Preparation of

Report and Report

Writing
Chapter 6
Report writing
• Research report is a condensed form or a brief
description of the research work done by the
researcher.
• It involves several steps to present the report
in the form of thesis for dissertation
• It is the outcome of the scientific
investigation and its purpose to convey
information obtained in the report to reader or
audience
Types of
report
• Technical and scientific reports communicate research findings
to experts and professionals in a particular field.
• Characteristics:
• These reports include technical jargon, detailed methodologies, and
in-depth analysis.
• They often have a standardized format for peer review.
• Example: An example of a technical research report would be a
report explaining the results of a laboratory experiment that
investigated the heat conductivity of various materials.
Popular reports
• Popular reports are designed for a general audience and aim to
inform, educate, or entertain on a wide range of topics.
• Characteristics:
• Includes clear and jargon-free language
• Uses storytelling, visuals, and anecdotes to engage readers
• Prioritizes readability over deep analysis.
• Example: A user-friendly science report on recent black hole
discoveries is an example of a popular report. It explained how the
black holes form, what they are like, and why they matter in the
universe. This report is for people interested in astronomy without
deep scientific expertise.
Market Research reports
• Market research reports provide insights into consumer
behavior, market trends, and industry analysis.
• Characteristics:
• Includes market surveys, competitor analysis, and consumer
demographics.
• Helps businesses in making strategic decisions.
• Example: An example of a market research report would be a
report on the global organic food market, including consumer
preferences, market segmentation, and growth projections for
the next five years.
Case-study reports
• Case study reports focus on an in-depth examination of a single
entity, often to explore complex, real-life situations.
• Characteristics:
• Includes detailed descriptions of the case, data collection methods,
and analysis.
• Common in business and psychology fields.
• Example: A report that includes an examination of the success
factors and challenges faced by a tech startup during its initial
growth phase is an example of a business case study report.
Analytical research reports
• Analytical research reports involve a deep analysis of data to
uncover patterns, trends, or relationships.
• Characteristics:
• Uses statistical tools and software to analyze data comprehensively
• Common in fields like economics and social sciences.
• Example: A financial report analyzing the performance of a
portfolio of stocks over a five-year period, including risk
assessment and trend analysis, is a detailed analytical report
example.
Review or literature survey
reports
• Literature review reports provide an overview of existing
research on a specific topic, highlighting gaps and trends.
• Characteristics:
• Synthesizes findings from various sources and provides a historical
context
• Often offers recommendations for future research.
• Example: A report summarizing existing research on climate
change, highlighting key findings, and identifying gaps in current
knowledge is an example of a literature review report.
Experimental Research Reports
• Experimental research reports involve controlled experiments to test
hypotheses and determine if the results support or reject the
hypothesis.
• Characteristics:
• Uses random sampling and control groups to minimize bias.
• Includes detailed descriptions of the experiment, hypothesis, methods, and
statistical analyses.
• Example: A psychology research report investigating the effects of
sleep deprivation on cognitive performance, with one group deprived
of sleep and another allowed normal sleep, is a clear example of an
experimental research report.
9. Descriptive Research Reports

