CHAPTER 1

Research question
Once you have carefully drafted the purpose(s) and objective(s) of your study, the next step
is to formulate the research questions. A research question is a statement that distinguishes
the issue or problem to be studied. Your research questions should be able to guide your
discussions and arguments about the topic of your study and they should be able to stimulate
the interests of the readers of your report.

To formulate your research questions, you could begin by asking yourself the following
question:
 What do I know about the topic of my research and its literature?
 What have been researched and what needs further exploration?
 Could my study fill a gap or lead to greater understanding of the problem/ issue?
 Has a great deal of research been conducted in this topic area?
 Has this study been done before? If so, is there room for improvement?
 Is the timing right for this question to be answered? Is it a hot topic, or is it becoming
obsolete?
 Most importantly, will my study have a significant impact on the field?

The next step is to refer to the objectives of your study. You need to turn the objectives of
your study into your research questions. For instance, for the example of objectives
shown earlier you could turn those objectives into the following research questions:

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Significance of the Study
This element is included in the Introduction Part of a research report to justify the reason
for conducting the study and to emphasize the potential benefits that it would bring.
When you are thinking about how and what you would like to write about the significance
of your study, you may want to ask yourself the following questions:
 Why is your study necessary?
 To whom is it important?
 What potential benefits(s) may your study bring?

The following paragraph shows how the significance of a study can be written.

Language Functions and Expressions

When drafting the Introduction Part of your report, you may want to consider using any of
the following language expressions in Table 6.2.

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 CHAPTER 2
What is Literature Review?
Literature review is an account of what has been published on a research area. It is usually
an evaluative report of information found in the literature related to one’s particular area
of study. A literature review usually appears as a chapter in an academic report.
However, certain references to literature can be found in various places such as in the
introduction and other parts of report.
One should bear in mind that literature review is not just merely a listing
of information available, or a set of summaries. It should describe,
summarize, evaluate, and clarify the studies reviewed. It should also give
a theoretical base of the research and help you determine the nature of
your research.

The Purpose of writing Literature Review

The purpose of writing a literature review is for you to take a critical look at
the literature that already exists in the area you are researching. It guides you
through the kind of work that others in your field of study have done. It is also
to convey to your readers the information and ideas that have been established
on the topics as well as to see the strengths and weaknesses of previous studies.
With the information, you will be better prepared to start your research.

There are many reasons for writing the literature review. The most important ones are
 to provide a context for the research
 to justify the research
 to illustrate how the subject has been studied previously
 to outline gaps in previous research
 to show the researchers understanding of the topic area being studied

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Other than deepening the knowledge about a topic, there are two important skills that will
be developed when writing a literature review:

1. Information seeking: the ability to scan the literature efficiently using the manual or
computerized methods and identify a set of relevant articles and books.
2. Critical appraisal: the ability to read and appraise reading text critically.

How to write the literature Review

Literature review should be organized into sections that present research
themes, trends, and theories. When writing the literature review you must
make sure that the following points are taken into consideration:

1. It is organized around and related directly to the thesis or research questions you are
developing.
2. It is synthesize relevant information to previous studies and into a summary.

Furthermore, in doing literature review, the writer will come up with more questions that
can initiate further readings and investigations.

Steps for Writing Literature Review

The steps on how to write literature review for your report are described below:

After your have selected your reading materials from books, articles, journals, etc, read
them and write a brief critical synopsis or what is called ‘annotated bibliography.’ of each.

Record the names of the author in full, year of publication, title of the book, journal or
article, publisher, place of publication and volume numbers or pages.

4
Find common themes in the works you have and organize them into categories. Write
some brief paragraphs outlining your categories or the topics you want to write.

For each thematic section use your draft annotation to write a section which discusses the
articles relevant to the theme. Focus your writing on the theme of that section rather that
focusing your writing on each individual article.

Now you have the thematic sections, tie them together with an introduction, conclusion,
and some additions and revision in the sections to show how they relate to each other and
to your overall theme.

How to Use Secondary Data in a Report

Good writers often use direct quotations and paraphrases when citing works of others. It
is a great challenge for you to write the literature review because you need to integrate the
various readings that relate to the objectives of your research. Other than to balance the
differences and similarities found in other research, you must also make sure that you own
voice is heard.

There are three major ways of citing information from secondary sources to support your
research. The main practice in writing literature review is summary writing, direct
quoting and paraphrasing.

Summary writing
In writing literature review, the main activity is to summarize different studies. Summary
is a shortened or condensed piece of writing and it is done by restating the main points in
your own words and in the order in which you find them. Details, examples and
formalities are usually not included. The aim of summary is to be precise, which means
you must convey exactly what the author wanted to get across but, in fewer words. In
other words, you have to condense a text to its most important idea. A summary is used
when you wish:

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a) to highlight it out to the general ideas of a work
b) to avoid distracting your readers with details from original text
c) to focus more on what the author was trying to prove, instead of how he went
about proving it

A summary can be written effectively if the following steps are followed:

Step 1 – Begin with the usual previewing and a rapid reading for general
comprehension.
Step 2 – Then, read carefully in order to determine the main ideas of each paragraph.
You are advised to pause in between sentences or paragraphs. The advantages
of these pauses are that you are continually testing and improving your
comprehension. It also will encourage you to check the relevance of the
information.
Step 3 - After that, link the main ideas together using your own words.
Step 4 - Finally, construct the sentences clearly to form a summary.

