Final Research Report
This should be a highly polished document in the
correct format
with no spelling or grammatical errors.
It represents the culmination of your research. Use active voice.
The
entire document is
double-spaced (one column, no right justified).
The
proposal is proofread with
attention to the logic of your argument. The organization of the
paper permits
the reader to follow the argument.
The
proposal is proofread and checked
for clarity, spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
Articles
to which you refer are
NOT quoted directly. No plagiarism.
Each
sentence has content and specificity.
The paper
is organized into the
following sections:
Title:
Introduction-
Describe
what question(s)/hypotheses you are addressing and the rationale
for addressing
them. Put your
research in the context
of prior research, citing relevant primary literature (at least
5 papers).
Opening sentence should have specificity.
As an example of what NOT to do: “There is a great deal
of literature on
memory and learning in mammals.”
Materials & Methods – Describe how you attempted to answer the
question(s) raised in
introduction. Describe how you gathered your data and how you
analyzed it. Persuade
the reader that your methods are
appropriate for addressing your questions.
Diagrams may be appropriate (e.g. test arenas or maps of
field
sites). Describe
data analysis in terms
of independent and dependent variables where appropriate.
Results-
What happened? You
must persuade the reader that your data analysis is appropriate
and
logical. Quantitative
and qualitative
results are appropriate. Include
tables
and graphs where appropriate with associated Figure Legends and
Table
Legends. Be
specific. For example: “As
the mass of the animals increased the copulation time
decreased.” Not,
“There was a relationship between mass
of the animals and copulation time.”
Don’t say, the data are skewed; rather, describe the direction in which the
data trend.
Discussion- What
do the
data mean? How do they relate to your original hypotheses?
Support your
arguments; describe other hypotheses that might be consistent
with your
results. Which do
you favor and why? Be
specific. How do your conclusions relate to other relevant
studies? Do next-be
specific: not, “It would be interesting to study the
relationship between mass
and duration of courtship call,” but rather, “Given the results
from my study,
I would predict that the greater the mass of the toad, the
longer the duration
of its courtship call.”
Literature Cited - You should be citing relevant literature all
through your
paper; this section is an alphabetical listing of all of the
papers and books
you directly referred to in the body of your paper. Be consistent in your
referencing format (the papers should be cited within the text
as Jones et al., 2015; but all names should be listed in the
literature cited).
.