Research Report
Making use of the sources you gathered for your annotated bibliography- and doing additional research if you need to - write the report about a current topic/problem/controversy/mystery in your discipline or career field of choice. The report will be written for your fellow professionals; therefore you will write it according to the conventions and norms of your field.
Your paper must be at least 9pages of text (not counting the bibliography at the end).
While the formats will vary, depending on your field, here are elements that you should consider:
Executive summary or abstract - should be between 300 and 400words. Since it's a summary of the final Report, you should write section last.
Introduction - What is the background of your topic? Why is your topic important? Why would anyone care about reading this report? What is your overall thesis statement (i.e., what will you PROVE in this Report?) How will you support this thesis? If you're examining an existing problem, what are the possible solutions you will analyze?
Methodology - How did you go about researching your topic? How did you choose your sources? Did you use any non-traditional data collection methods? Did you interview anyone or conduct a survey?
Data Analysis and Results - The information here will depend heavily on the nature of your particular topic, but this is the "meat" of your paper. This is where you will consider and analyze your topic. If you're examining a problem, this is where you will examine the pros and cons of each possible solution. After you've analyzed your data, you will explain the results of the analysis. What were some interesting and important findings? What your sources say about your topic? If you're examining how a particular technology has impacted a business or how a law has affected an industry, what are a few specific ways that this has occurred? Refer to the two sample papers; they address very different topics, so you can get an idea of different ways to approach this section. This section must be organized effectively!
Conclusions - Now that you've done the research, what does it all mean?
References (MLA or APA style) - at least six sources, of which at least three must be scholarly sources. You must cite from these sources in the text and provide a bibliography at the end.(APA)
You may also collect data yourself (primary source) and include that data in your report. Data may be collected through face-to-face, telephone, or e-mail interviews; surveys or questionnaires; or other traditional forms of data collection. This does not mean that interviews or surveys are required. The six aforementioned sources will suffice. But I just want you to be aware that you should always consider less typical means of data collection, e.g. interviews.