Writing Empirical Research Reports

A Basic Guide for Students of the Social and Behavioral Sciences

Melisa C. Galvan, Fred Pyrczak

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781138287556
• eBook ISBN: 9781351968621
• Edition: 8
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Social Science Research & Methodology
• Index: Psychology

• Designed for students who will be writing research proposals, reports, theses, and dissertations.

• The 15 chapters cover 191 guidelines for effective scientific writing. The guidelines are fully illustrated with easy-to-follow examples.

• The guidelines describe the types of information that should be included, how this information should be expressed, and where various types of information should be placed within a research report.

• End-of-chapter questions help students master the writing process.

Chapter 1
Structuring a Research Report

This chapter provides an overview of the elements typically included in research reports. Each of these is discussed in greater detail in later chapters.

Guideline 1.1 A research report typically has a brief title.

Titles of published research reports are typically brief. They usually refer to the population of interest and to the variables studied. Example 1.1.1 shows a title of about average length for a research report published in an academic journal. In it, the variables are self-concept and employment status. The population consists of individuals with epilepsy.

Example 1.1.1

The Relationship Between Self-Concept and Employment Status Among Individuals With Epilepsy

Writing titles is discussed in more detail in Chapter 5.

Guideline 1.2 An abstract usually follows the title.

An abstract is a brief summary of the research. It is often stated in 150 to 250 words. A typical abstract summarizes the purpose of the study, the methods used to conduct the research, and the results.

An abstract should normally be written after the body of the report has been completed. Hence, guidelines for writing abstracts are presented near the end of this book in Chapter 13.

Guideline 1.3 The body of a typical research report begins with a literature review, which serves as the introduction to the research project.

In research reports published in academic journals, the literature review is presented just below the abstract. Literature is cited in order to (1) establish the importance of the research problem, (2) inform the readers about what is known and what is not known about the problem, and (3) establish the need for the research described in the rest of the research report. The literature review concludes with a statement of the specific research hypotheses or purposes.

In theses and dissertations, the literature review serves the same purposes as the literature review in reports of research in journals. However, it is traditional to begin a thesis or dissertation with an introduction in the first chapter, which presents the researcher's rationale for conducting the study and has relatively few citations to literature. This is followed by a second chapter that presents the literature review.

Writing introductions and literature reviews is covered in Chapter 6. Writing research hypotheses and objectives is covered in Chapters 2-4.

Guideline 1.4 The Method section describes the participants, the measures, and other details on how the research was conducted.

The Method section immediately follows the literature review. At a minimum, it has two subheadings: "Participants" (sometimes called "Sample") and "Measures" (sometimes called "Instrumentation").

The subsection on the participants describes how they were identified and selected. The subsection on measures describes the instruments (e.g., tests, attitude scales, interview schedules) that were used to collect the data.

A third (optional) subheading, "Procedure," is sometimes included. This is the appropriate place to describe the treatments given in an experiment or any other steps taken to execute the research that were not already described under "Participants" or "Measures."

A fourth (optional) subheading, "Analysis," is sometimes included. This is used to discuss the selection of methods of analysis.¹

Guidelines for writing Method sections are described in Chapters 9 and 10 and the first part of Chapter 11.

Example 1.4.1 shows the structure of a basic research report with the elements discussed up to this point in this chapter.

Example 1.4.1

Title in Upper- and Lowercase Letters

Abstract (a main heading; centered in bold)²

A literature review that introduces the research problem (with no heading)

Method (a main heading; centered in bold)

Participants (a subheading; flush left in bold)

Measures (a subheading; flush left in bold)

Procedure (optional; a subheadmg; flush left in bold)

Analysis (optional; a subheading; flush left in bold)

Guideline 1.5 The Results section presents the findings.

The Results section immediately follows the Method section. It has a major heading of "Results" and is centered. (See Example 1.7.1.)

In reports on quantitative research, the Results section is usually brief. Often, statistics are presented in tables (i.e., rows and columns of statistics) with a discussion of how they shed light on the research hypotheses or purposes.

In reports on qualitative research, the Results section can be lengthy. In this section, qualitative researchers describe the major themes revealed by the participants' responses. These are usually illustrated with direct quotations from the participants.

Chapter 11 describes how to write Results sections, and Chapter 14 examines writing results for qualitative research in more detail.

Guideline 1.6 The Discussion section presents the researcher's interpretations.

The Discussion section immediately follows the Results section. It has a major heading of "Discussion" and is centered.³ (See Example 1.7.1.) In long research reports, the discussion might begin with a brief summary of the methods and results of the research. In addition, researchers use this section to reflect on the results and their relationship to the research hypotheses and purposes. This section also often includes (1) a statement of the limitations of the research (i.e., weaknesses in the research methodology), (2) implications of the findings, and (3) suggested directions for future research.

Guidelines for writing the Discussion section are described in Chapter 12.

Guideline 1.7 The reference list should contain references only to literature cited in the report.

The references are listed under the main heading "References" (centered in bold). The reference list should not be a suggested reading list. It should contain references only to literature cited in the research report. The preparation of a reference list is described in Chapter 15.

Example 1.7.1 shows the structure of a basic research report (without the Dptional subheadings discussed under Guideline 1.4).

Example 1.7.1

Title in Upper- and Lowercase Letters

Abstract (a main heading; centered in bold)

A literature review that introduces the research problem (with no heading)

Method (a main heading; centered in bold)

Participants (a subheading; flush left in bold)

Measures (a subheading; flush left in bold)

Results (a main heading; centered in bold)

Discussion (a main heading; centered in bold)

References (a main heading; centered in bold)

Note that the technical name for a main heading is first-level heading, while the technical name for a subheading under a main heading is second-level heading. Headings under a second-level heading are called third-level headings, which are discussed under the next guideline.

Guideline 1.8 In long reports, use additional second-level and third-level headings.

In long research reports (or long sections Within reports), consider using additional headings to guide readers. For instance, in a long Discussion section, these second-level headings might be used: "Summary," "Limitations," "Implications," and "Directions for Future Research."

Third-level headings might be used under second-level ones. For instance, under the second-level heading of "Measures," these third-level headings might be used: "Construction of the Measures," "Validity of the Measures," and "Administration of the Measures."

The three levels of headings for the Method section of a research report are illustrated in Example 1.8.1. Note that third...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction to the Eighth Edition
• Chapter 1 Structuring a Research Report
• Chapter 2 Writing Simple Research Hypotheses
• Chapter 3 A Closer Look at Hypotheses
• Chapter 4 Writing Research Objectives and Questions
• Chapter 5 Writing Titles
• Chapter 6 Writing Introductions and Literature Reviews
• Chapter 7 Writing Definitions
• Chapter 8 Writing Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations
• Chapter 9 Writing Method Sections
• Chapter 10 Describing Experimental Methods
• Chapter 11 Writing Analysis and Results Sections
• Chapter 12 Writing Discussion Sections
• Chapter 13 Writing Abstracts
• Chapter 14 A Closer Look at Writing Reports of Qualitative Research
• Chapter 15 Preparing Reference Lists
• References
• Appendix A Checklist of Guidelines
• Appendix B Thinking Straight and Writing That Way
• Appendix C The Null Hypothesis and Significance Testing