REPORT WRITING

by

Dr. Sunil Misra

Associate Professor Human Resource & Organizational Behaviour
Department of MBA

E-mail: misrasunil@gardividyapith.ac.in

REPORTS

The most common vehicles to : Provide information Persuade readers

Report Writing
Research is complete only when the results are shared with the scientific community. Although such sharing is accomplished in various ways, both formal and informal, the traditional medium for communicating research is the scientific journal.

Kinds of Reports

Occasional Reports : to alert / update on a situation Activity Reports : to sum up a trip / conference / meeting / any other event Status / Progress Reports : to give a general review of activities in a department / progress on a particular project Formal Reports : to provide a comprehensive overview
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Basics for all Reports

Objectives - the purpose for writing the Report. Readers Identify the readers and focus on what they know about the context Scope
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Basics of Report Writing

A. Identify and state the Problem B. Determine the Factors C. Gather Information D. Interpret the Data E. Organize the Findings F. Write the Report
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What are Reports?

An Orderly and Objective Communication of Factual Information that Serves a Business Purpose.

SM / HSS / IIT-KGP

Title Page

A title page should summarize the main idea of the Report. The title should include the DEPENDENT VARIABLE, INDEPENDENT VARIABLE and the SAMPLE. Abbreviations should be avoided in the title.

Title Page

The recommended length for a title is 10 to 12 words. Redundancies such as A Study

of An Experimental
Investigation of Theory of, Some, Toward a should
be avoided.

Report Writing
Author/s name and institutional affiliation: Every manuscript must have a byline consisting of two parts: the name of the author/s and the institution where the investigation was conducted.

The preferred form of an authors name is first name, middle initial, and last name. Example: Sunil Misra OR Amit R. Lathiya. Omit all titles (e.g., Dr., Professor) and degrees (e.g., Ph D, M Sc, M Tech, etc.)

Report Writing
Abstract
An abstract is a brief, comprehensive summary of the contents of the report. It allows readers to survey the contents of an report quickly. Almost all the journals/thesis/reports require an abstract. Normally, an abstract should consist of 100 to 250 words (empirical study) and in case of review article 75 words.

Introduction
Before beginning to write one should consider the following three major characteristics:
Length: Headings:

Hierarchy of the ideas Tone: it should be in an interesting and compelling manner that reflects ones involvement with the problem.
Introduction is the development of problem under investigation and statement of the purpose of the investigation.

Report Writing
In introduction the following things are considered:

What is the point of the study? How do the hypotheses and the experimental design relate to the problem? What are the theoretical implications of the study and how does the study relate to previous work in the area? What are the theoretical propositions tested and how were they derived?

Report Writing
Introduction should generally include:
Review

of literature: relationship of variables established through theoretical background and the works done in the past by various researchers in the area.
the background: Discuss the literature but do not include an exhaustive historical review.

Develop

Report Writing Demonstrate the logical continuity between previous and present work. Controversial issues, when relevant, should be treated fairly.
A

table representing, year of publication, author/s name, variables used for study, and the major findings for a quick glance is desirable.

Report Writing INTRODUCTION SECTION

Review of literature Gap areas Objective of the study Conceptualization of variables Conceptual model Hypotheses/Research Questions

Report Writing
METHOD The method section describes in detail how the study was conducted. Such a description enables the readers to evaluate the appropriateness of ones methods and the reliability and validity of ones result. The method section is usually divided into three parts:
a.

Sample

(Sample characteristics, demographic informationage, gender, etc.)

b.
c.

Measures (scale, number of dimensions, items, alpha value) Test administration

Report Writing
RESULTS
The

results section summarizes the data. First, briefly the main results or findings are stated, then the data are reported with sufficient details to justify the conclusions. hypotheses are to be tested, use the suitable statistics and report the findings.

If

Report Writing
When

reporting inferential statistics (e.g., t-tests, F- tests, and chi-square), information about the value of the test to be included. The degrees of freedom, the probability level and the direction of the effect needs to be mentioned. It is desirable, to give a summary of findings at the end of the result section for a quick look.