• Descriptive research reports aim to provide a comprehensive

picture of a phenomenon, group, or situation. They seek to
answer the “what” and “how” questions.
• Characteristics:
• Typically, it relies on observations, surveys, and content analysis.
• Focuses on describing and summarizing data.
• Example: A report describing the distribution of endangered
species in a specific national park based on field observations is
an example of a descriptive research report
Exploratory Research Reports
• Exploratory research reports are conducted when there is little
prior knowledge about a subject. They aim to identify key
variables and research questions.
• Characteristics:
• Involves open-ended interviews, focus groups, and literature reviews.
• Findings are preliminary, serving as a basis for further research.
• Example: An example of an exploratory research report would be
a report that a newly established company creates to
investigate the potential factors influencing employee turnover.
Explanatory Research report
• Explanatory research reports seek to understand the
relationships between variables and explain why certain
phenomena occur.
• Characteristics:
• Uses experimental designs, surveys, and statistical analyses.
• Provides in-depth insights into the research problem.
• Example: A report explores the relationship between smoking
habits and lung cancer incidence in a population using a
longitudinal study and statistical analyses. This is an example of
an explanatory research report.
Policy or white paper
• Policy or white papers aim to inform policymakers,
stakeholders, and the public about specific issues and
recommend actions.
• Characteristics:
• Presents research findings in a concise and accessible manner
• Often consists of policy recommendations.
• Example: An example of a policy research report is a policy
paper on renewable energy adoption, outlining the
environmental and economic benefits. It may also include
recommendations on incentives for clean energy initiatives.
Source
• https://www.educba.com/types-of-research-
reports/
General guidelines for report
writing
• There is no hard and fast rule for writing
research report . Thus we cannot state the
specific method for writing report because
report writing differs as per the nature of
research individual understanding of
researcher. Even though, there is no exact rule
but most of the researchers prepare research
report considering the following procedures
• Preparation of outline
• Time planning
• Management of data
• Start of writing report
• Prepare the first draft
• Put the report for some time
• Review and rewrite
Preparation of outline
• It is better to prepare outline before starting
the writing work rather than observing to own
work and collected data. It directs to the
researcher to manage the materials in proper
way. it clarifies the matters to be presented
in the report as well as the interrelationship
of each other
Time planning
• A researcher has to complete the research work
within prescribed time. So, the researcher
should present professionalism. Researcher has
to plan the time for every work like time for
literature review, data collection, data
processing, report writing etc. Time planning
helps to the researcher to complete works in
time
Management of data
• Data are collected from various sources and
that is in raw and unmanaged form. Thus, the
researcher should process data in a meaningful
way. Management of data eases to the researcher
in the analysis of data. The researcher
analyses the data using various statistical
tools so that the valid and reliable results
can be drawn.
Start of writing report
• Researcher starts his/her report writing from
introduction of topic and reaches to the
conclusions. Research report is classified as
preliminary section, main and subsidiary or
auxiliary part. Researcher may start writing
any part of the report as per his/her interest.
Prepare the first draft
• It is very difficult to produce excellent
report to the professional writer too in the
first attempt itself. Thus, the researcher,
first of all should prepare a rough sketch of
the report. It is the skeleton of the report.
Researcher improves in first draft later
reviewing the report .Review of report helps to
develop excellent report.
Put the report for some time
• It is suggested that the researcher should
forget the research report for some time .
After a certain period of time, he /she should
review it. Such review is just like a fresh
review by new person that helps to find and
correct the errors or weaknesses. This work
helps to develop concrete report.
Review and rewrite
• Researcher reviews the first draft in this step
at first. Researcher can find out errors and
weaknesses in the report after reviewing it and
prepares report improving such errors and
weaknesses. Such report is final report and
final report is presented to concerned persons
or instutions.
Format of marketing research
report
• Research report may vary as per the need and
nature of the research. So there is no any
fixed rule or format of the research report.
Even though, an outline is used to make
systematic and easily understandable to the
report . Students have to prepare report in the
format as prescribed by the university
otherwise it may be rejected. Generally,
following format is used while writing research
report
A. Preliminary Part B. Body of the Report Supplementary Section

1. Title page 1. Introductions 1. Reference materials

2. Recommendation sheet 2. Review of literatures or bibliography
3. Viva –voce sheet 3. Research Methodology 2. Appendix
4. Acknowledgement 4. Data and presentation
5. Executive &Analysis
summary/synopsis 5. Summary and
6. Table of contents Conclusions
7. List of tables and
Figures
Preliminary part
• It is a part that is written before writing the
main body of the report to provide general
information like title, researcher etc. this
part contains the following
• i. Title page : It is the first page of
research report. It includes the following
information:
• title of the research report
• Name of the researcher
• Name of the institution whom the report is
submitted to
• Degree for which the report is submitted
Researcher should put the title which can show
the relationship between variables.
Title should not be written in abbreviated
form. Title must be written in capital letter
All the information of this page is centralized
. First alphabet of all the information must be
written in capital format except title of the
report /thesis.
All the sentences must be in double space and in
pyramid style.
2. Recommendation sheet
• This sheet is to be attached to the
thesis/research report. It is prepared in the
letter pad of the campus/ department /concerned
institute. This page contains the signature of
thesis supervisor ,campus chief or department
head or head of the research department. If a
committee examines the report then the
examiners name should be written in this page.
3.Viva-voce sheet
• It is a sheet prepared in the letter head of
campus or department with the name of viva
committee. All the members of viva committee
puts signature after taking viva of the
candidate after the acceptance of the report.

