Writing your Research Report

Introduction
1. Explain the focus of your research and, if need be, define the idea you are
discussing (you may need to define ‘identity’ for example).

My investigation examined the portrayal of sexism in texts from different

cultures and time periods.

2. Name the texts (and poets/authors/directors/etc) that you used in your research.

3. You should discuss what you expected to find and why you expected that.

I felt that older texts, such as Little Women, would portray sexism as
prevalent in society, whereas more modern texts, such as Bridget Jones’
Diary, would portray a less sexist society. I expected this because of the
changes brought about by the women’s movement in western society in
the last fifty years.

Body Paragraphs

1. Use your Key Questions as headings for each section.

2. The first two questions should be answered with details from the texts and this
will enable you to make judgements.

How does the writer/director use characters to portray sexism in the text?
Give details
from the texts Little Women questions the fairness of gender stereotypes. Jo, at times,
you does not want to be a conventional female. In her desires and her actions,
researched. she fights against typical gender expectations. She wants to earn a living,
for example—a duty conventionally left to men in the 19th Century
American culture. Also, she wears a dress with a burn mark to a party,
which shows she doesn’t care for ‘womanly’ things. Alcott uses Jo’s
character to show how women had to fight against the sexist stereotypes
Make of the times. The fact that the men and other women are shocked by Jo’s
judgements behaviour shows how deep set these stereotypes were in this society. Jo
drawn from eventually settles for the conventional life of marriage, so it seems
your challenging stereotypes was all women could manage in those times.
research

3. Use your final question (which should be about the links between texts –
similarities and points of difference) to make wider judgements about the
portrayal of your chosen idea. You should discuss why these similarities and
differences exist. For example, in the report above you could discuss how the
setting is extremely important to the portrayal of sexism given the rights won by
women in the 20th century. There would also be a difference between texts
drawn from the liberal western world and other, more conservative cultures. It is
easy to see how these basic differences in setting and context could lead to
similar judgements about racism, identity, politics, class, love, etc. These
observations and judgements, if supported by your research on the texts, are
what push the grades up.

4. Bibliography – you must have a bibliography or your report will not be marked.
See the reverse of this page for instructions.
How to compile a bibliography

Because of the nature of different text-types, there are many variations in the way different texts
are recorded within a bibliography. A novel has different requirements from a short story, for
example. Both have different requirements from a film.

Entries need to be ordered alphabetically according to the surnames of the

authors/directors. This is a BASIC requirement of a bibliography.

Punctuation IS important in a bibliography. Take care to use full stops, commas, and colons in the
correct places, as demonstrated in the examples on the page opposite.

As you compile your bibliography, keep in mind what its purpose is: to make your research
process transparent. Your readers should be able to look your sources up if they feel the urge. By
providing a detailed bibliography, you are providing them with the means to do this.

For a novel:
Hill, David. The Name of the Game. Wellington: Mallinson Rendel, 2001.

(ie. Author. Title. City of publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.)

For a short story:

Marshall, Owen. ‘The Tsunami’. In Supper Waltz Wilson and Other Stories. Dunedin: John
McIndoe, 1979. pp 21-34.

(ie. Author. ‘Title’. In Title of the book that the story is published in. City of publication: Publisher,
Year of Publication. Pages on which the story is found.)

For a poem (taken from an anthology):

Adcock, Fleur. ‘For a Five Year-Old’. In An Anthology of New Zealand Poetry in English. Jenny
Bornholdt, Gregory O’Brien and Mark Williams (ed.s). Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1997.
pp 267-268.

(ie. Poet. ‘Title of poem’. In… Title of the book in which

the poem is published. Names of the book’s editors
(ed.s). City of publication: Publisher, Year of
Publication. Page(s) on which the poem is found.)

For a film:
Tamahori, Lee. Once Were Warriors. Communicado, 1994.

(ie. Director. Title of film. Production company, Year of Production.

For a TV programme:
Mulheron, Danny. ‘Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby’. Direct Hit Productions, 2005.

Producer. ‘Title of TV programme’. Production company, Year of Production.

For a website:
The Onion. http://www.theonion.com/. Page accessed on Thursday 5 May, 2005.

(ie. Title of website. Web address. Date on which you accessed the web page.
NB: As websites do not have a particular author, and often the identity of article-writers is not
given, list these at the bottom of your bibliography in alphabetical order according to website title.