| Your hands are shaking, and I can see fear in | | | | me, hopefully. And I'm telling you that in a |
| your eyes… Congratulations! You have | | | | questionnaire study you should mention the |
| just joined the "The Painful Report Writing | | | | response rate; in an observational study, say |
| Club". Do you really think that I'm going to | | | | what the behavior actually looked like; in a |
| let you stay there for long? I'm here, | | | | cognitive experiment, say whether the |
| signed, sealed, delivered, to help you with | | | | participants enjoyed the task, found it |
| report writing. | | | | difficult etc. Good report writing means |
| | | | simply doing your job accurately. Can you |
| What is it that makes you uncertain? You | | | | turn your radio down a little bit? I can't |
| don't have to be a writing genius to be | | | | even hear myself. |
| successful in report writing. It can be done | | | | |
| with the help of concrete previous | | | | What are we talking about? Oh, writing a |
| experiences, brainstorms and deep analysis of | | | | report… And our next step in writing a |
| the psychologist or any other person, | | | | report is the Discussion section. Remember |
| academic or not, connected somehow to the | | | | the observations done in your Results part? |
| problem. Good report writing contains four | | | | Well, it's time to talk about them. Speaking |
| parts: Introduction, Method, Results and | | | | of psychology, do you want to talk about |
| Discussion. | | | | them? |
| | | | |
| One thing you do need for writing a report is | | | | Good report writing assumes that you answer |
| a sufficient reason. Wait a minute… are | | | | the specific questions, which are posed at |
| you still sitting in your "Painful Report | | | | the end of the Introduction; then you work |
| Writing Club"? I thought I told you to come | | | | back to more general issues. When writing a |
| out of there. Go and look for your topic. | | | | report, you should also introduce ideas, or |
| Found one? Good, now you can treat yourself | | | | cite papers, that have not already been |
| with sweets and start working on the first | | | | mentioned in the Introduction. |
| part - the Introduction. | | | | |
| | | | And now it's time for some general help on |
| Successful report writing depends a lot on | | | | writing a report. First of all it's about |
| the Introduction. This is where you set your | | | | your style. Nice shoes! But I'm talking about |
| point and present the researches that were | | | | the way you write. Keep your sentences short. |
| made on this topic. Make sure you've outlined | | | | Like I do it. See? This way it's easier to |
| the method that you are going to use in your | | | | deal with punctuation in report writing. |
| report writing. One more advice on writing a | | | | |
| report: your topic has already been | | | | Stick to the scientific writing style. Why |
| investigated. You need to give a reply on | | | | are you putting these glasses on? All I meant |
| those questions that are still unanswered. | | | | was that in successful report writing you |
| This is the area of your research. | | | | don't have use metaphors, alliterations, |
| | | | parallel structuring, oxymoron and where are |
| What are you eating? Oh, sweets… I see. | | | | you going? I thought I'm helping you with |
| I'm here helping you with report writing, and | | | | report writing, and not confusing you. |
| you don't even want to share a piece… | | | | |
| Thanks. And now back to our report writing. | | | | My advice on writing a report is that you |
| | | | take care of your grammar. It really does |
| Want to know, which part is the easiest in | | | | help to know some technical grammatical |
| writing a report? It's the Method section. | | | | terms, both to make it easier to look up |
| The golden rule is to study the Method | | | | correct usage, and also because you can't |
| sections, and provide the same amount of | | | | really think about writing unless you know |
| detail as recently published articles. | | | | some words to describe what you are doing. |
| | | | |
| Next part in our successful report writing is | | | | Well, I better go now. My favorite show is on |
| the Results section. Fred Durst said, | | | | in 5 minutes. Hope, I was of some help. |
| "Results may vary". But you are listening to | | | | |