writing a research report

Writing the research report for 271.720

National Centre for Teaching & Learning

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See these slides online at: tinyurl.com/271120

Research question

Contents

Interactive Quiz: Advanced APA

Research report structure and style

IntroductionLiterature reviewMethodResultsDiscussionConclusion

Selected readings on research methods

Interactive Quiz: Advanced APA

You’ll see questions on the screen – e.g.

After a few seconds, you’ll be given four possible answers – e.g.

You need to select the correct answer by pressing the appropriate square on your device.

You’ll receive points not only for correct answersbut also according to the speed of your selection.

• Open kahoot.it in your browser

• Enter the game pin which I will show you in a minute

• Enter your nickname (and you will see it appear on the public screen)

To join the quiz you need to:

Your developing research question

Your topic of interest

Integration of individuals with communication disorders in the education system

Your issue / context

The use of AAC devices in NZ preschools

What are the perceptions and practices of NZ preschool teachers in relation to children’s use of AAC devices in the preschool classroom?

Your research question(s)

Discuss in pairs or groups of three: What’s your …..

What’s your …..

Example time line for a research project

Selected reading on research methods

Kumar, R. (2011). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners (3rd. ed). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Phipps, M. (2016). Introduction to psychological research. North Ryde, NSW: McGraw-Hill Education.

Punch, K., (2003). Survey research: The basics. London, England: Sage Publications.

Rountree, K. & Laing, T. (1996). Writing by degrees: A practical guide to writing theses and research papers. Auckland, New Zealand: Longman.

These are just a few of the hundreds of books (and e-books) on research methods in the library – you may find a book or book chapters about your specific research method too. Sage is particularly strong in publications about research methods.

Also take a look at this sample research report from APA: tinyurl.com/APAreport1

Research report structure

Report A Report B Report C

Total Pages [excl. refs & appendices]

29 36 24

Introduction200 350 350

Lit review1, 800 3, 700 1, 700

Method1, 200 3, 500

(combined350

Results4, 000 (incl.

words in tables)Method & Results)

1, 350

Discussion2, 800 2, 300 1, 000

Conclusion200 300 500

References33 60 25

Approximate word length of sections of selected 271.720 research reports

Basic info about the communication disorder / issue

Basic info about the SLT practice

Rationale and objectives of the study

Suggested length:

200 – 400 words / 2 – 4 paragraphs

Preview of structure of report

Introduction

Sample introductory phrases

Children with disorder X often experience difficulty ….. One factor that affects their difficulty adjusting to …. is …. Disorder X is the impairment of …, as a result of …

Practice Y plays a vital role in the management of disorder X … Method Z is one of the most widely-used … However, researchers and clinicians have questioned …For those who ….., a technique known as …. is recommended to facilitate development of …..

Therefore, the aim of the present study was to …This research study explores the perceptions of …. about practices X and Y. ‘X’ refers to … ; in contrast, ‘Y’ refers to …The study explored … Method Z for … was examined in order to …

In the following literature review, key concepts will be introduced and discussed including …

Sample comments on introductions

Strong introduction. Sets the scene for your study and the structure of your literature review.

Clear outline of the aim.

Consider your paragraphs. This is a new topic so should be in a different paragraph.

Could be more specific.

Explain what you mean by _____.

Literature review Suggested length:


Divided into several subsections

Flow of sections (and within sections) is typicallyfrom general to specific …

… with some use of chronological order.

Example Lit review flowLanguage development of children with ….

