M. COM. II SEM.

IV
UNIT V RESEARCH REPORT

Introduction:
Research is the systematic investigations into study of a natural
phenomenon or materials or sources or existing condition of the society in
order to identify facts or to get additional information and derive new
conclusions. It is a production process, which needs a number of inputs to
produce new knowledge and application of new and existing knowledge to
generate technology that ultimately may generate economic prosperity of a
nation. Simply, a research paper/report is a systematic write up on the
findings of the study including methodologies, discussion, conclusions etc.
following a definite style. The research report writers in making the report
good qualitative should remember the saying ‘Try to express, not to impress’.
More elaborately and precisely, a report or systematic write up on the findings
of a research study including an abstract/executive summary/summary,
introduction (Background with literature review, justification, objectives etc.)
Methodology/materials and methods (including statistical design, if any),
results and discussion, conclusions and recommendations, references etc.
following a definite style or format may be called a Research Report.

Principles of Report Writing

Once you have an idea about what a report is, the next step is to
understand how you can write one. There are different types of reports, and
each has a specific structure, usually known as ‘elements of the report’. While
we tell you what the elements of report writing are, if you want detailed
guidance, you can go for Harappa Education’s Writing Proficiently course that
talks about the popular PREP (Point of starting, Reason, Evidence, and Point
of ending) model of report writing. Every report starts with a title page and a
table of contents, after which come the main sections–the executive
summary, introduction, discussion, and conclusion.
Do you remember summary writing for English class during school days? You
were asked to read a story or passage and write a summary, including the
important takeaways. That’s exactly what you are expected to do in a report’s
executive summary section. This section presents a brief overview of the
report’s contents. You should present the key points of the report in this
section. But why is it important to write an executive summary at the start of
the report?
Firstly, the summary will help readers better understand the purpose, key
points, and evidence you are going to present in the report. Secondly, readers
who are in a hurry can read the summary for a preview of the report.
 Here are some specifics that will help you write a clear and concise
summary:
 Include the purpose of your report and emphasize conclusions or
recommendations.
 Include only the essential or most significant information to support
your theories and conclusions.
 Follow the same sequence of information that you have used in the
report.
 Keep the summary length to 10-15% of the complete report.
 Try not to introduce any new information or point in summary that you
haven’t covered in the report.
 The summary should communicate the message clearly and
independently.

Introduction:
 The introduction section should:
 Briefly describe the background and context of the research you have
done.
 Describe the change, problem, or issue related to the topic.
 Define the relevant objectives and purpose of the report
 Give hints about the overall answer to the problem covered in the
report.
 Comment on the limitations and any assumptions you have made to
get to the conclusion.
Discussion:
 This section serves two purposes:
  It justifies the recommendations.
 It explains the conclusions.
 While you are writing the discussion section, make sure you do the
following:
 Present your analysis logically.
 If needed, divide the information under appropriate headings to
improving readability and ease of understanding.
 Explain your points and back up your claims with strong and evaluated
evidence.
 Connect your theory with real-life scenarios
Conclusion:
The last key element of report writing is the conclusion section. Present the
conclusion as follows:
 The primary conclusion should come first.
 Identify and interpret the major problems related to the case your
report is based on.
 Relate to the objectives that you have mentioned in the introduction.
 Keep the conclusion brief and specific.
Written Report Guidelines
The written report should have the following sections:
(1). Title page
(2). Abstract
(3). Introduction
(4). Materials and Methods
(5). Results
(6). Discussion
(7). Conclusions
(8). References
Description of the content of each of these sections follows. Additional
remarks on report preparation and writing style are given at the end.

Title page:
The TITLE PAGE identifies
  The full name of the project
 The course
 The name of the principal author (write NONE if a principal author was
not used)
 The names of the other group members
 The group number

Abstract:
The ABSTRACT is not a part of the body of the report itself. Rather, the
abstract is a brief summary of the report contents that is often separately
circulated so potential readers can decide whether to read the report. The
abstract should very concisely summarize the whole report: why it was written,
what was discovered or developed, and what is claimed to be the significance
of the effort. The abstract does not include figures or tables, and only the
most significant numerical values or results should be given.

Introduction:
The introduction should provide a clear statement of the problem posed by
the project, and why the problem is of interest. It should reflect the scenario, if
available. If needed, the introduction also needs to present background
information so that the reader can understand the significance of the problem.
A brief summary of the unique approach your group used to solve the problem
should be given, possibly also including a concise introduction to theory or
concepts used later to analyze and to discuss the results.

Materials and Methods:

The purpose of the materials and methods section is to describe the
materials, apparatus, and procedures used to carry out the measurements.
Most importantly, the section needs to provide a clear presentation of how
key measurements were obtained and how the measurements were analyzed.
This is where the particular approach followed to reach the project's
objectives should be described. The detail should be sufficient so that the
reader can easily understand what was done. An accurate, schematic diagram
depicting the apparatus should be included and referred to in the text as
needed (if a diagram has been already provided it can be used in the report,
provided that the source is properly referenced). To improve clarity of
presentation, this section may be further divided into subsections (ex. a
Materials subsection, an Apparatus subsection, a Methods or Procedures
subsection, etc.).

