Writing Research Reports  Writing from research requires that you recognize your audience use an effective style, appropriate to your reader and purpose use effective formatting techniques for reader-friendly ease of access.

Criteria for Research Writing  Audience: are your readers high-tech, low- tech, or lay?  Style: research reports should be more formal than other types of writing.  Format: reader-friendly ease of access is accomplished through highlighting techniques

Effective Formatting  Overall organization introduction, discussion, and conclusion  Internal organization problem/solution; comparison/contrast; analysis; cause/effect  Parenthetical source citations  Works cited documentation of sources

The Research Process  Select a general topic.  Spot-check sources of information.  Establish a focus. I want to discover the uses, impact on employment, and expenses of robotics applications.  Research your topic.

The Research Process  Read researched materials and take notes. Summarize Paraphrase Quote  Isolate the main points.  Write a statement of purpose. The purpose of this report is to reveal the future for this exciting product, which depends on further progress of technology, the development of easily accessible and cost-efficient materials, and industry’s need for the final product.

The Research Process  Create an outline. Review your research. Organize the report effectively.  Write the report. Introduction: arouse interest and provide statement of purpose

Writing the Report  Discussion: use quotes and paraphrases to develop content Make a statement Support this with a quotation or paraphrase Provide a follow-up explanation of the referenced material’s significance

Writing the Report  Conclusion/Recommendations Summarize your findings Draw a conclusion about the significance of these discoveries Recommend future action

Citing Sources  “Works Cited” is the final page of your report and provides an alphabetized list of your research sources.  To document research correctly, you must provide parenthetical source citations supply a works cited page using Modern Language Association (MLA) style

Citing Sources  Document sources correctly. Direct your readers to the sources you have used. Do not plagiarize. Quotations must be exactly the same as the original. An incorrectly altered quotation constitutes plagiarism. Intentionally using another person’s words without citations is theft.

Parenthetical Source Citations  After the quotation or paraphrase, parenthetically cite the author’s last name and the page number of the information. “Viewing the molecular activity required state-of-the-art electron microscopes” (Heinlein 193). Note that the period follows the parenthesis, no comma separates the name from the page number, and no lowercase p precedes the number.

Parenthetical Source Citations  If your source has no author, parenthetically cite the shortened title and page number. “Robots are more accurate and less prone to errors caused by long hours of operation than humans” (“Useful Robots” 81).

Revising and Editing  Add new detail for clarity and/or persuasiveness.  Delete dead words and phrases and researched information that does not support your ideas effectively.  Simplify your words for easy understanding.  Move information within your report to ensure effective organization.  Reformat your text for reader-friendly ease of access.  Correct any errors.