• 4. Acknowledgement
first of all , researcher should write the
selection procedures of the research issues,
purpose, a brief background , scope, methodology
and summary of the research work. Researcher
also should thank to all those who directly or
indirectly supported him/her in preparing
5. Executive summary
• it is an account of the research study
• It contains the summarized view of what
research stands for what the research is trying
o find out and what we are doing in the
research to meet the objectives of the research
• It should give all the information regarding
the problem investigated, hypothesis tested ,
data collection methods , sampling design and
the findings as well as recommendations and
suggestions for the implication of the
recommendations
• It is to be in 1 to 2 pages long
Table of Contents
• It is prepared in a separate page
• Provides information about the layout of the
report
• Provides information about the placement of
various heads and sub-heads and helps to locate
materials within the report.
• All main heads are written in capital letters
and sub-heads in small letters
• Each heads and sub-heads are followed by page
numbers
• The relationship between main headings and sub-
List of Tables and Figures
• Tables and figures are used in research report to
present data or materials in appropriate, concise and
precise way
• These list of tables and figures are kept after the
table of contents in research report
• All the tables and figures contains numbers which are
kept and the corresponding page numbers are kept in
table of contents
• While providing numbers for tables and figures, chapter
number is written before decimal and table and figure
number is written after the decimal like 3.1 .
• Here 3 represents the Chapter whereas 1 represents the
first table or figure of the third chapter
• Every table and figure must be labeled with appropriate
name which shows the list of tables and figures.
Body of the report
• All the issues that are presented
systematically and serially in this part and
every unit are tried to arrange in the same
way. all subjects are classified as heads and
sub heads which help to understand the matters
easily and presentation also will be more
beautiful. This part of report contains five
major chapters i.e. introduction, review of
literature, Research Methodology, data
presentation and analysis , summary and
conclusion.
• Each chapter comprises of various information
Introduction
• It is the first unit of the research report or
thesis
• First of all , background of the topic is
written in this unit
• Introduction creates the interest over research
issue or subject.
• In social science research, this unit begins
with the introduction of the problem and its
rationality
• This part contains the information regarding
• The situation on which the study is conducted
is also written in this unit
• Generally following information is included in
the introduction part
1.1 Statement of the problem
Researcher writes the background of the
problem in the research report. For e.g. What is
the contribution of employee satisfaction in
organizational performance ?
1.2 Objective of the study
It shows the reasons of conducting research.
Generally, objective is written in one sentence,
but multi-objective research should describe the
objectives in brief for e.g.
i. To explore the employee satisfaction in
Marketing department in a Service industries
ii.To analyze the relationship between employee
satisfaction and organizational performance
1.3 Theoretical framework
A presentation of relationship between the
dependent and independent variables based on
past literatures is known as theoretical
framework
It is the main framework of research because
further research is conducted based on this
theoretical base. Generally academic researches
are conducted to develop new theories so , they
have to consider to the past theories developed
by previous scholars and they have to see
whether findings of the research contradicts or
• It shows the reliability of the research
• Thus theoretical framework is essential.
• For example , the theoretical framework
presenting relationship between HR practices
and organizational performance is presented as
follows
Pfeffer (1998) showed the positive relationship
between best HR practices and organizational
performance . Becker (1997) showed the similar
relation as Pfeffer presented. Guest (1997)
showed inter-relationship between HR practices
and individual outcomes, organizational outcomes
and financial outcomes . Thus following
 Training and
development

Reward and Organizational

punishment Performance

Selection & Placement of

employees
1.4 Variables
First, all the variables used in the theoretical
frameworks should be defined and show the
rational of selecting them as research
variables. Dependent & Independent variables
should be described in separate paragraph.
1.6 Research Hypothesis
Researcher does not prepare hypothesis in
descriptive research
Hypothesis are the statements which guess the
result based on past literatures. Theoretical
framework is the base for developing hypothesis
.
Thus, some hypothesis that are developed based
on above theoretical framework are given below
H1 : There is a positive relationship between
training and development and performance of the
organization
H2 : There is a positive relationship between
reward and punishment and performance of the
organization.
1.6 Definition of concepts
Researcher should define the major concepts of
the research. Such definitions help to
understand the research work to the readers.

