Research report – setting it out.
How you actually write the report is entirely up to you, but you must make it academic in prose, and of course you must have it fully referenced. However you do also need to make sure you follow this format for your 2000 word report please. The word counts are more suggestions than anything else. Any questions please let me know.

Introduction (150 words approx.) – outline the report – what are the key themes? what is your argument? This doesn’t have to be anything grandiose and you can write it prescriptively if you like. But it needs to give me an overview of the thesis and your main points.

Literature Review (500-700 words approx.) – in this section you will overview the main literature in your research – what are some of the major pieces – what are the main themes within that – where is the research pointing in terms of discussion points – what critiques can you make – by the end of this very short piece, I should have a good grasp on the major themes of the research you’ve done into different literature (scholarly resources) and a good sense of what we’re looking at in your work more generally. You can for instance focus on one area – eg gender and homelessness.

Results (400-500 words approx.) – this is the section where you place all your data analyses – what have you found in terms of statistics – show me through tables/graphs – do not just put tables/graphs only here – also include short summations or descriptions about what is important to note within this (NB – tables and graphs do not add to your word count) – what I’m looking for here is good data and good illustration of that.

Discussion (500-700 words approx.) – in this section you have to make sense of your data – this is where literature becomes really important – what are you seeing – what is the argument you would like to make – how can we understand the data – what is the important take home message you want – this is the really important piece of your report – use literature to help you make sense of your results

Conclusion (150 words approx.) – this is where you really only overview what you have done in your report – you can if you feel like it point to further work that you think might need to be done – do not use it as an opportunity to produce more data or ideas though

Reference List – APA standard (NB – doesn’t count to your word limit)