Traditional written reports tend to be produced in the following format.

Title Page

This contains the title of the report, the name of the researcher and the date of publication. If the report is a dissertation or thesis, the title page will include details about the purpose of the report, for example ‘A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy’. If the research has been funded by a particular organisation, details of this may be included on the title page.

Contents Page

In this section is listed the contents of the report, either in chapter or section headings with sub-headings, if relevant and their page numbers.

List of Illustrations

This section includes title and page number of all graphs, tables, illustrations, charts, etc.

Acknowledgements

Some researchers may wish to acknowledge the help of their research participants, tutors, employers and/or funding body.

Abstract/Summary

This tends to be a one page summary of the research, its purpose, methods, main findings and conclusion.

Introduction

This section introduces the research, setting out the aims and objectives, terms and definitions. It includes a rationale for the research and a summary of the report structure.

Background

In this section is included all your background research, which may be obtained from the literature, from personal experience or both. You must indicate from where all the information to which you refer has come, so remember to keep a complete record of everything you read. If you do not do this, you could be accused of plagiarism which is a form of intellectual theft. When you are referring to a particular book or journal article, find out the accepted standard for referencing from your institution.

Methodology and Methods

In this section is set out a description of, and justification for, the chosen methodology and research methods. The length and depth of this section will depend upon whether you are a student or employee. If you are an undergraduate student you will need to raise some of the methodological and theoretical issues pertinent to your work, but if you are a postgraduate student you will need also to be aware of the epistemological and ontological issues involved. If you are an employee you may only need to provide a description of the methods you used for your research, in which case this section can be titled ‘Research Methods’. Remember to include all the practical information people will need to evaluate your work, for example, how many people took part, how they were chosen, your time scale and data recording and analysis methods.

Findings/Analysis

In this section are included your main findings. The content of this section will depend on your chosen methodology and methods. If you have conducted a large quantitative survey, this section may contain tables, graphs, pie charts and associated statistics. If you have conducted a qualitative piece of research this section may be descriptive prose containing lengthy quotations.

Conclusion

In this section you sum up your findings and draw conclusions from them, perhaps in relation to other research or literature.

Recommendations

Some academic reports will not need this section. However, if you are an employee who has conducted a piece of research for your company, this section could be the most important part of the report. It is for this reason that some written reports contain the recommendation section at the beginning of the report. In this section is set out a list of clear recommendations which have been developed from your research.

Further Research

It is useful in both academic reports and work-related reports to include a section which shows how the research can be continued. Perhaps some results are inconclusive, or perhaps the research has thrown up many more research questions which need to be addressed. It is useful to include this section because it shows that you are aware of the wider picture and that you are not trying to cover up something which you feel may be lacking from your own work.

References

Small research projects will need only a reference section. This includes all the literature to which you have referred in your report. Find out which referencing system your college or university uses. A popular method is the Harvard system which lists the authors’ surnames alphabetically, followed by their initials, date of publication, title of book in italics, place of publication and publisher. If the reference is a journal article, the title of the article appears in inverted commas and the name of the journal appears in italics, followed by the volume number and pages of the article.

Bibliography

Larger dissertations or theses will require both a reference section and a bibliography. As discussed above, the reference section will include all those publications to which you have referred to in your report. If, however, you have read other work in relation to your research but not actually referred to them when writing up your report, you might wish to include them in a bibliography. However, make sure they are still relevant to your work – including books to make your bibliography look longer and more impressive is a tactic which won’t impress examiners.

Appendices

If you have constructed a questionnaire for your research, or produced an interview schedule or a code of ethics, it may be useful to include them in your report as an appendix. In general, appendices do not count towards your total amount of words so it is a useful way of including material without taking up space that can be used for other information. However, do not try filling up your report with irrelevant appendices as this will not impress examiners. When including material you must make sure that it is relevant – ask yourself whether the examiner will gain a deeper understanding of your work by reading the appendix. If not, leave it out. Other information which could be included as an appendix are recruitment leaflets or letters; practical details about each research participant; sample transcripts (if permission has been sought); list of interview dates; relevant tables and graphs or charts which are too bulky for the main report.