Report Writing

Purpose and Methodology

P Sunthar
Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay
What is Research?
● Write down your viewpoint
● Research is
○ Gather information to answer a question
○ Share information

Question? Gather Data Answer.

Share

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Why Write?
Question? Gather Data Answer.
Share

● Write to Remember
○ as and when you do the work, read literature
● Write to Understand
○ see connectivity in larger patterns
○ discover new implications
○ find complications/limitations
● Write to Test Your Thinking
○ compelling beliefs (in minds) to organised arguments (on paper)
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Origin of our Beliefs
● Do you believe America exists?
● Do you believe there is aether in between Sun and Earth?

Trustworthy Information
● Trust on careful research
● Trust on accurate report
● Trust on teachers (textbooks) delivery

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Why Formal Reporting?
● Suppressing individuality by conforming?
○ No, standard methods (of writing) widen thinking and individuality
● Conforming to community standards, builds trust
○ Circles of Trust:
■ Lab -> Topical (Journal) Community -> Wider discipline
● Underlying philosophy
○ Scientific Method
○ Fairly uniform report structure
■ Abstract, Intro, Methods, Results, Conclusion

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Scientific Method
Observation
Question Answer
Question

Topic Claim
Literature

Question Reason
Hypothesis

Significance Evidence
Prediction
& Test

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Planning an Answer
● Propose Working Answers/Hypothesis
○ Tentative solutions
○ Write your answers (in detail)
○ What evidence is required to support ? (Expts/Theory)
○ Don’t get infatuated by your working hypothesis. It could be wrong!
○ No W. Hypothesis ? Consider modifying question.
○ Bounce off answer with working group, supervisor.
● For each Hypothesis/Claim: Build Storyboard
○ Write down: Claim, Reason, Possible Evidence

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Building a Storyboard

Booth et. al (2008)

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The “Write” Order
1. Methods, Results
○ During your research
2. Guiding Drafts
○ Abstract
○ Introduction
3. Discussion, and Conclusions
○ After selecting target journal
4. Introduction, Abstract and Title
○ At the end!

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Methodology
● Why?
○ Community should be able to reproduce
○ Recall, building trust?
● Accurate description of materials, equipment
○ Purity, Source, Model, etc
● Background theory, model, assumptions
● Analysis procedure
○ How raw results (experiments, simulations) are
processed
● Provide reference to established methodology

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Structure of an Answer (Results)
Start with data: Plot, image, table, equation proof, etc.
● Claim or Thesis: What is your answer ?
● Reason: Why should I believe that ?
● Evidence: How do you know that ?
● Acknowledgement and Response: But what about others’
view?
1. I claim that _________
2. because of _________ (reason)
3. which is based on _________ (evidence)
4. Though the current view is ______________ (ackw), I show that
_______ (response).

Repeat this for each independent data 11

Planning an Argument (Discussion)
Recall: Claim, Reason, Evidence
● Write out possible questions/objections from readers
● Questions inside the argument
○ Reasons: inconsistent/contradictory, insufficient, weak, irrelevant
○ Evidence: unreliable, inaccurate, insufficient, unrelated
● Ask colleagues, friends, advisor to object.

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Working Introduction
Write Introduction Twice:
1. Sketchy, for guiding your writing
2. Final, for readers
● Current Situation
a. What your readers think or know now ?
b. Literature review (chief sources)
c. Motivation
● Research Question
a. Disruptive to current situation. We know . . . but . . . ?
b. What we don’t understand ?
● Significance of Question: So what if we don’t know?
● Answer: Your primary claim.

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Structure of a Question
Problem Definition [Booth et al., 2008]
● Topic: Name/Area/Title
● Question: Who/What/Where/When/Why/How ?
● Practical or Conceptual Significance: So What ? For understanding What ?

1. I am working on _______________ (topic)

2. because I want to find out _________________ (why/what/how etc.)
3. in order to [apply/understand] __________ (significance).

I am working on lipid surfactants, because I want to find out what causes a particular
size selection of lipid vesicles, in order to understand how to use these capsules for
delivering cancer drugs.
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Importance of Keywords
● Unites the paper
● Should be repeated in critical sections (Abstract, Introduction,
Results, Conclusion)
● Using Keywords
○ Circle words from claim
○ Use same words not variations (alternate meanings)
○ Ignore title words
○ One term for a concept (reason)

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Revising a Draft
● Rewriting Introduction
○ Expand Current Situation with detailed literature review
○ Use rejected hypothesis. It might be expected that . . . , but
○ Revisit keywords usage
● Writing the Conclusion
○ Restate your claim (further expanded)
○ Relate briefly to reasons and evidences
○ Ensure new keywords are included
○ State a new significance or practical application
● Re-write Abstract
● Write your title last

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 Summary of Writing Order

Guiding Guiding Final Final

Methodology Results Discussion Introduction Abstract
Abstract Introduction

Title

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Bibliography
● Kate L. Turabian, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M.
Williams. Student’s Guide to Writing College Papers. The
University of Chicago Press, 4 edition, 2010.
● Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams.
The Craft of Research. The University of Chicago Press, 3
edition, 2008.

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