How to Write a Research Report
Research report writing is an integral part of the educational process. This article will tell you how to be good at it! Have more questions? Contact us anytime!
Learn how to write a research report in just 4 minutes with an ultimate guide from OZessay.
A research report is a result of a scientific investigation, a brief explanation of the research conducted. A research report is used to tell your instructor or fellow scientists about the process of investigation, your findings and the importance of your research work. If you need to write a high school research report or a college one, you may find useful the following information.
To write a clear research report students should adhere to the guidelines of academic writing. Proper research report structure ensures that the information is interpreted in the right manner.
Parts of Research Report | Step by Step Guide on How to Write a Report on a Research Paper
How to write a report on research? Let’s take a closer look at what each part of research report contains.
The body is the most important part of research report structure that consists of 4 main sections:
- Introduction
- Findings
- Conclusions
- Recommendations
When you think of research report steps, the first one you should start your writing with is the body. Write these 4 parts first before the rest of the paper.
Here is a table containing all parts of a research report and a brief description to each of them:
| # | Research Report Sections/ Parts | What Is Written in Research Report Section |
| 1 | Title Page | It contains a title, the name of the author, submission date. |
| 2 | Contents | They contain a list of sections, subsections, etc. |
| 3 | Executive Summary or Abstract | It is an overview of the research. Usually, it consists of two to four paragraphs in length. An abstract is a kind of hook that aims to capture your reader’s attention. |
| 4 | Introduction of Research Report | The Introduction contains the information on the key question of a research report and is divided into 4 components: Purpose, Background, Methods of Investigation, Scope. Usually, it is written in present or past tenses with format-numbered headings. Let’s figure out what to write in each of these components of a research report. |
| 4.1 | Purpose | It specifies the objectives of a given report. This part includes also the information on what a research report recommends. |
| 4.2 | Background | It describes the situation or issue which caused the investigation. This part refers to secondary resources, for example, newspaper reports. In other words, it may refer to the findings obtained by other researchers. |
| 4.3 | The Method of Investigation or Methodology of Research Report | It tells about the ways the research was conducted and is usually called primary data as it is discovered by the author of the paper. |
| 4.4 | Scope | The Scope describes all the areas of research conducted. It may include reasons and consequences. |
| 5 | Findings and Results | They are aimed to summarize, analyze and comment the facts and information obtained during the research. You shouldn’t include too much information not to bury the most important results. Don’t try to interpret or evaluate the facts and better provide a link to the conclusion section to discuss your findings there. |
| 6 | Research Report Conclusion | The Conclusion contains deductions based on your findings, and logically leads to the last body section of the research report called Recommendations. |
| 7 | Recommendations | They are the assumptions and suggestions based on the research report conclusions. This part shows how the findings might be applied. |
| 8 | References and Bibliography | They provide a list of authors and papers cited in the report. Be sure to follow the format through the entire paper if you need MLA, Chicago, Harvard, or APA style research report. If you are writing a research report APA Style Free Referencing Tool will be of great use to you. |
How to Compile a Research Report: Qualitative or Quantitative?
You’ve read how to write a research report together with an overview of the structure of research report writing. Note that there are two types of research and research papers and two types of research reports respectively:
- Qualitative Research
- Quantitative Research
If you are searching for the information on how to write a qualitative research report, you first need to find out the difference between a qualitative and quantitative research.
Qualitative research is used to obtain the data such as opinions, thoughts, reasons, etc. It helps ensure the investigation of potential qualitative data.
Quantitative research is aimed to generate numerical data or transform the gathered information into statistics.
OZessay writing team hopes that you find the above information helpful. Research report writing is a broad topic and in case you need to know more, for example, about report writing research methodology, contact us anytime.