Direct Quotation
Direct quotations are statements that consist of the meanings of exact words of the author,
copied directly word for word from a printed source. They are used when you want to:
 add the power of an author’s word to support your argument
 disagree with an author’s argument
 highlight particularly eloquent or powerful phrases or passages
 compare and contrast specific points of view

Direct quotation should be smoothly integrated into the text of your paper and it should be
quoted in full. In general they are preferable only in these situations:
1. when citing important statements of information, opinion, or policy.
2. when doing interpretations of literature works such as passage in a poem, essay, short,
novel, or play so that the reader can see the basis for your interpretation.

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Even though the source of direct quotation is given in the bibliography, it should be
preceded by some brief introductory phrases as given:

One leading educator recently said that …

As Norton (2003) argues ……

According to Norton (2003) ….

Norton (2003) concludes …..

Look at the example provided below, showing how to incorporate the direct quotation in
your writing.

Example

The past few years has seen the hand phone ceasing to be a luxury and becoming a
necessity among Malaysian. The burgeoning of the cellular phone market has
generated the founding of a number of cellular service providers who are competing
among themselves for a larger market share. According to Luqman (2003),
“Although Simax is the latest cellular company here, it has managed to successfully
build the largest market share in cellular communications. Simax has the largest
number of subscribers which is about five million” (3)

Paraphrasing
Paraphrase means rephrasing the words of an author, putting his/her thoughts in your own
words. When you paraphrase, you reward the source’s ideas, words, phrases, and change
the sentence structures. Paraphrased text if often, but not always, slightly shorter than the
original text. Similar to direct quotation, paraphrased materials must be allowed with the
proper text citation. Paraphrasing is done when you want to:

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 use information on your note cards and wish to avoid plagiarism
 avoid overuse of quotations
 use your own voice to present information

There are several things to be considered when writing paraphrased statements:

 they should not be written using the author’s original vocabulary
 they should reflect through understanding of the ideas
 they should reflect the real meaning of the text
 they should be written in correct mechanics, usage and grammar.

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Tips on how to paraphrase are given below.

Step 1: Read the paragraph, text or section

 Read the paragraph or text several times to grasp the meaning.
 Write down the main ideas according to the order they appear in text.
(Make a note of the important terms or phrases, not sentences)

Step 2 : Write the first draft

 Using only the terms or phrases collected in your notes; write the
sentences or paragraph in your own words. You should never refer
directly to the original text. Certain important terms from the original
text may be used.

Step 3 : Check for accuracy

 Once completed, reread the original passage and compare the idea with
your version. Check your paraphrase statements to ensure the following
items are included:
* all important ideas as in the original text;
* ideas are of the same relative length,
* statements reflect similar tone and stress,
* ideas are presented using own words,
* ideas are written using accurate language

Step 4 : Check grammar, punctuation and spelling

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Example of a Paraphrased Statement

Original Quotation
Luqman (2003) stated that,
“Although Simax is the latest cellular company here, it has managed to successfully
build the largest market share in cellular communications. Simax has the largest number
of subscribers which is about five millions” (3)

Paraphrased Text
Luqman (2003) stated that Simax is now the top cellular service communication provider
even though it is most recent cellular company.

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 Table 6.3: Some Language Expression used in Quoting or Paraphrasing

General references to previous research or Recent evidence suggests that …. (Salwa, 1996; Junid
1999)
scholarly activity
Several attemps have been made to …. (Rammalingam,
2001)

Previous studies have reported …. (Chong, 1985)

Chong (1999) analysed the data from 72 countries and

Reference to single investigation in the past
concluded that ….

Junid et al. (2001) reviewed the literature and found little

evidence for this claim.

Preliminary work on X was undertaken by Siti Karisma

(1992).

The study of structural behavior of X was first carried out by

Rao et al. (1986) ….

Rao (2003) lists three reasons why the English language has
Reference to what other writers do in their
become so dominant. These are ….
text (author as subject)
Smith (2003) draws our attention to distinctive categories of
motivational beliefs often abserved in ….

Smith (2003) maintains that preventive medicine is far more

Reference to other writers’ ideas (author as
cost effective,….
subject)
John (2005) claims that an explanatory theory for each type
of irrational belief.

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Language Input: Reported Speech
Reported speech which is also known as indirect speech refers to a sentence reporting
what someone had said. Some rules about reported speech are:
1 When reporting speech, the tense usually changes. This is because when we use
reported speech we are usually talking about the time in the past. The tenses
generally move backwards in this way (the tense on the left changes to the tense on
the right):
Present simple Past simple

I’m a technician He said he was a technician

Present continuous Past continuous

I’m having dinner with my friends He said he was having dinner with his
friends.

