Writing the Research Report

The formats of research reports, theses, and dissertations vary from

school to school; however, they tend to follow the general format explained here.

Front Materials
The front materials typically include the following items:

Title page
Copyright page
Abstract
Acknowledgments
Table of contents
Table of appendixes
List of tables
List of figures
 Chapter 1: Nature and Background of the
study

This chapter should introduce the reader to the nature of the study and
present some discussion on the background. It should contain
the following information:

Introduction
Statement of the problem
Background of the problem
Rationale for the study
Research questions and/or hypotheses
Objectives of the study
Limitations, and delimitations
Definitions of terms
 Writing the Research Report

INTRODUCTION
The introduction serves the purpose of leading the reader from a general subject area to a
particular field of research. It establishes the context of the research being conducted by
summarizing current understanding and background information about the topic, stating the
purpose of the work in the form of the hypothesis, question, or research problem, briefly
explaining your rationale, methodological approach, highlighting the potential outcomes
your study can reveal, and describing the remaining structure of the paper.

Think of the introduction as a mental road map that must answer for the reader these four
questions:
What was I studying?
Why was this topic important to investigate?
What did we know about this topic before I did this study?
How will this study advance our knowledge?
 Writing the Research Report

A well-written introduction is important because, quite simply, you never get a second
chance to make a good first impression.

The opening paragraph of your paper will provide your readers with their initial
impressions about the logic of your argument, your writing style, the overall quality of your
research, and, ultimately, the validity of your findings and conclusions. A vague,
disorganized, or error-filled introduction will create a negative impression, whereas, a
concise, engaging, and well-written introduction will start your readers off thinking highly
of your analytical skills, your writing style, and your research approach.
 Writing the Research Report

STATEMENT of the PROBLEM

A statement of the problem is used in research work as a claim that outlines the problem
addressed by a study. The statement of the problem briefly addresses the question: What is
the problem that the research will address?

What are the goals of a statement of the problem?

The ultimate goal of a statement of the problem is to transform a generalized problem
(something that bothers you; a perceived lack) into a targeted, well-defined problem; one that
can be resolved through focused research and careful decision-making.

Writing a statement of the problem should help you clearly identify the purpose of the
research project you will propose. Often, the statement of the problem will also serve as the
basis for the introductory section of your final proposal, directing your reader’s attention
quickly to the issues that your proposed project will address and providing the reader with
a concise statement of the proposed project itself.

A statement of problem need not be long and elaborate: one page is more than enough for a
good statement of problem.
 Writing the Research Report
What are the key characteristics of a statement of the problem?

A good research problem should have the following characteristics:

It should address a gap in knowledge.

It should be significant enough to contribute to the existing body of research

It should lead to further research.

The problem should render itself to investigation through collection of data.

It should be of interest to the researcher and suit his/her skills, time, and resources

The approach towards solving the problem should be ethical.

 Writing the Research Report

What is the format for writing a statement of the problem?

A persuasive statement of problem is usually written in three parts:

Part A (The ideal): Describes a desired goal or ideal situation; explains how things should be.

Part B (The reality): Describes a condition that prevents the goal, state, or value in Part A
from being achieved or realized at this time; explains how the current situation falls short
of the goal or ideal.

Part C (The consequences): Identifies the way you propose to improve the current situation and
move it closer to the goal or ideal.
 Writing the Research Report
EXAMPLE:

Part A (The ideal):

Statement 1
The Ministry of Youth is dedicated to allocating enterprise development funds to both the
youth and women. These funds are made available in order to start entrepreneurial ventures
that create and expand employment. (Provide relevant statistics and quote)

Part B (The reality):

Statement 2
One of the main focuses of the ministry is consistency. Unfortunately, consistency in
allocating funds to the next generation of recipients requires prior knowledge of previous
allocations and established practices. The current continuous disbursement method does not
allow for adequate analysis of previous disbursements before a current disbursement is done.
 Writing the Research Report

Part C (The consequences):

Statement 3
Continuing with this current disbursement method prevents consistency and causes decisions
to become grossly political, which in turn inhibits the achievement of the goals of the funds.
Developing a more informed disbursement system could help better implement the consistency
focus of the ministry and at the same time help the ministry better monitor and evaluate its
funds.
This proposed research aspires to explore options for a new funds disbursement system that
would focus on consistency. To do this, the researcher will carry out a full stakeholder
analysis and use it to propose appropriate policy interventions.
 Writing the Research Report
Sample statement of a problem
An established trend in the small business start-up financing in Kenya is to establish funds.
Some of these funds include the youth fund and women fund. These funds have helped improve
the rate of start-ups in the country. However, after the start-up stage, the ventures start
developing problems. First, they face problems in management which lead to a marketing
problem and eventually to stagnation and early exit.