Report Writing
DISCUSSION
After

presenting the results, one should evaluate and interpret the implications especially with respect to ones original hypothesis. is free to examine, interpret and qualify the results as well as to draw inferences from them. One should be guided by the following questions:

One

 What How

I have contributed here?

has my study helped to resolve the original problem?

conclusions and theoretical implications can I draw from my study?

What

Report Writing
Conclusions
Implication

of the study Contribution of the present work Limitation of the study Scope for future research

Page numbering

Page numbers for the prefacing materials of the report should be in small Roman numerals and should be centered at the bottom of the pages. Page numbers for the body of the report should be in Arabic numerals and should be centered at the bottom of the pages. Font: Times New Roman, 12 point, double spacing, A4 size paper with 1 margin all the sides.

Report Writing

Author note References Appendices

Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C, etc.

Report Writing
REFERENCES

In the text, in the beginning of the sentence:

Goldhaber (1993), Porter and Roberts (1976) At the end of the sentence: (Gruneberg, 1979; Nemiroff & Ford, 1976; Steers, 1977) (Oldham, Hackman, & Pearce, 1976)

Report Writing In references:

Blegen, M., & Mueller, C. W. (1987). Nurses job satisfaction. A longitudinal analysis, Research in Nursing and Health, 10, 227237. Gruneberg, M. M. (1979). Understanding job satisfaction. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Gradner, J., Paulsen, N., Gallois, C., Callan, V., & Monaghan, P. (2001). An intergroup perspective on communication in organisations. In H. Giles & W. P. Robinson (Eds.), The new handbook of language and social psychology (pp. 561-584). Chichester, UK: Wiley. Holthouse, D., & Potok, M. (2008). The year in hate. Retrived April 8, 2008, from http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=886.

Redundancy

A total of 65 participants They were both alike Four different groups saw instructions which were exactly the same as those used. absolutely essential has been previously found small in size one and the same in close proximity completely unanimous just exactly very close to significance period of time summarize briefly the reason is because

Report Writing
Tense

Generally, past tense [e.g., Mitra (1998) showed] or present perfect tense [e.g., Mitra (1998) has shown] is appropriate for literature review. Method and the results section should be written in the past tense. Present tense should be used to discuss the results and to present the conclusions. The use of I first person pronoun should be avoided in the report writing.

Report Writing
Grammar
Incorrect: The percentage the speed of practice. Correct: The percentage the speed of practice.

of correct responses as well as the responses increase with

of correct responses as well as the responses increases with

Incorrect: The data indicates that Correct: The data indicate that

Incorrect: Neither the highest scorer nor the lowest scorer in the group had any doubt About their competency. Correct: Neither the highest scorer nor the lowest scorer in the group had any doubt about his/her competency.
Incorrect: To test this hypothesis, the participants were divided into two groups. Correct: To test this hypothesis, we divided the participants into two groups.

RESEARCH ETHICS
It is a long-established and revered tradition in the international research community that research is conducted and documented sincerely and honestly.
Copyright
Research

misconduct: Fabrication: (fake data) Distortion Plagiarism (stealing ideas and works of others) - Due acknowledgement must be given for the contribution of others. Breach of confidentiality

Thanks !

Quality of presentation
a)

b) c)

d) e) f)

Is the topic appropriate for the journal to which the manuscript is submitted? Is the introduction clear and complete? Does the statement of purpose adequately and logically orient the reader? Is the literature adequately reviewed? Are the citations appropriate and complete? Is the research question clearly identified, and is the hypothesis explicit?

g) h) i)

j)
k)

l) m)

Are the conceptualization and rationale perfectly clear? Is the method clearly and adequately described? Are the techniques of data analysis appropriate, and the analysis clear? Are the results and conclusions unambiguous, valid, and meaningful? Is the discussion thorough? Does it stick to the point and confine itself to what can be concluded from the significant findings of the study? Is the paper concise? Is the manuscript prepared according to APA style?