STUDY HELP

1

[Full Title]

Prepared for: [Instructor’s Name]

Prepared by: [Team Leader’s Name]

[Team Member Name] [Team Member Name]

[Team Member Name]

[Month (written out) date, year optional]

Abstract

[An abstract is a brief technical summary of a report. Please refer to Chapter 13 in Practical Strategies in Technical Communication for information on how to write a successful abstract. NOTE: Wherever there are brackets in the entire template, this indicates template instructions which must be removed from the final report along with the brackets. Teams must use all template headings and subheadings within the report.]

Table of Contents

[Students may use this template or the Word feature to generate a table of contents (TOC) for their report. Teams may expand on this TOC per the directions in Chapter 13, as long as the following sections are included. Delete these instructions and brackets from the team’s report. ]

Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 4

Statement of Problem……………...................................................................................... #

Background…………………………………......................................................................# Research Methods……….... ...........................................................................................................#

Results …….................................................................................................................................. ##

[Results Question One]*....................................................................................................##

[Results Question Two]* ...................................................................................................##

Conclusions …….......................................................................................................................... ##

Recommendations ........................................................................................................................ ##

[First Recommendation]*................................................................................................. ##

[Second Recommendation]*..............................................................................................##

References .................................................................................................................................... ##

Figure 1*................................................................................................................................. ##

Figure 2................................................................................................................................... ##

[*Add or delete sections as needed based on the size of your team and scope of your project.]

[If your team decides to include figures/tables within the body of the report and not at the end, you will need a list of illustrations after the TOC. Refer to Chapter 13.]

[Title of the Report]

Introduction

Statement of Problem

[This section informs the reader why the report is being written and why the subject is being researched. The team should state a workplace problem in the areas of IT, business, or healthcare. The problem should be widespread across an industry, not specific to a single company. The team may want to address such questions as: What is the potential problem or issue? How widespread is the issue? What is the effect on employees or industry? Is it a regional, national or global issue? This section must include research and citations to help the reader better understand the need to investigate this problem. This section will vary in length depending on the team’s use of sources and may include language from the chosen IRP.

Refer to Chapter 13 in Practical Strategies for Technical Communication as you draft your report. However, please note that this template varies somewhat from the samples and directions in the textbook due to your use of only secondary research for your report. Also, the template is designed to eliminate redundancy of information. The subheadings in this part of the template have been added to help organize the team’s writing and to clarify which information is required to include in the Introduction for this assignment.]

Background

[This section gives the reader necessary history on the potential problem. How long has this been an issue or how long has the problem been discussed in the industry? When any facts are provided, a citation must be used. The team cannot generically guess at issues; students must find, use, and cite credible, professional sources that support these facts. This section is a logical place to place one or more of the required student-created visuals, or to reference them at the end of the report (see end of the template for more on visuals).]

Research Methods

[This section centers on the research questions the team asked and investigated, and how that research was conducted. In Practical Strategies for Technical Communication, Chapter 13 advocates a list of tasks for research purposes. However, this is more appropriate for projects that require primary research (first hand gathering of data via interviews, experiments, surveys, etc.). Due to IRB and time constraints, no primary research may be used in the English 311 online class. Therefore, students will list Research Questions instead of a task list.

The questions in the Research Methods section will be researched and then answered in the Results section of the report. Each team member must research and then write about at least one research question under the Results section. The Research Methods section needs a brief intro (one short paragraph) explaining why these questions were chosen by the team, but the questions the team researched must be listed as bullet points. Research questions generally answer how or why instead of what. “Yes/No” questions are to be avoided.

● What are the overarching questions this research will answer?

● What question does the student want to ask and answer through the research?

● Authors should not write research questions that are too specific or too narrow.

For example, a research question could be, “How is social media being used to market ABC Business?” instead of, “Does ABC Business have a Facebook page?”]

The Research Methods section also tells readers how the team found answers to the research questions. Teams should give enough information so readers do not question how or why data was gathered, but refrain from being too detailed. This section should be written in paragraph format. If the team used raw data obtained online or from other sources, that information should not be presented here; instead, a description of where the data was found and why this data was chosen should be included.