A study by the Institute of Development Studies (RoK, 2004) revealed that only 38% of the
businesses are expanding while 58% have not added workers. According to the survey, more
enterprises are likely to close in their first three years of operation. Four years later the
same institute conducted another study in Central Kenya. This study revealed that 57% of
small businesses are in stagnation with only 33% of them showing some level of growth.

In our current project, we propose to examine factors that have an impact on small business
sustainability. We will employ both qualitative and quantitative approaches to gather both
primary and secondary data and information with the objective of determining success
factors for the growth of small business in Kenya.

Specifically, we shall employ the product life cycle (PLC) model to identify the needs of a
small business at the various stages of the PLC.
 Writing the Research Report

BACKGROUND of the PROBLEM

Background information identifies and describes the history and nature of a well-defined research
problem with reference to the existing literature. The background information should indicate the root
of the problem being studied, appropriate context of the problem in relation to theory, research,
and/or practice, its scope, and the extent to which previous studies have successfully investigated the
problem, noting, in particular, where gaps exist that your study attempts to address. Background
information does not replace the literature review section of a research paper; it is intended to place
the research problem in a proper context.

Background information expands upon the key points stated in the beginning of your introduction but
is not intended to be the main focus of the paper. It generally supports the question, what did we know
about this topic before I did this study? Sufficient background information helps your reader
determine if you have a basic understanding of the research problem being investigated and promotes
confidence in the overall quality of your analysis and findings. This information provides the reader
with the essential context needed to understand the research problem and its significance before
moving on to the literature review.
 Writing the Research Report

RATIONALE for the STUDY

The rationale of your research is the reason for conducting the study. The rationale should
answer the need for conducting the said research. It is a very important part of your
publication as it justifies the significance and novelty of the study. That is why it is also
referred to as the justification of the study. Ideally, your research should be structured as
observation, rationale, hypothesis, objectives, methods, results and conclusions.

To write your rationale, you should first write a background on what all research has been
done on your study topic. Follow this with ‘what is missing’ or ‘what are the open questions of
the study’. Identify the gaps in the literature and emphasize why it is important to address
those gaps. This will form the rationale of your study. The rationale should be followed by a
hypothesis and objectives.
 Writing the Research Report

RESEARCH QUESTIONS and/or HYPOTHESES

For an investigator conducting a study, the research question or hypothesis is a key
preliminary step in the research process. The research question (sometimes called the problem
statement) presents the idea that is to be examined in the study and is the foundation of the
research study.

A research question should be as specific as possible. In some cases, you may make two or more
research questions to cover a complex topic. For example, if you are studying the effects of
sleep on reflexes, you might formulate the following research question:
What are the effects of sleep on reflexes?
A similar question might be:
Does sleep have an effect on reflexes?
Or:
Is maximum reflex efficiency achieved after eight hours of sleep?

The goal of your research is to find the answer to the research question.
 Writing the Research Report

A hypothesis is a statement that can be proved or disproved. A research question can be made
into a hypothesis by changing it into a statement. For example, the third research question
previously can be made into the hypothesis:
Maximum reflex efficiency is achieved after eight hours of sleep.
 Writing the Research Report

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Research objectives describe concisely what the research is trying to achieve. They summarize
the accomplishments a researcher wishes to achieve through the project and provides
direction to the study. A research objective must be achievable, i.e., it must be framed keeping
in mind the available time, infrastructure required for research, and other resources. Before
forming a research objective, you should read about all the developments in your area of
research and find gaps in knowledge that need to be addressed. This will help you come up
with suitable objectives for your research project.
 Writing the Research Report

LIMITATIONS, and DELIMITATIONS

The limitations of the study are those characteristics of design or methodology that
impacted or influenced the interpretation of the findings from your research. They are the
constraints on generalizability, applications to practice, and/or utility of findings that are
the result of the ways in which you initially chose to design the study or the method used to
establish internal and external validity or the result of unanticipated challenges that
emerged during the study.
Keep in mind that acknowledgment of a study's limitations is an opportunity to make
suggestions for further research. If you do connect your study's limitations to suggestions
for further research, be sure to explain the ways in which these unanswered questions may
become more focused because of your study.
Acknowledgment of a study's limitations also provides you with an opportunity to
demonstrate that you have thought critically about the research problem, understood the
relevant literature published about it, and correctly assessed the methods chosen for
studying the problem. A key objective of the research process is not only discovering new
knowledge but to also confront assumptions and explore what we don't know.
 Writing the Research Report

Claiming limitations is a subjective process because you must evaluate the impact of those
limitations. Don't just list key weaknesses and the magnitude of a study's limitations. To do so
diminishes the validity of your research because it leaves the reader wondering whether, or
in what ways, limitation(s) in your study may have impacted the results and conclusions.
Limitations require a critical, overall appraisal and interpretation of their impact. You
should answer the question: do these problems with errors, methods, validity, etc. eventually
matter and, if so, to what extent?

