Deck 13: Planning and Preparing a Final Research Report

Question 1

One of the main objectives of a research report is to make a case for why the research problem deserves an in depth study.What are some of the reasons why this should be done early in the research report?

Answer 1

A good research report is capable of explaining the purpose and function of the proposed research.It is important that the rationale for the study be explained early in the research process so that the reader remains interested.It is also important for the purpose of the study to be made clear early so that the reader can better understand the intention behind the literature reviewed as well as the methodological approach.

Question 2

Alana has completed a study on the development of political attitudes in adolescence as part of her graduate studies.She begins her dissertation by stating,"Previous research has shown…" and then summarizes the related literature on her topic.Which of the following pieces of advice is her advisor most likely to give her for revision?

A)Introduce your hypotheses immediately after the review of the literature.
B)Begin with a statement of the problem,in context,before introducing previous research.
C)Discuss the studies in chronological order,ending with the most recent study,to highlight how your study fits into the history of research on this topic.
D)Define "political attitudes" in the first paragraph,to ensure that the readers will be able to follow the literature review.

Answer 2

Begin with a statement of the problem,in context,before introducing previous research.

Question 3

Which of the following would NOT be an appropriate start to a statement regarding the nature of the data in the research?

A)The data prove…
B)The data suggest…
C)The data indicate the possibility of…
D)The data may help to explain…

Answer 3

The data prove…

Question 4

Marc is working on his dissertation.He wants the introductory section to be thorough and easy to understand,so for any terms that might be ambiguous,he explains how he's defined the term,why he's defined it in that particular way rather than in another way,and an example.Which of the following pieces of advice is his advisor most likely to give him for revision?

A)Keep it up; it's important to be clear and define your terms so that everyone is on the same page.
B)Cut back - for a dissertation,assume that your reader is familiar with your topic and explain only new terminology.
C)Take out the examples; a definition and explanation should be clear enough to an intelligent reader.
D)Move any operational definitions to the method section,where you should explain how variables are measured.

Question 5

Kimathi conducted a case study that included a series of interviews.He knows that he should describe his research methods in sufficient detail that someone else could replicate his study exactly,so in a section titled "Methodology," he includes all of his interview questions,and all accompanying follow-up probes,in a lengthy table.Which of the following pieces of advice is his advisor most likely to give him for revision?

A)Keep all the questions in the table,but exclude the follow-up probes.
B)Describe the purpose of the interview and how it was conducted in the method section and put all the questions into the appendix.
C)Include only sample questions in the method section but put the full interview protocol in an appendix.
D)Include only the interview questions that led to significant results.

Question 6

Why is it imperative to discuss the potential weaknesses and limitations of a research study?

Question 7

Zara finished a survey study and found unexpected results - in some cases,the analyses showed that variables were correlated,but Zara had no a priori hypothesis about those variables.She is unsure whether to include these results at all in the final report.Which of the following pieces of advice is her advisor most likely to give her for revision?

A)Present the unexpected results,perhaps after she presents the results that relate directly to the original questions and hypotheses.
B)Present only the statistics that provide evidence to support the original research hypothesis in the results section and save the others for a discussion section.
C)Consider revising the introduction,possibly with a review of more literature,to see if the unexpected results should have been expected after all.
D)Present the results in the order in which she ran the analyses,without distinguishing that some were unexpected.

Question 8

Before beginning to write a report of your own research study,you should first:

A)confirm the required style or format.
B)surf the Internet for published reports on similar topics.
C)complete all data collection and analyses.
D)find a friend or colleague who is willing to read it when it's finished.

Question 9

Yanfeng completes a qualitative action research study as part of his student teaching experience.His report includes front matter in which he acknowledges the people who helped with the study and an appendix showing his interview questions.When discussing his results,he presents quotations from the participants,who were students in his class.He uses only their initials,to preserve their anonymity.In his conclusions,he notes the next steps he plans to take in the classroom,based on his results.Which of the following pieces of advice is his advisor most likely to give him for revision?

A)It's okay as is - because Yanfeng was in the classroom as a student teacher,preserving anonymity is impossible.
B)Remove the acknowledgments so that any information about the school is anonymous,and then the initials are anonymous and so okay.
C)Revise the results section so that the students are not identifiable,but keep the acknowledgments.
D)Remove the acknowledgments section and the students' initials to preserve everyone's anonymity.

