An Overview of a Research Report The Written Report: Purpose and Format The primary purpose of a written report is communication. The research report should be able to tell others what we did and what we found. We need to provide enough information to enable other researchers to make critical evaluations of procedures and a reasonable judgement about the quality of the experiment. We want to provide enough information to enable others to replicate and extend the findings.

Social Psychological papers are written in American Psychological Style. The goal is to provide objective information. Not to entertain the reader, express opinions, or to talk about personal life experiences. Need to be parsimonious-the author attempts to give complete information in as few words as possible Avoid gender and ethnic biased language Avoid language with negative overtones

Major Sections A Descriptive Title An Abstract An Introduction A Methods Section A Results Section A Discussion Section A List of References

Introduction Tells the readers what you are doing and why. Introduces your hypothesis and how you will test it. After reading the introduction the reader should know the following:  What is the problem you are studying?  What does prior literature in the area say about the problem?  What is your hypothesis?  What thinking lead up to that hypothesis?  What is the overall plan for testing the hypothesis?  Do you make any specific predictions about the outcome of the study? State your hypothesis explicitly in your introduction. Introduction should be no longer that two pages.

APA Style General Format Your essay should be typed, double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5 X 11 inches) with margins of 1 inch on all sides. Your final essay should include, in the order indicated below, as many of the following sections as are applicable, each of which should begin on a separate page:

APA Style title page, which includes a running head for publication, title, and by-line and affiliation abstract text: including Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections references appendixes author note footnotes/endnotes tables figure captions figures

Basic APA Style Guidelines I have outlined the major points of APA style that will be important for your paper. Running Head is an abbreviated title and appears in capitals. Title is centred; note that ‘page 1’ starts on the title page. Authors name and institutional affiliation appears below the title..

Margins should be at least one inch on top, bottom, right, and left sides of the page. Abstract appears on a separate page following the title page and the first sentence are not indented. Title on First Page of non-Abstract material must match the title on your cover page exactly. Double spacing must be used throughout the document. Level 1 Headings are centred and consist of both uppercase and lowercase letters. Use these for your major headings, i.e. Introduction, Methods Results, and Discussion

Level 3 Headings are flush left, underlined and consist of uppercase and lowercase letters. Note these typically follow level 1 headings. These are like sub-headings, i.e. within a methods section you will have subheadings: participants, materials, etc. Citations can appear in various forms as presented in this sample outline. Statistical symbols are underlined (i.e. M, SD, t (75)= p<. 05, r=. 67. Decimals that represent correlations are written without the zero placeholder (i.e.,.34 not 0.34)

References are written on a separate page and authors for each citation used in the text is listed alphabetically and the first line is indented for each entry. Reference: Single-Author Book Alverez, A. (1970). The savage god: A study of suicide. New York: Random House. Reference: Book with More than One Author Natarajan, R., & Chaturvedi, R. (1983). Geology of the Indian Ocean. Hartford, CT: University of Hartford Press. Hesen, J., Carpenter, K., Moriber, H., & Milsop, A. (1983). Computers in the business world. Hartford, CT: Capital Press.

Reference: Journals/Periodicals Use inclusive page numbers. Do not use the abbreviations "p." or "pp." Heyman, K. (1997). Talk radio, talk net. Yahoo!, 3, Maddux, K. (1997, March). True stories of the internet patrol. NetGuide Magazine,