Practical Reporting
• Title
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Aims and Objectives
• Research question
• Research hypothesis
• Literature Review
• Methodology (Participants, Research design, Instrument/Materials and
Procedure, Data analysis technique- software used and statistics used)
• Results
• Discussion
• References in APA style
Title
• Must be detailed
• Not more than 12 words
• Must contain the IV and DV
• Example: The Effect of Gender on Academic
Performance
• The title should contain the word ‘effect’ only
if it is an experimental study.
Abstract
• Summary of research in 4 to 5 paragraphs
• Aim of study, hypothesis, instrument used to
collect data, statistics used in testing
hypotheses and findings
• Example- Check main document**
Introduction
• Detailed explanation of concept (Definition of
concepts, Classification or types)
• What is known about the concept
(Background of study)
• Example- Check main document**
Aims & Objectives
• Aim – general statement of the expected
outcome/overall purpose of the study
• Example- To establish the gender differences in
academic performances
• Objectives- steps taken to execute the aim or to
answer your research questions
• Example- To compare the academic performances of
male students with female students
• Aim (what you want to achieve), Objective (how you
are going to achieve the aim)
Research question
• The question which your research hope to answer
• It should be clear, concise and specific
• It should contain the DV and IV (all measurable)
• It should end in a question mark
• Example- Will academic performance of males and
females be the same? (clear, concise, NOT SPECIFIC)
• Will males have better academic performance than
females (clear, concise, and SPECIFIC)
Research hypothesis
• Plural is hypotheses
• Tentative statement that predicts the outcome of a
research or experiment
• It is testable answer to a research question
• It must be testable or falsifiable for it to be accepted.
• Clear, concise, have both IV and DV
• Types: Null (no significant difference exists) &
Alternate (a significant difference exists)
• Example- Males will have better academic
performance than females
Literature Review
• Review previous studies related to your
current topic through literature search
• What studies have been done on the same
variables your research is investigating.
• Examples- Check main document**
Methodology
• Participants (who are they?, how many are
they?, how were they selected, what are their
characteristics-age, gender?)
• Who are they? (Population-student, community,
clinical sample, police officers, bankers)
• How many? (total number that comprised your
sample chosen from the population)
• How are they selected? (Sampling techniques)
• What are their characteristics (basic description)
Methodology (Contd...)
• Research design- overall framework employed
to carryout the research.
• Example- Experimental (one group/within grp,
two group/between grp)
• Instrument/Material- anything employed in
collecting your data, e.g., psychological scales
(if any), writing materials, any other things
administered to participants
Methodology (Contd...)
• Procedure- detailed explanation of how the
research was carried out.
• Includes the instruction given to participants
before, during and after the research
• Data analysis- Software used (SPSS) and
statistics used in testing each hypothesis. Every
hypothesis should have its own compactable
statistic employed
• Example- Check main document**
Results
• Result of the tested hypothesis
• Mostly in tabular form
• Tables must be labelled and titled appropriately
• Results are presented for each tested hypothesis
(i.e. The hypothesis are stated first, then table
follows)
• Below the table is the interpretation of what is
contained in the table in few lines.
• Example- Check main document**
Discussion
• Reiterate the objective of the study in the first
paragraph (i.e. Para 1 = objective of study)
• Subsequent paragraphs should contain discussion of
each hypothesis (i.e. Para 2 should contain
discussion on hypothesis 1, Para 3 should contain
discussion on hypothesis 2, etc)
• State your FINDINGS (not results) and support with
past relevant studies
• DO NOT state hypotheses and results again
• Example- Check main document**
References
• Must be in APA style
• Must be arranged alphabetically
• Indent from the second line of each reference