LANG1402 Chap.7 Planning the Research Study Report
Planning the Research Study Report
The word budget is a map of the marks
The lesson defines a research study as an organised enquiry into one focused question, built on credible sources and arranged so that a reader can trace the route from the question through the evidence to the conclusion, which is what separates it from an opinion piece.
Your report is a literature review rather than a full study: you identify, evaluate and synthesise what existing sources say. The published section ranges are an introduction of one hundred to one hundred and fifty words, a literature review of four hundred and fifty to five hundred, a discussion of three hundred to three hundred and fifty, and a conclusion of one hundred and fifty to two hundred.
Take the midpoints and you land near eleven hundred, comfortably inside the overall range of one thousand to one thousand two hundred with the reference list excluded.
That leaves very little slack, so a section that runs long pushes another below the length at which it can work.
Two introductions, one topic
The lesson puts a journalistic introduction beside one written as a model for this course and asks what differs. The journalistic version is not bad writing; it simply does none of the four things your introduction is marked on.
It does not state a guiding question in one sentence, it does not preview the sources, it is pitched at a general reader, and it opens with a definition and a history rather than with a gap.
The model opens by naming what is not yet known for a particular population and only then states the question, which gives the reader a reason to care before it gives them something to follow.
Three elements in every paragraph
A paragraph that works in a report of this kind opens on a topic sentence that makes a claim and signals how the paragraph connects to the larger argument, evidence that shows how you reached that claim, and analysis that tells the reader what to understand from the evidence.
Finish on a line that leaves the reader holding something they did not hold at the start of the paragraph, rather than on a recap or a fresh idea. The element that disappears under pressure is always the third, because a paragraph full of correctly attributed findings feels finished, and critical thinking is only visible in the analysis sentences.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Four sections and their published word ranges
- 02
Why the midpoints leave almost no slack
- 03
A journalistic introduction and a report introduction compared
- 04
Opening on a gap rather than on a definition
- 05
Why previewing your three sources is worth fifteen words
- 06
Topic sentence, evidence and analysis in every paragraph
- 07
Decomposing the question, working subheadings and reverse outlining
Label a draft paragraph and name what is missing
- 2Label all four sentences.
- 2Name the two defects.
- 2Supply the repair for each.
Key terms
- Literature Review
- A section that identifies, evaluates and synthesises what existing credible sources say about a question, rather than reporting original findings.
- Guiding Question
- The single question the report answers, stated in one sentence in the introduction and returned to in the conclusion.
- Analysis
- The sentence or sentences that tell a reader what to understand from the evidence just presented, which is where critical thinking becomes visible to a marker.
- Reverse Outline
- A list of the point made by each paragraph of an existing draft, used to check the order, spot repetition and find gaps after the writing rather than before it.
- Word Budget
- The published range of words allocated to each section, read as a statement about where the marks sit rather than as a formatting rule.
Planning the Research Study Report FAQ
Do I have to keep to the word range for each section?
The ranges are published guidance inside a total that is enforced: text beyond the upper word limit does not contribute to the grade, and the reference list is excluded from the count. Because the midpoints already add to about eleven hundred words, a section that overruns takes its words from another section rather than from spare capacity.
What should the introduction actually contain?
Context and background for the topic, the purpose of the study, and the guiding question stated clearly as a single sentence. Previewing the kinds of source you will review costs about fifteen words and signals that the three approach the question from different angles, which is the first visible sign of synthesis.
How many paragraphs should the literature review have?
As many as the steps in your argument require, which is a decision made from the synthesis matrix rather than from a template. The one arrangement to avoid is one paragraph per source, because a paragraph built on a single source can only summarise and the published descriptors place that in the marginal band.
Is it better to outline before drafting or after?
Both work and they catch different problems. Decomposing the question before drafting gives you a list of points to make. A reverse outline afterwards catches an order that does not follow, a point made twice, and a paragraph carrying too many ideas, all of which are easier to see in prose than in a plan.
Assessment move
Write the guiding question as one sentence on its own line before you draft anything. A question that cannot be written as a single clear sentence is not yet focused, and discovering that while drafting an introduction costs far less than discovering it while drafting a discussion that cannot answer it.
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