Intervention X for individuals with …

Parental involvement in intervention X for children with …

Barriers to and facilitators of parental involvement in intervention X for children with …

Early approaches to assessment of individuals with disorder X

Post-war approaches to assessment of individuals with disorder X

Sociocultural changes in perceptions of disability in the late 20thc

Development of the ICF

Implications of the ICF for assessment of individuals with disorder X

Specific elements found in literature reviews

Definitions / explanations of terms

Relevant social or ethical issues / shifts / trends

Summaries of key research studies

Explanations of relevant models or theories

Key claims or arguments

Approaches / interventions / techniques / tools / technologies

In each section, refer to gaps or limitations inmethods and / or research

Summarise these gaps / limitations in a conclusionparagraph which provides a rationale for your study

“Build an argument, not a library” (Rudestam & Newton, as cited in Punch, 2006)

Punch, K.F. (2006). Developing Effective Research Proposals. London: Sage Publications.

Sample literature review phrases

Researchers have defined xxxx as …. (Cummings & Gowings, 2002; Pype & Slipper, 2012).

The Z approach is a behavioural treatment programme designed to …. (Noh-All, 2014)

X is a speech disorder characterised by …. (Shortt & Sweet, 2009)

In the late 20th century, the … movement led to a shift in perspectives among many clinicians with regard to …. Individuals with X were no longer viewed as ... (Esselty, 2005)

With the introduction of Y models, there has been a growing trend towards ….

In the literature, A and B approaches have been the most influential in the assessment of X (Black & Decker, 2008). More recently, D approaches have gained attention within clinical practice (Toyle & Trubble, 2015). Figure 1 illustrates the components (boxes) and connections between components (arrows) involved in …. (Cee & Billieve, 2016). Each component is …

Models of …. provide theoretically-grounded predictions of … For example, ….

Increasingly sophisticated models such as … have been developed; however, they are typically confined to …

In contrast to previous …., the A Classification System (Brayne, 2003) recognises six subtypes of disorder X: xxxxx. The system has remained the dominant diagnostic paradigm owing to ….

Z models no longer view A as … but as … (Wright, 2002; Whing & Apraire, 2015).

Proponents of this approach acknowledge that …

Bonnie and Clyde (2004) suggest that … is likely to ….

To develop appropriate treatment plans there is a need for … (Lowd & Klier, 2011).

There are a number of evidence-based treatments available to address … However, while these treatments are effective, practical constraints such as ….. mean that …. Devising more efficient treatments for … should facilitate …

A variety of terms are used in the literature to describe approach Z

Approach Z can be used across a range of activities involving communication and therefore …

Factor A appears to be critical for positive outcomes for …. in children. However, there has been little research into ….

Plugg and Sockitt (2009) found that approach Z can provide opportunities for …

The Z approach has an evidence base comprising ….. (Locke, Stock and Barrill, 2010)

A study by Cobley et al. (2010) showed the importance of using a treatment that … The authors identified that …

Wille and Aweigh (2003) demonstrated the usefulness of … approach A for disorder B in a ….. study ….

Parents of children using device B reported … (Hinge & Brackitt, 2010)

Leizee-Buoy (2000) found that nearly half of the parents he surveyed reported … ; however, the survey did not ask for information about …. Therefore, it is difficult to determine …

To sum up, research about the use of approach Z has reported positive outcomes for language development in children with disorder Y; however, further research is required to explore ….

Sample comments on literature reviews

Excellent rationale for your project.

Relevant link to workplace environments.

Effective synthesis of research findings.

A brief explanation of … would be helpful – it is important that you do not write with too much assumed knowledge.

This needs to be referenced and an example might be useful as I am not sure what … means.

Yes, but what is the evidence?

How did they measure this? A little more information would be helpful.

Techniques / tools for data collection

Ethical considerations

Subsections depend on design and type of data!

Research design

Method Suggested length:


Sampling / Recruitment

Techniques / tools for data analysis

Procedure

Sample method section phrasesA quantitative, cross sectional survey research design was used to obtain information about ….

To identify ..., a …. design was chosen so that …

….. were recruited through …..

To be included in the study, participants were required to be …

This study was evaluated by peer review and judged to be low risk. Consequently, it was not reviewed by one of University’s Human Ethics Committees

Participants were provided with an information sheet which outlined …

Confidentiality of the participants was maintained through …

Sample method section phrasesMethod X is a cost effective and time efficient means of collecting information (Wright, 2006) … This method allowed participants to ...