Question 10

Ami conducted a quasi-experimental study for her thesis.In her final report,she includes one section titled "Results and Conclusions." In that section,she presents statistical analyses,the limitations of her study,and plans for future research.Which of the following pieces of advice is her advisor most likely to give her for revision?

A)That looks good - everything is covered in one place so it's easy for the reader.
B)Include interpretations of the data - how do the data help us answer the research question?
C)Take out the section on limitations - no need to draw attention to a study's weaknesses.
D)For a quasi-experimental study,a separate Results section is really needed.

Question 11

Describe the difference between a table and a figure.

Question 12

Throughout your textbook the authors return to the importance of interpreting the findings of a research project.Explain why this is an essential element in a high-quality research report.

Question 13

As part of her graduate work,Liana conducted an ethnographic study,which included several participant observers - undergraduate students who received course credit for their participation across a full semester.Liana is unsure whether to include the students as co-authors on a conference proposal she is submitting,in which she summarizes the main findings of the study.Which of the following pieces of advice is her advisor most likely to give her?

A)Include them,because their participant observation required substantial intellectual contribution to the project.
B)Do not include them,because they received course credit for their participation.
C)Only include the students whose observations were used to support the conclusions you drew.
D)Include them for the conference presentation but not a later journal article,because journals have more rigid rules about shared authorship.

Question 14

Malia did a lot of reading for her dissertation project as she tried to narrow her topic to something that was researchable.She looked at primary and secondary sources,journal articles,Internet sites,and even interviewed a few people who are prominent in the field.She kept careful notes,and when writing the literature review for her project she discussed only those studies that were directly relevant to the research question she ultimately focused on.However,she wants to be sure that her advisors know she completed a comprehensive search of the literature,so she includes a full bibliography chapter,listing all the sources she read.Which of the following pieces of advice is her advisor most likely to give her for revision?

A)For a dissertation project,that's sensible -in a dissertation,a student needs to show that she is an expert in the area.
B)Revise the reference list to include only those sources cited in the paper.
C)Revise the literature review to include all the sources you read.
D)Instead of a chapter,use an appendix of "Additional Sources" so that the readers can see the full list.

Question 15

Tiffani has completed an experiment with a factorial design and begins to write the section of her report titled "Results." She starts by saying she conducted a factorial analysis of variance and then describes,in sequence,each of the other statistics she ran.Which of the following pieces of advice is her advisor most likely to give her for revision?

A)Present only the statistics that provide evidence to support the original research hypothesis.
B)Be sure that the reader can understand how each analysis is related to the problem or subproblem.
C)After each individual statistic,provide a clear conclusion so that readers fully understand what it shows.
D)Don't forget to back up your numbers with thick description of the data so that readers will be able to replicate the study.

Question 16

Monisha conducted a narrative study that turned out exactly opposite of what she expected.She ends the report of her study with a brief summary of the findings and a more lengthy discussion of the importance of the research question,including a new literature review that might explain her unexpected findings.Which of the following pieces of advice is her advisor most likely to give her for revision?

A)Don't lose sight of what you actually found - suggesting new research is great,but in this report focus first on interpreting the data you have and reflecting on any possible weaknesses in your design.
B)It was smart to do a new literature review - but it should replace the old one,so that the results do not appear to be unexpected; you should reorganize the paper with a new prediction.
C)Sometimes research doesn't turn out as we expect,but those studies generally don't get published.So don't spend too much time on a revision of this paper.
D)Instead of a new literature review at the end of the paper,include more information about the possible weaknesses of the method,analyses,and interpretations.That way the reader will have a better understanding of why the results are so unexpected.

Question 17

Early in a research report,the ________ should be made clear.

A)design
B)findings
C)statistical results
D)impact of the study

Question 18

Estrella has completed a qualitative study,and although she coded and organized her data,she did not conduct any statistical analyses.She thus does not want to present a separate results section in her paper.Which of the following pieces of advice is her advisor most likely to give her for revision?

A)It's okay to go straight to conclusions since she doesn't have statistical results.
B)She does not need a results section in the paper itself as long as she presents all her data in an appendix.
C)Every paper really needs a dedicated results section,so she should include this section in the paper.
D)However the section is labeled,she should present a summary of the data,in detail,in the body of the paper.

Question 19

Explain what the phrase "going too far beyond the data" means in regards to data analysis and interpretation.

Question 20

Which word or phrase best completes the following phrase: "Correlation does not indicate…"

A)a relationship.
B)causation.
C)accuracy.
D)statistical probability.