Report Writing: Guidelines and Practices

Why Research Report is Important?

For the following reasons, the report and its presentation are important parts of the research project:

 They are the tangible products of the research effort. After the project is complete and management has
made the decision, there is little documentary evidence of the project other than the written report. The
report serves as a historical record of the project.

 Management decisions are guided by the report and the presentation. If the first five steps in the project are
carefully conducted but inadequate attention is paid to the sixth step, the value of the project to management
will be greatly diminished.

 The involvement of many managers in the project is limited to the written report and the oral presentation.
These managers evaluate the quality of the entire project on the quality of the report and presentation.

 Management’s decision to undertake marketing research in the future or to use the particular research
supplier again will be influenced by the perceived usefulness of the report and the presentation.

Considerations while writing research report

A good research report is one which does this task efficiently and effectively. As such it must be prepared
keeping the following precautions in view:

1. While determining the length of the report (since research reports vary greatly in length), one should keep in
view the fact that it should be long enough to cover the subject but short enough to maintain interest. In fact,
report-writing should not be a means to learning more and more about less and less.

2. A research report should not, if this can be avoided, be dull; it should be such as to sustain reader’s interest.

3. Abstract terminology and technical jargon should be avoided in a research report. The report should be able
to convey the matter as simply as possible. This, in other words, means that report should be written in an
objective style in simple language, avoiding expressions such as “it seems,” “there may be” and the like.

1
4. Readers are often interested in acquiring a quick knowledge of the main findings and as such the report must
provide a ready availability of the findings. For this purpose, charts should be used.

5. A report should be written for a specific reader or readers: the marketing decision-makers who will use the
results. The report should take into account the readers’ technical sophistication and interest in the project as
well as the circumstances under which they will read the report and how they will use it. Technical jargon
should be avoided.

6. The report should be easy to follow. It should be structured logically and written clearly. The material,
particularly the body of the report, should be structured in a logical manner so that the reader can easily see the
inherent connections and linkages. Headings should be used for different topics and subheadings for subtopics.
A logical organisation also leads to a coherent report.

7. The look of a report is important. The report should be professionally reproduced with quality paper, typing
and binding. The typography should be varied.

Components of research report

The six components of a research report are as follows: An abstract, introduction, methodology, results,
discussion, and references.

1. Abstract
The abstract is an overview of the research study and is typically two to four paragraphs in length. Think of it
as an executive summary that distills the key elements of the remaining sections into a few sentences. In many
cases, one can determine what is interesting about a study by analyzing the abstract

2. Introduction
The introduction provides the key question that the researcher is attempting to answer and a review of any
literature that is relevant. In addition, the researcher will provide a rationale for why the research is important
and will present a hypothesis that attempts to answer the key question. Lastly, the introduction should
summarize the state of the key question following the completion of the research. For example, are there any
important issues or questions still open?

2
 3. Methodology
The methodology section of the research report is arguably the most important for two reasons. First it allows
readers to evaluate the quality of the research and second, it provides the details by which another researcher
may replicate and validate the findings. Typically the information in the methodology section is arranged in
chronological order with the most important information at the top of each section. Ideally the description of the
methodology doesn’t force one to refer to other documents; however if the author is relying on existing
methods, they will be referenced.

4. Data Analysis

This section contains the data and analysis part. Various tools and software used in analyzing the data is
discussed in this section.

5. Results & Discussion

The discussion section is where the results of the study are interpreted and evaluated against the existing body
or research literature. In addition, anomalies found in the results will be discussed here. Lastly the discussion
section will attempt to connect the results to the bigger picture and show how the results might be applied.
6. References
This section provides a list of each author and paper cited in the research report. Any fact, idea, or direct
quotation used in the report should be cited and referenced.

Example of a format of Research Report

3
 Common Problems encountered while writing research report

 Topic is too broad or too narrow

 Unreliable sources of data

 Formatting issues

 Lack of focus and devotion

 Lack of data interpretation

 Unnecessary use of statistics

 Too much emphasis on packaging

 Lack of relevance

 Too much emphasis on a few statistics

4
  Lack of coherence and objectivity

Report presentation

 The presentation is as important as the written report.

 Need to effectively communicate the research results.

 Often this is the only part of the project that those commissioning the research will see.

 Must be prepared with utmost care

Method to make presentation

There are a number of ways to ‘deliver the goods’ in an oral presentation format:

 No technology, no visuals
 Chalkboards
 Whiteboards
 Flip-charts
 Overhead projector
 PowerPoint
 HTML and Web Pages