However, method X has limitations, including …. There are also difficulties arising from …. (Wright, 2006)

Five-point Likert scales were used for …. . Likert scales provide a useful way of measuring …. (Pack & Sayve, 2009). Because this was a preliminary research study, …. were used to identify additional factors ….

The task assessed …. The stimuli comprised …. X were included in order to … The responses would allow the identification of …

A second … task was administered using stimuli that ….. The rationale behind this task was …

As in Ono (2004), the total number of correct responses was used to measure … Errors were classed as …. if … (Sound & Fury, 2004)

Sample method section phrasesThe survey results were analysed using descriptive statistics. The data was first cleaned by …. . Percentages and frequency counts were computed for the demographic information. Modes were calculated to …. As recommended by Count and Down (2010), the data was summarised and reduced to identify different variables.

A standard approach to the analysis of the qualitative data (e.g. Dumdood, 2003; Wiseman, 2004) was followed. Responses to the open ended questions were categorised by theme. Trends and relationships between the themes were examined in order to determine whether …

…… sessions were video recorded and an independent observer rated one quarter of the …. sessions from the video recordings in order to …. . An inter-observer agreement of 90% was obtained, which indicates that …. (Board, Lown-Lee, & de Prest, 2009)

Testing was discontinued after 10 items, as BB had produced 8 consecutive errors on word strings that were four words in length. A score of 2/10 indicates a … (Numm-Berr & Krunscherr, 2007).

Sample comments on method sections

Clear description of the task and the reason behind the task.

This is so well written – reported everything clearly and concisely.

This should be in the data analysis section.

This describes the survey, but does not provide any rationale for the decisions made.

References to sources are needed to support your use of these methods.

Most of this ‘Procedure’ section is repeating information from ‘Recruitment’ and ‘Data Collection’.

Needs more detail (e.g. low-risk; information sheet etc).

Demographic information


Recap of purpose /design / data

Results Suggested length:

2000 – 4000 words (incl. tables) 8 – 20 paragraphs

Data cleaning

Tables of relevant data

Summaries and explanations of data

Sample results section phrasesThe purpose of this study was …. Quantitative data about …was collected using …. The results of the three components of the online survey will be reported in the following order: ….

The demographic information about the participants is presented in Table 1. Participants ranged in age from 12 to 27 years, with most being 14 to 8 years (n = 7). Most of the participants were New Zealand European (n = 16) and two-thirds were female (n = 12).

BB is an 54-year-old male. He is a monolingual English speaker with corrected vision and hearing. On 23rd May 2016, BB had a stroke. A CT scan confirmed a left parietal lesion. CR had obtained a university degree and worked as a language teacher prior to his stroke. In April 2017, at the time of this study, BB was one year post stroke and had no other neurological, cognitive or psychological conditions.

Prior to data analysis, the surveys were checked for completeness. …. survey responses were discarded because more than … % of the responses were incomplete, as this is considered to affect the interpretation of the results (Statts, 2011). A total of …. surveys were therefore analysed.

Table XXX Consultations with BAH students in Years 1 – 4 between 2011 and 2014 _____________________________________________________________________________

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Total 2011 1 11 4 5 21 2012 36 0 26 6 68 2013 18 12 10 41 81 2014 40 6 6 18 70_____________________________________________________________________________

Responses to the statement about … (see Table 3) suggest that many participants feel that they do not have enough time to … (n = 7).

…. was also identified by the participants as a possible barrier to ….. in some situations (see Table 5). For example, one participant stated that ….

BB named 17/20 items correctly. He produced three semantic errors (as illustrated in Table 14). Performance on previous tasks indicated that BB’s semantic system was intact. Therefore, CR’s semantic errors during naming suggest ….