All studies have limitations. However, it is important that you restrict your discussion to
limitations related to the research problem under investigation. For example, if a meta-
analysis of existing literature is not a stated purpose of your research, it should not be
discussed as a limitation. Do not apologize for not addressing issues that you did not promise
to investigate in the introduction of your paper.
 Writing the Research Report

Delimitations are in essence the limitations consciously set by the authors themselves. They
are concerned with the definitions that the researchers decide to set as the boundaries or
limits of their work so that the study’s aims and objectives do not become impossible to
achieve. In this respect, it can be argued that delimitations are in the researcher’s control.
Thus, delimitations are mainly concerned with the study’s theoretical background, objectives,
research questions, variables under study and study sample. The alternatives to these and
reasons for rejecting them, e.g. the particular sampling technique chosen out of many
available, should be clearly presented so that the reader is fully informed.

Delimitations are more specific than the scope of the study but in essence similar.
 Writing the Research Report

DEFINITION of TERMS
Terms that the researcher feels the reader has little knowledge, if not knowledgeable,
should be listed and be defined. Mainly the terms are of scientific in nature, or more
technical leaning on to the researcher’s intelligence. This part of the research should be
left out, for it will guide the reader in understanding the research.
 Chapter 2: Review of Literature
This chapter should explain what has been done in previous
research related to the study. It should contain the following
information:

Prior research
Review of Related literature
 Writing the Research Report

PRIOR RESEARCH
Prior study should be written first before the literature of the research. Recent studies,
conducted, documented, and published should be given a sort of credit. It the researcher has
found out that there are several studies, documented and published, before his study, they
should be listed, with, the title of the study, the date of publication, and the author’s name,
and be given a short description of what has been done on each of the prior studies. These
prior studies should be at the least about 70% related to the researcher’s study. Prior
research must, at the oldest, be 10 years to the time of the conduction of a researcher’ study.
 Writing the Research Report

RELATED LITERATURE
A literature review is a comprehensive summary of previous research on a topic. The
literature review surveys scholarly articles, books, and other sources relevant to a
particular area of research. The review should enumerate, describe, summarize, objectively
evaluate and clarify this previous research. It should give a theoretical base for the
research and help you (the author) determine the nature of your research. The literature
review acknowledges the work of previous researchers, and in so doing, assures the reader
that your work has been well conceived. It is assumed that by mentioning a previous work in
the field of study, that the author has read, evaluated, and assimiliated that work into the
work at hand.

A literature review creates a "landscape" for the reader, giving her or him a full
understanding of the developments in the field. This landscape informs the reader that the
author has indeed assimilated all (or the vast majority of) previous, significant works in the
field into her or his research.
 Writing the Research Report

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

"In writing the literature review, the purpose is to convey to the reader what knowledge and
ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. The
literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g. your research objective, the
problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a
descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries.”

Scholarly articles, books, magazines, and journals should be acknowledged right after the
literature from the aforementioned source. The title of the book, author, and year of
publication must be enclosed in parentheses. For example, (Animals, Smith, 2011). Or it the
literature is from a scholarly article, the author’s surname and the year of publication is
more than enough, e.g. (Matthison, 2015).
 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY
This chapter should explain how the study was conducted.
It should contain the following information:

Development of questionnaires, tests, survey

instruments, etc.
Definition of the population
Sampling methods used
How the data were collected
Research design used
Statistical tests that will be used to analyze the data
 Chapter 4: ANALYSIS OF DATA
This chapter should explain the results of the statistical
analysis of the data. It should state whether the null
hypothesis should be rejected. Any statistical tables used
to analyze the data should be included here.
Chapter 5: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS and
RECOMMENDATIONS
This chapter summarizes the results of the study and
explains any conclusions that have resulted from the
statistical analysis of the data. The researchers should
cite and explain any shortcomings of the study.
Recommendations obtained from the study should be
included here, and further studies should be suggested.