Research Report Writing and

Communicating

Chapter 6
 How do you identify the conclusions and
supporting information in a study report?

– Research reports end with researchers drawing conclusions

about the results and the overall study
• Making interpretations about the results
• Evaluating the procedures and results that occurred in the
study
– Typically under the heading Conclusions or Discussion
immediately following the Results section
– Presents information to help make sense of the results
• Often returns to original purpose and research questions
• Discusses the implications of the results
• Discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the study
What are the elements discussed in the Conclusion section?

– Summary of the major results

– Discussion relating the results to the literature
– Personal reflections of the researcher about
the meaning of the research
– Implications for practice
– Limitations of the study
– Future research needs
– The overall significance of the study
Summary of the major results
– Different than the presentation of actual results
– Provides general, rather than specific, information
– Highlights most important results
– Recaps key results in response to each research
question or hypothesis
• Quantitative summary may state whether the hypothesis
was rejected or how the research question was
answered
• Qualitative summary may restate major themes, answer
research questions, or provide general learnings
• Mixed methods and action research studies may include
both types of summaries
Discussion relating the results to the literature

– Interpret how results are similar to, are

different from, and extend ideas already found
in theories or bodies of literature
– Discusses how findings support and/or
contradict results from prior studies
– Often includes explanations as to why results
turned out the way they did based on theory
that guided the development of the research
questions or hypotheses
Personal reflections of the researcher about the meaning of the research

– Common in qualitative and action research

and in some mixed methods research
– Qualitative researchers believe that personal
views can never be kept separate from
interpretations
– May include:
• Hunches and insights
• Reflections on the larger meaning of the findings
 Implications for practice

– Elaborate on the implications for audiences

identified in the statement of the problem
– Reflect how different audiences may benefit
from the results
– Recommend useful actions in response to the
new knowledge that resulted from the study
– May include suggestions that practitioners
might use in their practice settings
 Limitations of the study

– Critical evaluation of research by identifying

potential weaknesses or problems with the
study that may have affected the results
– Useful to other potential researchers who may
choose to conduct a similar study
– Help to judge in what ways a study’s findings
may be limited due to its procedures
 Future research needs

– Suggestions about additional research studies

that need to be conducted
– Often linked to limitations of the current study
– Highlight areas that are unknown and provide
boundaries for using the study’s information
– Help identify important knowledge that is still
missing
 Overall significance of the study

– Ends research report on a positive note

– Includes strong statements of the conclusions
– Provides a wrap-up of :
• What the study accomplished
• What new knowledge was generated
• Why this knowledge is important
What information is included in the back matter of a research report?

– End notes
– References
– Author notes
– Appendices
 End Notes

– Appear after the Conclusion section under a

heading of End Notes or Notes
– Specific notes that researchers include to provide
extra information about specific statements made
within the article’s text
– Usually indicate their use of end notes by a
superscript number at the end of a sentence
within the article text
– Superscript number informs you which end note
you should read to learn more about the point that
the author is trying to make
 References
– Appear after the conclusion section under a
heading of references
– Includes detailed information about all the sources
used in writing the report
• List is complete
• Prepared with a good style
• Includes accurate information
– Review references to
• Determine if researchers included current references
from good (i.e., journal) sources
• Help you more easily identify and locate other studies on
your topic that may be of interest
 Formatting References

– Format and ordering of the references in the

list depends on the style used
– In educational research reports, references
are usually listed in alphabetical order based
on the last names of the first author
– Some reports that list the references in the
order in which they appear within the reports’
text
 Author notes

– Identifies the researchers who conducted the study

and the context for the research study
• How to contact the author
• What agency funded the study
• Who the author thanks for assisting with the study
– May appear under different headings at the end of a
research article before and/or after the references list
• Author information
• Funding
• Acknowledgements
– Variation in format and headings are determined by
the journal
 Appendices

– Detailed information to supplement the main

report
• Examples of questions used during data collection
• Details about or examples of data analysis
procedures
– If more than one appendix, they are identified
by letters (Appendix A, Appendix B)
– New trend is to include appendix information
as an online supplement
The End