These findings provide some information about the …. . The discussion will consider how these findings relate to previous literature and also the implications for both SLTs and individuals with ….

Sample comments on results sections

Clear participant description.

The results are very well laid out – very clear and concise.

These are really interesting findings.

Excellent explanation of results.

Where is this information?

The data in this table needs to be reorganised so that it’s easier to see the key points.

This belongs in the discussion section.


Comparison of results with models, studies,and practices reported in the lit review.

Discussion Suggested length:


Identification of gaps and inconsistencies.

Implications for practice.

Limitations of the study.

Suggestions for further research.

Sample discussion section phrases

There has been a growing focus on … (e.g. Metter-Nanilis, 2014; O’ Vervue, 2016). ….. Although these studies have recommended ……, there has been limited research ….. This study aimed to fill this gap by … . Overall, the findings from this study support …..

These findings are consistent with previous research that found …

Many of the participants had also not … No previous studies have explicitly examined …; however, individuals in a previous study reported that … (Rummidge et al., 2015 ). The authors attributed these difficulties to ….. The findings of this study, together with those of the current study suggest that future research needs to examine ….

Previous research emphasised the importance of … (Shayr & Shayr-Alyque, 2009); however, results from the current study suggest that it may also be important for SLTs to ….

No previous studies have specifically investigated … However, participants in one study (Bycroft, 2005) …

A positive finding of this study was ….. However, ….; this suggests that ….. Therefore, future research should ….

This research study provided preliminary insights into … The participants’ responses suggest … However, … Future research should explore …

Future research and advances in … may allow …. (Krystall & Ball, 2016). These advances may assist clinicians ….

The limited use of …. in … may reflect how participants were taught …. . Practitioners may therefore consider …., including ….

These findings from the current study and previous studies suggest that …. Therefore, …. should be … because … . Furthermore, individuals with …. should be supported to …. This may involve ….

… sampling was used in this study ….. This may have resulted in …. It may be that …

The results only represent the perceptions of …. and, therefore, cannot be generalised to …

Sample comments on discussion sections

Excellent intro to this section.

Relevant, appropriate links to the literature.

Good explanation of ….

Excellent to look at strengths.

A lot of repetition of your results here – could be summarised more concisely.

How does this link specifically to the literature?

What are the consequences of this?

Conclusion Suggested length:


Comments on value of …

... method

… results

Recap of Purpose

Summaries of …

… relationship of results to previous studies / theory / practice

… recommendations for further research

…implications for practice

Sample conclusion section phrases

Individuals with disorder X …. Current practices …. The aim of the current study was to ….

The purpose of this study was to identify ways ….

The …. method was an effective way of …

The findings provide directions for future research …

Future studies using a …. design may help to determine In order to support individuals with …. SLTs should consider …

Improvements in … may enhance outcomes for individuals …

Can you identify the element – and where it appears?

Try the quiz again at: tinyurl.com/advancedapaquizFor more APA advice: Check ‘Academic Q & A’ under the ‘Academic Support’ tab in Stream, Handy Guide to APA, APA Interactive in OWLL and apastyle.org

You can still catch the last of our semester 1 webinars:tinyurl.com/studyup2017 (Mar 22 & 23 - 7.30 am;12 pm;7 pm)tinyurl.com/postgradstudyup2017 (Mar 22 & April 5 - 7 pm)

The whole programme will also be repeated in semester 2:tinyurl.com/studyup2017semester2; tinyurl.com/studyuppostgrad2017semester2

May 3rd: Clarity and concisenessJul 5th: Cohesion and coherenceSep 6th: Putting the thesis togetherNov 1st: Editing the thesis

Albany AT4

12.00 – 1.30 pm

For other workshops, look under the ‘Academic Support’ tab on Stream or click ‘workshops’ at: owll.massey.ac.nz

More information

See these slides online at: tinyurl.com/272120

These doctoral writing workshops cover issues which are also relevant to your thesis writing