Results:
Discussion:
The discussion interprets the results in light of the project's objectives. The
most important goal of the DISCUSSION section is to interpret the results so
that the reader is informed of the insight or answers that the results provide.
The DISCUSSION should also present an evaluation of the particular approach
taken by the group. For example: Based on the results, how could the
experimental procedure be improved? What additional, future work may be
warranted? What recommendations can be drawn?

Conclusions:
The CONCLUSIONS should summarize the central points made in the
Discussion section, reinforcing for the reader the value and implications of the
work. If the results were not definitive, specific future work that may be
needed can be (briefly) described. The conclusions should never contain
"surprises". Therefore, any conclusions should be based on observations and
data already discussed. It is considered extremely bad form to introduce new
data in the conclusions.

References:
The REFERENCES section should contain complete citations following
standard form. The form of the citation depends on the type of source being
referenced, and is different for whole books, chapters in books, and articles
published in a journal. One good format to follow is that used in the Chemical
Engineering Progress journal. The references should be numbered and listed
in the order they were cited in the body of the report. In the text of the report, a
particular reference can be cited by using a numerical superscript that
corresponds to its number in the reference list. If a reference has not been
actually consulted, it should be listed "as discussed in [name of the work that
discussed the reference]".

Research Paper Structure

With the above in mind, you can now focus on structure. Scientific papers are
organized into specific sections and each has a goal. We have listed them
here.
Title
Your title is the most important part of your paper. It draws the reader
in and tells them what you are presenting. Moreover, if you think about
the titles of papers that you might browse in a day and which papers
you actually read, you’ll agree.
The title should be clear and interesting otherwise the reader will not
continue reading.
Authors’ names and affiliations are on the title page.

 Abstract
o The abstract is a summary of your research. It is nearly as
important as the title because the reader will be able to quickly
read through it.
o Most journals, the abstract can become divided into very short
sections to guide the reader through the summaries.
o Keep the sentences short and focused.
o Avoid acronyms and citations.

 Introduction
o Include background information on the subject and your
objectives here.

 Materials and Methods

o Describe the materials used and include the names and
 locations of the manufacturers.
o For any animal studies, include where you obtained the animals
and a statement of humane treatment.
o Clearly and succinctly explain your methods so that it can be
duplicated.
o Criteria for inclusion and exclusion in the study and statistical
analyses should be included.

 Results
o Discuss your findings here.
o Be careful to not make definitive statements.
o Your results suggest that something is or is not true.
o This is true even when your results prove your hypothesis.

 Discussion
o Discuss what your results mean in this section.

 Limitations
o Discuss any study limitations. Suggest additional studies.

 Acknowledgments
o Acknowledge all contributors.

 References
o All citations in the text must have a corresponding reference.
o Check your author guidelines for format protocols.

 Tables and Figures

o In most cases, your tables and figures appear at the end of your
paper or in a separate file.
o The titles (legends) usually become listed after the reference
section.
o Be sure that you define each acronym and abbreviation in each
table and figure.
Citation, Reference Writing in Research Report.
When citing a reference from your reference list, please use the
following conventions. Put in parentheses the author(s) last names, the
year, and optionally the page number(s) separated by commas.
For one author, use the author's last name and year separated by a
comma. For example: (Walters, 1994) or (Austin, 1996).
For two to five authors, use their last names separated by commas and
with an ampersand "&" before the very last name in the list, then the
year separated by a comma. For example: (Li & Crane, 1993) (Charniak,
Riesbeck, McDermott & Meehan, 1994).
For more than five authors, use the first author's last name and "et al."
For example: (Walters, et al., 1992).
For the date, use the year. If there are two references by the same
author(s) for the same year, use letters after the year: (Walters, 1993b).
If there are specific page numbers for a citation, add them after the
year (Walters, 1994, pp. 31-49).
If you include the author's name(s) in the text of a sentence in the
paper, you may omit their names from the parentheses as follows:
"Austin (1996) includes valuable references to ...." or "The examples
given by Li and Crane (1993) on web addresses ...".
Do not use footnotes in this class for citations.
You can use them for explanatory text, but not for references. Have the
citation make it easy to find the reference in the "References" section. All
references in that section should be complete enough for readers to obtain a
copy for themselves.

List of References
Create a list of references, one for each item cited in the paper, in a
section called "References". This section goes at the end of your paper.
The references are to be alphabetized by the fist author's last name, or
(if no author is listed) the organization or title. If you cite more than one
paper by the same first author, sort them by year of publication, earliest
year first. Do not use footnotes for citations.
Single-space the entries in your list of references. Start at the left
margin for the first line of each bibliography entry. Each additional line
of each entry should be indented a reasonable amount. Separate the
entries with a blank line. Do not number the references. Doing so
means you have to renumber all the references whenever you insert a
new reference.