Here is the powerpoint for how to do the reports

1. Reports
Your Next Assignment and You

2. Today’s Agenda
 Proposal Overviews
 Memos – Where we’re going next…
 Empirical Research Reports
 Writing Assignment

3. Proposals
 Point of View
 Formality
 Projects
 Fleshing Out Projects

4. Point of View
 3rd person to maintain objectivity
 1st person with known peers and known
audience
 Remain in one Point of View

5. Formality
 3rd person maintains objectivity
 “I” and “We” vs. “The team”
 Remember your audience

6. Projects
 Solvable problems
 Make motion towards doing a project
 Scalability

7. Fleshing Out
 Research Needed to Be Done
 Questions that arise from the project
 Answering those questions
 Details, details, details

8. Memo Directions
 If you haven’t already, send a copy of your
memo to your partner.
 If you don’t have a partner, find someone in the
class who will be your partner. Then send your
memo to that person.
 Yes, you do need a partner. That’s kind of the
point of the next assignment.

9. The Report
 Using the memo your partner sent you, you will
conduct research into your partner’s proposed
project.
 You will gather the information your partner needs
and present that information in a report to your
partner.
 You may use the bibliography your partner
produced a few weeks ago in order to do this
assignment.
 Come see me during the writing assignment time if
your partner did not do a memo, proposal, both, or
cannot possibly find a partner because of a lack of
members of the class.

10. Reports
 You will come into situations where you have to
report information to someone else on a subject
you did not necessarily choose.
 What do reports look like?

11. Writing Situations
 Helping people make practical decisions
 Extending human knowledge

12. Practical Decisions
 Determining how to proceed in a project
 Making decisions
 Goal is to do an action

13. Knowledge
 Expand on a belief
 Presenting research

14. Features To Help You
 Does the report aim to support a practical
decision, extend knowledge, or both?
 Readers will want similar information
 Conventions appear in report writing
 Develop the superstructure of the report

15. Questions Readers Ask
 Why is your research important to us?
 What were you trying to find out?
 Was your research method sound?
 What results did your research produce?
 How do you interpret those results?
 What is the significance of those results?
 What do you think we should do?

16. Why Your Research?
 Practical problems will want to know what
problems you will address.
 Extending human knowledge want to know what
your research contributes

17. What Were You Trying?
 What questions were you trying to answer in your
report?
 Readers want to know these questions

18. Was Your Method Sound?
 Gives readers faith in your project
 Need to know your questions
 Need to know your research methods

19. Results
 This one should be obvious
 What exactly did you find out from your
research?

20. Interpretation
 Interpret the results in a way that is meaningful for
your readers
 Show readers what they should take away from
your research

21. Significance
 How do the results relate to the problems you
were trying to solve?
 What will the results of your research mean for
expanding knowledge or for your readers?

22. Next Steps
 Practical problems with practical solutions
 What should your reader do after reading your
report?
 Expanding knowledge should lead to future
research

23. Superstructure
 Introduction
 Objectives
 Method
 Results
 Discussion
 Conclusions
 Recommendations

24. Introduction
 Why is your research important to the reader?
 What questions will be answered for the reader?

25. Objectives
 What were you trying to find out?
 What will your research accomplish?

26. Method
 Was your research method sound?
 By what means did you study the information?

27. Discussion
 How do you interpret these results?
 What do you think of them?

28. Conclusions
 What is the significance of those results?
 How have you achieved the goals of your work?

29. Recommendations
 What do you think the reader should do based
upon your report?

30. Preparing Reports
 Define your report’s objectives
 Conducting Research
 Planning
 Drafting and Revising

31. Defining Objectives
 Readers read to learn ideas of value or interest.
 Develop objectives based upon the readers’
needs.
 Usability objective – present information clearly
 Persuasive objective – persuade readers the
information is valid

32. Conducting Research
 Understand Context
 Define questions precisely
 Use credible methods
 Analyze credibly

33. Understanding Context
 Understand why your readers are coming to your
report
 Gain a sense of the problem
 Know what is already known about the project

34. Defining Questions
 Concrete questions
 Solvable questions
 Non-rhetorical questions
 Helps produce interesting results

35. Use Credible Methods
 Surveys
 Interviews
 Running an experiment
 Testing
 Researching a topic
 Choose a method based upon reader
expectations

36. Analyze Credibly
 Pick the right kind of statistical tool
 Use sound logic
 Show your logic
 Again, based upon reader expectations

37. Planning
 Develop an organization for the report
 Adopt a superstructure that makes sense
 Develop a table of contents
 Check with your organization before choosing a
superstructure

38. Drafting
 Possible to draft before all of the research is
conducted
 Sharpen your sense of what you need to find by
drafting
 Allows revision before the deadline

39. Crafting - Introduction
 Announcing the Topic
 Include it as a key phrase in your opening
sentence

40. Crafting - Introduction
 Explaining the Importance of the Research
 Relevance to organizational goals.

41. Crafting - Objectives
 Readers want to know your goals
 State hypotheses tested
 Cite sources
 Overall goals > Specific goals

42. Crafting - Methods
 Write to specific details
 Information depends on nature of the research
 Discuss every decision made planning research
 Discuss questions on method
 Limitations caused by method
 Procedures other researchers would need to
understand your work

43. Crafting - Results
 Any and all data obtained
 Tables and graphs
 Sentences woven between data and
interpretation of data.

44. Crafting - Discussion
 Must link interpretations with results
 May break these in separate sections
 Refer to data and comment on it
 By presenting results as prose only, can weave
into your discussion by beginning paragraphs
with general statements that serve to interpret
data.

45. Crafting - Conclusions
 Explain what results mean in relation to the
questions asked in the beginning of the report
 Corresponds to objectives stated
 Identify the objective, then state the conclusion.
 Discussion of other findings by other authors, if
necessary.
 Discuss flaws and limitations

46. Crafting - Recommendation
 Reader wants to know what the next steps are
 Convey ideas about future research
 Adjustments that should be made to conduct
better research

47. Writing Assignment
 What questions will you need to answer in each
section of your report?
 Write 5 objectives to be reached with your
reports.
 In your paper, discuss what methods you will use
for your research. Internet research, surveys, etc.
 Write these in paragraph form. At least three
paragraphs total.