A Research report is a document that a student has to submit after the completion of the whole research project. It basically summarizes the entire study – how it was carried out and the analysis of the study, including recommendations.
A research work contains several key aspects of the research project. The length of the report may vary depending on the instructions provided by the college/university.
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Many students are confused about the difference between a research report and a research proposal; many thing they are the same, which is not the case. You can read the difference between a research proposal and a research report here.
While research students are expected to make research reports, lot of colleges also ask their students to prepare a research report summarizing their project work.
Most colleges expect students to submit a 1000 words research report (that should also include a Bibliography). However, certain colleges may require it to be lengthier and will expect you to provide the report in a particular format.
Suggested structure for Dissertation
Here’s a template (format) that you can use for your Dissertation / research report. Feel free to modify it as per your needs.
Title Page
Include the course code, your name and the title of your topic.
Executive Summary (Abstract)
100 – 200 words on the important issues in this report. Brief description of the purpose of the report.
This is basically a short summary of the complete content of the project, and you should keep it around 300-500 words.
Table of Contents
If you use word this can be done automatically.
Introduction
This should be an introduction to the topic, including how important this topic and why you are interested in this topic.
Here, you present the central idea and why it is worth studying. You can also mention about the structure of the dissertation.
Research Questions and Hypothesis: Discuss the importance of the research in a greater context. This could be a separate section or part of introduction.
Literature Review
This will include a summary of the relevant articles that you found and will decide the literature on your topic.
This section is about contextualisation of your aim and objectives.
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Methodology
Here, you mention about Research design, research strategies, time frame, sampling, ethics, reliability and validity.
This part will describe how you went about the investigation, why you chose that particular method and how it is relevant for this topic. Did you only find secondary information or you were able to find primary information? Why?
This part talks about the Materials and Method, to collect data and to make observations.
Findings and Discussion
What did you find out? How relevant is it? Why is it important? How does it affect the industry? How does it compare to the literature? Do NOT make grandiose statements or rely on only on one or two people opinions.
Under Findings, mention what you discovered, put graphs, quotes; order of findings can be based on the research objectives or be thematical.
You can discuss interpretation of results, relate findings to research questions and hypotheses, talk about implications for relevant theories, and limitations.
This section may also be called Analysis and Results: This is the main body where you will list your analysis, observations and results.Conclusion and Recommendations
What can you conclude based on on all the information you have gathered and how is it all relevant and a good summary of what you found out and analysed.
Conclusions usually follow similar structure to the findings section, answering the research questions, and mentions practical implications.
This could also be split separately as:
- Recommendations: Any recommendations or improvements that you want to suggest.
- Conclusions: Present the conclusions based on your analysis and compare the results with commonly held beliefs, and/or expected results. Discuss possible improvements and suggestions for further study.
References
If you used other peoples works from articles, books, journals, papers, journals, make sure you reference them properly (from where they have come) and cite in the report.
Credit those who assisted in the research. List books, journal articles, web sites, that you referred for your investigation (cited in alphabetical order).
Bibliography (optional)
You may need to include information you have read but not cited. Use the appropriate style to include these articles.
Appendices
If you have conducted a survey or an interview you may include the questionnaire to go in the main part of the report.
Appendices generally should be kept to a minimum, you should include a blank copy of the questionnaire or interview schedule.
Please note that most colleges require you to submit a Dissertation Proposal, which needs to be approved first before you can proceed with writing the main dissertation.
Assessment / Marking Criteria for Dissertation
Dissertation or Research paper is usually marked based on the following:
- Research Objectives (10%)
- Literature Review (25%)
- Methodology (20%)
- Findings and Analysis (20%)
- Conclusions and Recommendations (15%)
- Language and Presentation (10%)
Weightage given to the various sections may vary a bit depending on the university.
Useful Links
FORMAT OF RESEARCH REPORTS
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