Appendices.

(i) Preliminary pages
• The Preliminary pages include:
– Title page
– Supervisor’s verification
– Declaration
– Dedication
– Acknowledgement
– Abstract
– Abstrak
– Content
– List of Tables
– List of Figures
– List of Appendices
– List of Abbreviations

(i) Preliminary pages
• The title page usually includes the title of the
report, the author’s name, the degree
requirement, the name and location of the
college or university according the degree and
the date or year of submission of the report.
• Name, designation and institutional affiliation of
the guide are also written.
• The title of a dissertation and thesis should
clearly state the purpose of the study.
• The title should be typed in capital letters, should
be centred.

Title Page
THE USE OF RECIPROCAL TEACHING TECHNIQUE IN
IMPROVING READING COMPREHENSION
SITI ZAFIDAH BINTI MUJIR
This project report submitted in partial fulfilment
of the requirements
for the Degree of Bachelor in Education
Teaching of English as Second Language (TESL)
INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU
KAMPUS TUN HUSSEIN ONN
MARCH 2014

Preliminary pages
Supervisor’s Verification
• A thesis to be submitted for the purpose of
examination must obtain prior declaration by
the supervisor on the standard and quality of
the thesis.

Preliminary pages
Declaration
• The researcher declares the originality of the
research and he has done his own research
without cheating, plagiarism and appropriate
referencing is used to acknowledge the work
of others.
• The declaration should be signed.

Preliminary pages
Dedication
• The dedication is usually quite short, not more
than one paragraph.
• It is a personal rather than an academic
recognition.

Preliminary pages
Acknowledgement
• This page permits the researcher to express
appreciation of persons who have contributed
significantly to the completion of the report.
• It is acceptable to thank one’s own guide or
supervisor who helped at each stage of the
research work, teachers, students or principals
who provided data for the research and so on.
• Only those persons who helped significantly for
completion of research work should be
acknowledged.

Preliminary pages
Abstract
• An abstract of the paper consisting of not more
than 250 words (one page), and containing title,
focus, participants, methods, findings, reflection
and recommended suggestions are given before
main body of the paper.
• The keywords related to the research should be
given.
• Abstract should be bilingual, it must be written in
English and followed by the translation in Bahasa
Melayu.

Preliminary pages
Content
• The table of contents is an outline of the
dissertation or thesis which indicates page on
which each major section (chapter) and
subsection beings.
• Entries listed in the table of contents should
be identical to headings and subheadings in
the report.

Preliminary pages
List of tables, figures, appendices and abbreviations
• The list of tables, figures, appendices and abbreviations are
given in a separate page that gives number, title of each
table, figure appendices, and abbreviations and page on
which it can be found.
• Table titles, figure titles and appendix titles should be the
same titles that are given in the main body of the report.
• In the body of report, the title is written on top of table
while the title is written at the bottom of figure with
numerical number, e.g. Table 1, Figure 1. However, the
appendices are written with alphabets such as Appendix A,
Appendix B…

1.0 INTRODUCTION
- Background
- Context
- Reflection on Teaching and Learning Experience
2.0 RESEARCH FOCUS
- Selection of Research Focus
- Initial Data Collection
- Action
3.0 OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
4.0 RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS
5.0 RESEARCH IMPLEMENTATION
- Stages of Action
- Data Collection Methods
- Data Analysis Methods
- Data Triangulation Methods
6.0 RESEARCH FINDINGS
7.0 REFLECTION
8.0 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
REFERENCES
APPENDICES
(ii) Main body of the report

(iii) Appendices
• Appendices include information and data pertinent to the
study which are not important to be included in the main
body of the report or are too lengthy.
• Tests, questionnaire, career letters, raw data and data
analysis sheet are included in the appendices.
• Sometimes, subject index that includes important concepts
used in the main body of the report.
• The list of those concepts are given alphabetically with the
page on which each can be found.
• Appendices are named alphabetically and they are written
on the top left corner of the page. Then, followed with
short title relating to the theme. (For example, Appendix A
Non-verbal Text on concept attainment in Biology.)

