Research report writing

Planning, Drafting, Revising, Editing, and Finalizing the draft of research report

A reseach report is a well crafted document that outlines the processes data and findings of a systematic investigation. It is an important document that serves as a first hand account of the reseach process. It is considered as an objective and accurate source of information. In other words, it is a summary of the reseach process that clearly highlights finding recommendations and other important details. "Research report is a research document that contains basic aspects of the reseach project".

The true value of the reseach may be assessed through a report since the written report may be the " only tangible product of hundereds of hours of work. Rightly or wrongly, the quality and worth of that work are judged by the quality of written report -- its clarity, organization and content" (BLAKE and BLY 1993: 119).

The primary purpose of a written report is communication. The reseach report should be able to tell others what you did and what you found. You need to provide enough information to enable other researchers and a reasonable judgement about the quality of experiment.

More elaborately and precisely, a report or systematic write up on findings of a reseach study including an abstract, introduction, methodology, results and discussion, conclusions and recommendations, references etc. following a definite style or format is called a research report.

The researcher would write the report in a step by step process. The essential steps in reseach report writing might be as follows:

Planning 

Planning of a report is about creating a framework that will help to make choices about what needs to be included in report and what doesn't. The planning stage of report writing is the most time-consuming. If the report is not properly planned, you can waste valuable time and risk producing a report that does not meet your objectives.

A good reseach report presents the findings for expansion of the horizon of knowledge. It also checks the validity of the generalisation and inspires others to carry on related or allied problems. The format of a report is usually determined by three things: The audience, information, and the purpose. 

It is important to analyse the problem and define your purpose. It is useful at this stage to ask yourself questions such as the following:

•  What will the report investigate?
• What is the scope of your investigation?
• What are the limitations of your investigation?
• What method will you use to conduct your investigation? 
• What is the significance of this investigation?

Defining the purpose of your report is most important. Once you have determined the purpose of the report, it will be easier to define your audience and the information you need to collect.  It is necessary to identify who will be reading the report and what they want from it. Awareness of audience determines how much background is necessary.

It is important to establish the ideas or topics you need to address. Make a list of all the potential topics or sections of the report. From these, you can draw up a preliminary outline of headings. This step will greatly assist in collecting the information you need to write the report.

After having identified the issues and topics, you need to locate the research and information needed. There are two main categories of information used in report writing: primary (interviews with people, conversations etc) and secondary (published materials, previous reports, statistics). Make sure that your sources are reliable. Once you have gathered information, review your material. Only those ideas and data are incorporated which are relevant to the study, rest are left out.

Organization of information is very important because you must ensure that you have a suitable structure or outline of the report. You have to link the ideas together, fill the gaps in the information and find the most important headings and issues. 

You may need to revise your headings/outline during this process and add new topics or remove redundant or irrelevant ones. Categorise your information under the headings and then plan sub-headings. Having done this, ensure that your sequence of heading and sub-heading is logical and appropriate.

Once the data collection and analysis work is over, you have to make an outline for your report. This outline will contain a head a body, and a tail. The head consists of a description of your problem  within its context (the country and research area), the objectives of the study and the methodology followed. This part should not comprise more than one quarter of the report. The body will form the bigger part of your report: it will contain the research findings. The tail, finally, consists of the discussion of your data, conclusions, and recommendations.

First Draft

The first draft concentrates on substance, i.e., fullness of facts. All the facts of value are to be brought together. In addition to fullness,  acccuracy of the facts incorporated into the text becomes necessary. Another requirement is that there should be balance, proportion and development in facts. Importance is to be given to the comprehensiveness of the report but not to the language and form. For writing the first draft the researcher should have control over his notes and should think continuously over the problem. In a way, the first draft is the most important of the different stages in reporting. This report may have to be re-written a number of times and still it continues to remain only a working draft. There are three purposes in writing the first draft, viz., to weave the material together for making clear connections, to assure the investigator himself of a satisfactory organizations and fullness of the facts, and to avoid blank paper fright that may be present in every young researcher. 

Second Draft   ( revision and editing)

After a lapse of some time from the completion of first draft, the revision is made for writing the second draft. While drafting the second one, the researcher should concentrate largely on form and language. The researcher should give the first draft, at this stage, a shape so that it can be readable, clear and lucid. Considerable trimming or editing will have to be done to make the writing precise, concise and brief. Finally, at the second draft stage, critical evaluation will have to be made of all that has been written-facts, findings, conclusions and recommendations. To make the report readable and effective, the language plays major part. 

Final Draft

The final stage in drafting is the preparation of final report. It concentrates mainly on the finish and final touches, i.e. on documentation and polish to make the report weighty, authoritative, convincing and attractive. Documentation indicates the references to the sources, other previous and current work and view, additional data and discussion and suggested further reading on the specific problem as handled by the researcher. In other words, it indicates the thoroughness of the investigation and on the other a guide to further work. A good research paper depends not only upon the amount of reading or notes taken or upon the form of presentation but also upon the accurate and thorough recording of the investigation.

Post written by Vikram Beniwal

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