Formatting the report unit7

FORMATTING THE REPORT
Research Methodology – Unit 7

CONTENTS
 Formatting a report
 Developing the final draft
 Preparing the citation and referencing
 Making an oral presentation of a report
ResearchMethodology-Unit7
2

RESEARCH REPORT
 Crucial part of the research that includes solutions
and recommendations of the research problem.
 If the report is not made properly, then all the efforts
of the researcher would become useless and futile.
3

RESEARCH REPORT
Parts of
Research
Report
Written
report
Oral
presentation
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RESEARCH REPORT
 The written report should be powerful in
presentation and provide the exact information that
the researcher wants to convey to the reader.
 The aim of the written report would not be fulfilled
till the findings or recommendations are not
implemented.
 An oral presentation provides a quick overview of
the research.
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WRITTEN REPORT
 The most common purpose for writing a report are
as follows:
Providing Information
 Refers to gathering information about a subject. Sometimes, a
report is written only to provide information about a topic. Such
type of report is very focused and follows a narrowed down
approach.
Generating idea
 Refers to devising idea from the information provided in the
report. The reports that aim to generate an idea are detailed in
nature and include elaborated information.
Finding solutions
 Refers to identifying alternative solutions to address a
problem. The reports that intend to find different solutions of a
problem include past and present data and findings and
recommendations.
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WRITTEN REPORT
 Audience of a Report
One who wants the research to be done.
The researcher should know the composition, background, and
interests of the target audience before commencing the research.
The length, composition and details in a research report vary as
per the target audience.
 Types of Reports
Technical report
 Lays emphasis on the method employed in conducting research,
assumptions made during the research, the detail about the topic under
study, and findings and recommendations.
 Technical reports are full-fledged reports and generally long in nature.
These reports involve a detailed description of the research work. The
target audience of technical reports is students, government bodies,
special commissions, and other organizations that need an in-depth
analysis of the topic.
Popular report
 Steps in Writing a Report
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WRITTEN REPORT
Popular report
 Refers to the reports that are non-technical in nature. Popular
reports lay emphasis on simplicity and attractiveness in the
presentation of information.
 The content of a popular research should be simple, clear, and
less technical in nature.
 Information should be explained with the help of simple charts
and graphs instead of mathematical equations.
 The popular reports should be attractive in terms of layout,
fonts, figures, prints and use of subheadings.
 It is important to note that popular reports focus on findings
and recommendations of the research work.
 A popular report is less comprehensive, as the audience is
interested in knowing the results of the research work. Not the
entire analysis part.
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WRITTEN REPORT
The report of research should be written in such a
format that is easily comprehensible for the audience.
Writing a report is a process that involves sequential
steps mentioned below:
 Analysis of a subject matter
 Final outline
 Rough draft
 Review of the rough draft
 Bibliography
 Final draft
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WRITTEN REPORT
Analysis of the subject matter
 Refers to determining what kind of development pattern should be
adopted to write a report for a particular research.
 Two kinds of development patterns are mostly used in research
reports: logical development and chronological development.
 In logical development, the researcher makes logical decisions by
using mental thoughts and links between one topic and the other.
 The logical thinking is mostly based on the study that the
researcher has done during the research work. In logical
development, the subject matter moves from simple to complex.
 In chronological development, the subject matter is sequentially
structured. That is, if you want to study one topic, then you should
have gone through the previous topic to gain better understanding
of the next topic.
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WRITTEN REPORT
Final outline
 Refers to the stage of writing in which the researcher makes a
structure or outline of the report.
 It consists of a brief description of the topics to be covered in
the report.
 Final outline also provides information about the points to be
stressed in the research.
 This helps the researcher not to miss out any topic to be
studied/covered in the report.
 Final outline is also considered as the framework of the report.
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WRITTEN REPORT
Rough draft
 Refers to the stage in which researchers start writing a report.
 In this stage, they organize their thoughts and start writing
about the methods used for data collection, analysis
techniques, major findings of the research, and limitations
faced by the researcher during the study.
 The recommendations of the study are also described in this
part.
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WRITTEN REPORT
Review of the rough draft
 Refers to the stage in which the researcher checks the rough
draft for the logical corrections.
 The researcher also checks whether the report is conveying
the intended message of the researcher or not.
 He/she also has to see that the report is convincing and
appropriate according to the audience of the research.
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WRITTEN REPORT
Bibliography
 Refers to the stage in which the bibliography of the research
report is prepared.
 Bibliography is the section of the report that contains the
sources of secondary data collection.
 It includes names of books, journals, magazines, and other
sources of print media from where the data is collected.
 It also contains the Internet links used in the preparation of the
research report.
 There is a proper pattern to write the name of the source from
where the data is collected.
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WRITTEN REPORT
Bibliography
For books and pamphlets, the order of writing is as follows:
Last name of the author, title of the book, place, publisher name, date,
number of volumes.
For example:
1. Sekaran, Uma, Research Methods for Business, Noida, Sheela Print-N-
Pack, 2010, IV
2. Chandra, R.K., Quantitative Methods, New Delhi, Vikas Publications Pvt.
Ltd., 1999, I.
For magazines and newspapers, the order of writing is as follows:
Last name of author, first name of author, “title of article”, name of
periodical, place, number of volumes, date of issue, pagination.
1. Fran, Dmarlo, “Buying behavior of consumer in supermarkets”, The
Marketing Biz, London, Vol. II, 1992, p.890.
2. Disilva, Mathew, “Benefits for SME”, Financial express, Newyork, Vol. VI,
1992, p.900.
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WRITTEN REPORT
Final Draft
 Refers to the last stage in which the researcher gives a final
touch to his/her report.
 Final draft is prepared keeping in mind the objective of the
study.
 It should be simple, concise, and convincing.
 In this stage, it is examined whether all the portions of the
study is covered or not.
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INTEGRAL PARTS OF REPORT
 Title page
 Table of content
 Preliminary pages
Acknowledgement
Preface
 Executive Summary
 Chapter I - Introduction
 Chapter II – Literature review
 Chapter III – Research Methodology
 Chapter IV – Analysis
 Chapter V – Conclusion and Recommendation
 Bibliography and appendices
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
 “An executive summary, sometimes known as a management summary, is a short
document or section of a document, produced for business purposes, that
summarizes a longer report or proposal or a group of related reports in such a way
that readers can rapidly become acquainted with a large body of material without
having to read it all. It usually contains a brief statement of the problem or proposal
covered in the major document(s), background information, concise analysis and
main conclusions. It is intended as an aid to decision-making by managers and
has been described as possibly the most important part of a business plan. They
must be short and to the point”.
 “An executive summary differs from an abstract in that an abstract will usually be
shorter and is intended to provide a neutral overview or orientation rather than
being a condensed version of the full document. Abstracts are extensively used in
academic research where the concept of the executive summary would be
meaningless. "An abstract is a brief summarizing statement... read by parties who
are trying to decide whether or not to read the main document", while "an
executive summary, unlike an abstract, is a document in miniature that may be
read in place of the longer document".
 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_summary
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ORAL PRESENTATIONS
 In the form of presentation slides
 Duration of an oral presentation is maximum – 30
mins.
 The researcher should be able to explain his/her
entire research work in the given time.
 He/she should sound convincing and effective to
gain the attention of the target audience.
 In addition, the researcher should handle the
queries of the audience very patiently and should
be well-prepared for the presentations to minimize
the chances of errors.
 He/she should not get irritated or frustrated while
answering the queries.
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 End of Unit 7
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Formatting the report unit7

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