All important resources used for this report will be analyzed in this section: why the information was chosen, how it was chosen and obtained, why the information is credible, and so forth. Critical thinking needs to be applied to all of the above discussions.]

Results

[This entire section will present facts. An introductory paragraph should give a brief overview of the results of the research questions that were listed earlier in the report. Results should present only what is actually happening or has happened. Teams should not put personal opinion or any recommendations in this section of the report. Avoid language such as should, might, or could.]

[Question 1 - state the research question]

[This section must answer research question one and present results the team has found; the subheading should be the research question. Results is another logical place for visuals. Each member of the team must investigate one research question and then write about the results as part of the required three (3) pages of research-based writing per team member.]

[Question 2 - state the research question]

[Review instructions under Question 1. Add as many subheadings here under Results as the team has research questions.]

Conclusions

[Do not confuse this section of your Analytical Report with the concluding paragraph of a traditional academic essay. The Conclusions section evaluates the information gathered through the research questions the team posed and investigated; it also discusses what those results mean to the outcome of the situation or problem initially proposed in this report. Additionally, how do these results fit into previous research? Critical thinking must be applied in this section, as the team draws conclusions about what their research implies and evaluates the evidence gathered. This section answers the question “what does it mean” when looking at the results of the research. Teams must use research and cite sources in this section to support the analysis. Length of this section will vary, but an analysis of the results of every research question must be discussed (at least briefly). Although this section will likely be written by one person, the entire team should first discuss the results and analyze them together.]

Recommendations

[Students should thoughtfully consider the application of the information they have obtained for the analytical report. The recommendations should directly show what the team discovered from its investigation and the conclusions it drew. This section can include opinions and use should, might, or could, provided the recommendations are based on research - sources supporting the recommendations should be used and cited. Again, although this section will likely be written by 1-2 team members, the entire team should discuss the recommendations first and agree on direction for the report.]

[First Recommendation - list it as a statement]

[Insert discussion of recommendation. Recommendations are made to improve or sustain best practices for the subject. These recommendations should be based on the team’s research, results, and conclusions. The number of recommendations will vary depending on what research yielded.]

[Second Recommendation - list it as a statement]

[Insert discussion of recommendation.]

References

All entries should be in alphabetical order. URLs should be listed with a hyperlink and should not be followed by a period.

Every source cited on the References page must also have at least one corresponding in-text citation found within the body of the report. Failure to do so is plagiarism.

The reference section starts on a new page. References should be double spaced and have a hanging indent.

This section could be several pages long depending on how many sources the team uses; each member of the team is required to contribute five minimum sources, so a three-member team will have at least 15 reference entries, but more may be used.

Those references that do not end with a URL will use a period as end punctuation.

[Each report must have TWO original, student-generated visuals that are based on research: statistics, data, etc. These visuals should be either figures or tables and may be included in the body of the report or included at the end of the report. Tables or figures included after the report might list additional information authors used to compile data but may not be needed in the main text of the report. Teams should decide on the best way to display information. When using tables and figures, never say, “see above (or below) table.” Instead, indicate the table or figure by its number. For example: (see Table 1). There are examples of a figure and a table on the following pages. APA format should be done the same way if the visuals are included in the body of the report or if the visuals are included at the end. See examples and remove this text page from your report:]

Figure 1 [If you have two tables, this would be labeled Table 1]

American Students and Bullying Percentages

Note. This figure shows the percentage of school age children grades K-12 that have experienced bullying in various forms. Adapted from “Facts about bullying > national statistics,” by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2014, ( www.stopbullying.gov/news/media/facts ).

Table 1 [If you have two figures, this would be labeled Figure 2]

Enrollment and Tuition for Select Private Colleges in Michigan

College	Enrollment	Annual Tuition
Adrian College	1,201	$23,090
Aquinas College	2,678	$16,450
Baker College	10,567	$8,220
Calvin College	4,224	$22,940
Grace Bible College	308	$12,769
Hope College	3,226	$24, 780
Kalamazoo College	1,391	$40, 728

Note: Adapted from “Complete List: Michigan Colleges and Universities”. (2008, August 10). MLive.com. ( http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/08/guide_michigan_colleges_and_un.html ).