References
• References consist of all documents including
books, journal, articles, technical reports,
computer programmes and unpublished works
that are cited in the main body of a research
report. i.e. dissertation, thesis, journal article,
seminar paper, etc. References includes mainly
primary sources.
• A bibliography, in contrast, contains everything
that is either cited or not cited in the body of the
report but are used by the researcher. It includes
both primary and secondary sources.

References
• References is arranged in alphabetical order
by the last names of the first authors.
• Each entry in the reference starts at the left
margin of the page, with subsequent lines
double spread and indented.
• Extra space is not given between the entries.

Common Errors in Citations/References
Identify the errors in the following citations:
1. According to Haldfield (1999) (as cited in Trong Tuan and Thi
Minh Doan, 2010), game is an activity with rules, a goal and an
element of fun.
2. I will apply Paivio’s (1971) Dual Coding Theory, this theory
emphasises on the formation of mental images aids in learning
(Reed, 2010). Based on Paivio (2006), the representations are
connected to sensory input and response output systems…
3. In 2003, Golafshani stated that in qualitative research,
reliability and validity is replaced by the idea of
trustworthiness.
4. According to (W.R. Lee; V.N. Tameh) teaching aids or illustrative
material, whether visual, audio or audio visual can be
wonderful assest for the teaching and learning process.

Identify the errors in the following citations:
4. According to Thirusanku & Melor (2012), English is
spoken and used as a second language in countries
which are typically ex-colonies of United Kingdom.
5. The aim is to establish a balance between national
and international needs and challenges manifested
through linguistic educational policies (Gill and
Kirkpatrick, 2013).
6. I plan to use Kemmis and McTaggart’s (1998) model of
action research.
7. According to Emle Stringer (2008) in her book ‘Action
Research in Education’, action research provides
useful tool for day-to-day planning in classrooms.

Identify the errors in the following reference list:
8. Golafshani, N. (2003). Understanding reliability and
validity in qualitative research. The Qualitative Report,
8(4), 597-607.
9. Khairunnisa. (2010). Improving students’ understanding
on adverbs of frequency through memory round game.
Tarbiyah Faculty Walisongo State Institute For Islamic
Studies. Semarang.
10. Gill, S.K. & Kirkpatrick, A. (2013). English in Asian and
Europian higher education. United Kingdom: Blackwell
Publishing Ltd.
11. Nunan, D. (1991). Communicative task and the language
curriculum. TESOL Quarterly, 25(2), 279-295.

Title page
Supervisor’s verification
Declaration
Dedication
Acknowledgement
Abstract
Abstrak
Content
List of Tables
List of Figures
List of Appendices
List of Abbreviations
Tutorial 14
1.0 INTRODUCTION
- Background
- Context
- Reflection on Teaching and Learning Experience
2.0 RESEARCH FOCUS
- Selection of Research Focus
- Initial Data Collection
- Action
3.0 OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
4.0 RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS
5.0 RESEARCH IMPLEMENTATION
- Stages of Action
- Data Collection Methods
- Data Analysis Methods
- Data Triangulation Methods
6.0 RESEARCH FINDINGS
7.0 REFLECTION
8.0 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
REFERENCES
APPENDICES
Write a report for you action research according to the following format (2016):
Submission Date: Week 9 Semester 8/2018

References
• Creswell, J.W. (2012). Educational research:
planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative
and qualitative research (4th ed.). Boston, MA:
Pearson Education Inc.
• Fraenkel, J.R., Wallen, N.E., & Hyun, H. H. (2012).
How to design and evaluate research in education
(8th ed.). London: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
• IPGM. (2016). Buku Panduan Penyelidikan
Tindakan Institut Pendidikan Guru Malaysia.
Putrajaya: Pusat Pembangunan Akademik.

TSL3133 Topic 14 Writing the Action Research Report

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