1.7 Limitations of the study

Researcher wants to confine the study in a
specific area so he/she writes the areas or
subjects that are not considered in the study.
It clarifies the readers what researcher has
done for e.g.
• Data collection is made from the respondents of
large companies only so its findings may not be
useful to the small companies
• Large number of sample is not taken because of
time and cost constraints.
• The study only considered to the training and
development, reward and punishment and
selection and placement of employees as HR
practices but not to other practices.
1.8 Organization of the study
Research report can be prepared in different
ways. Researcher writes the styles of
arrangement of chapters in the thesis. Generally
, master thesis is written in following ways
i. Introduction
ii.Literature review
iii.Research methodology
iv.Presentation and analysis of the data
v. Summary, Conclusions and Recommendation
2. Review of Literature
• Research should include previous studies
relevant to the problem and within the
framework of the theory.
• Researcher should evaluate the literature in
this chapter. It helps to obtain in depth
knowledge about the research issue or subject.
All the materials are to be serially managed on
the basis od time or relevance. Researcher
should include the surname of previous
researcher, date of research, the topic of
research and major information.
• Researcher should include related information
only and non-related information should be
excluded. Only the findings of the previous
• This part of the report helps to show the
rationality of the research and determine need
and area of the research. Finally, after
presenting all the relevant literatures in the
report, researcher should write concluding
remarks.
• Such concluding remark helps to show the
research gap and relevance of the research
3. Research Methodology
• In the preceding section we described what we
were going to do and why. In this section ,
you should indicate how you fulfilled research
objectives . The purpose of research
methodology section is to describe the nature
of the research design, sampling and data
collection and analysis procedures. Generally,
this section includes the following
information:
3.1 The research design :
Researchers use different types of research
design as per the nature of research and
research problem. Such design may be
descriptive, exploratory, experimental etc.
Researcher should indicate which research design
he/she followed while conducting research and
what is the logic of using such research design
3.2 The population and sample
In this section, researcher should give brief
information of sample and indicate which section
of the universe/population is represented by the
sample. It provides information about sample and
3.3 Sampling Procedure
There are various methods for sampling or sample
selection like simple random sampling
,stratified sampling, purposive sampling,
cluster sampling etc. This section of report
indicates which sampling is used while selecting
sample. It also provides the information about
universe/population, sample, size, and possible
sampling errors. A reason of selecting
particular sample is also included in it .
3.4 Data gathering procedure
This section indicates the sources of data and
data collection procedure like questionnaire,
interview, observation, focus group discussion
etc. Generally, interview schedule and
questionnaire are included in appendix
3.5 The variables and measures
Based on structure of the theory, variables are
managed, and such variables will help to test
mathematically. Sub-section may be used for
independent, dependent, and control variables
3.6 The data processing procedure
After the collection of data, data should be
managed. This section should indicate how the data
were managed. Descriptions of coding, computer
programs etc should be provided in this section.
3.7 The statistical procedure
Researcher analyses the data using various
statistical techniques. He/she may use descriptive
statistics like mean , median, mode, percentage,
frequency etc and inferential statistics like chi-
square test, t-test, z-test, F-test test.
Researcher should state in this section of the
report that the technique that was used while
analyzing the data.
3.8 Pilot study
Before conducting the whole research work,
researcher should study over the topic in a
small group of sample so as to test and improve
in the questionnaire and methodologies. If
researcher conducted pilot study, he/she should
write the entire process of the pilot study and
improvement in questionnaire and methodologies
Pilot study may be placed as a sub-section of
the procedure
3.9 Limitations of the research methodology
Every research design has its own limitations.
If there were any limitations of research design
or data then researcher should state such
limitations in the report.
Data Presentation and analysis
This section is used to present data in a
systematic and understandable way like table,
chart, figure, diagram etc
Such presented data are analyzed and interpreted
using various statistical, financial, and
mathematical tools. Researcher should state all
those presentations and analysis of data in this
chapter or section of the research report .