Present perfect simple Past perfect simple

I’ve been to Melaka many times He said he had been to Melaka many
times.
Present perfect continuous Past prefect continuous

I’ve been studying very hard. He said he had been studying very hard.

Past simple Past perfect

I bought a new television He said he had bought a new television.

Past simple Past perfect

I bought a new television television. He said he had bought a new television.

Past continuous Past perfect continuous

It was sunny earlier. He said it had been sunny earlier.

Past perfect Past perfect

The game had stated when I arrived. NO CHANGE POSSIBLE

Past perfect continuous Past perfect continuous

I’d already been writing novels for five years. NO CHANGE POSSIBLE

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2. When changing from direct speech to reported speech, it is often necessary to change
the pronoun to match the subject of the sentence. You also need to be careful with
personal pronouns. They need to be changed according to the situation. You need to
know the context. For example, there is possible confusion when you try to change
reported speech to direct speech:

She said she’d been cleaning four hours.

(Is the one person or two different people?)

I told them they would have to wait for one more hour
(Are we talking about two groups of people or only one?)

3. It is also important to change time wards (signifiers) when referring to present, past or
future time to match the moment of speaking.

Time and place references often have to be changed:

Now then
Today that they
Here there
This that
This week that week
Tomorrow the following day
the next day
the day after
Next week the following week
the next week
the week after
Yesterday the previous day
the day before
Last week the previous week
the week before
Ago previously
before
2 week ago 2 week previously
2 week before
Tonight last Saturday that night
the previously Saturday
the Saturday before
Next Saturday the following Saturday
the next Saturday
the Saturday after
that Saturday

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 CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

Describing the Methods Used in your Research

In chapter 3, you were introduced to the different methods used in collecting the data for
your research. In this section, you will be assisted to write the research method section of
the report.

The research method section of the report is one of the most important parts in a research
report. In order technical research reports, the method section usually comes after the
introduction. However, in most academic research report, the methodology section forms
the Chapter 3 of the report after the literature review section. The method section resembles
an instruction booklet, whereby the instruments and procedures used in the research are
described. The methodology section should be clearly written so that other researchers who
are interested to conduct the research in the same area would be able to exactly follow the
procedure you took in conducting the research. As you might still remember from Chapter
3, the different ways to collect primary data are through questionnaires, interviews,
observation and experiments.

Writing the Research Method Section

In writing the research method section, you need to consider the following questions based
on the research that you have conducted:
 What was the design of the research?
 Who were the subjects or respondents?
 How were the subject/ respondents selected?
 What were the instruments used?
 What the instruments adapted from previous study or newly developed?
 What sequence of events did you follow when you collect the data?
 What were the steps in the data analysis?

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The main elements that need to be included in the research method section are:
 Purpose or objective of the research
 Short description of the issue or problem to be investigated
 Location of the data collection
 Population and sample or respondents of the research
 Data collection methods
 Data analysis methods

The research method section can be divided into two parts: overview and body. The
overview section discusses briefly the information about the study in general, the purpose
or objectives for conducting the research, location where the data were collected, and the
method of data collection. The body segment discusses the respondents, location, methods
of data collection and methods of data analysis.

Example: Overview Section of the Research Method

In writing the body of the method section, you should explain further the method you use to
collect the data for your research. Your explanation should include detail discussion of the
research instruments, the sampling procedures, the research procedure, the data analysis
and any events that happened during the data collection that might have some influence on
the data collected.

Example: Instrument of the Study

Example: Description of Respondents Involved in the Study
Example: Data Analysis Method
Example: Research Procedure

15
Finding and Discussion
A research report has several purposes: (i) sum up the responses from the respondents, (ii)
draw conclusions, and (iii) offer recommendations. After the preliminary research activities
which include tabulating the data into some form of graphics, you need to start writing the
findings and interpretations. This is the most important section of your research report. In
this section, you present, discuss, explain, analyse, compare, evaluate, interpret and infer the
findings or the results of your research based on the research questions that you posed at the
beginning of the study. In this section also, you must try to bring forth the evidence that
answers the research questions and supports your conclusions. Apart from the title
“Findings”, other headings “Results of the Study” and “Analysis of Results” may also be
used.

What are Findings?

Findings are discoveries based on facts, data or responses from the respondents who
participate in your research or experiment. Findings are not based on emotions, sentiments
or unanalyzed raw data. However, findings can be in the form of statistics or a detailed
explanation of responses given by the respondents in an interview. The most common
statistics used to present the quantitative findings are percentages, frequency counts and
averages. The findings can be clearly and effectively reported using illustrations, for
example tables, graphs or diagrams (refer to chapter 4). They help to summarize figures
or show comparisons, relationships or trends so that the readers can see the relationship of
the different information at a glance.

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Organizing the Findings and Discussion Section
There are two different arrangements that you can use to present the result of your
research and the discussion section. The table below shows the two arrangements to
organise your findings and discussion section.

Ways of Writing the Result and Discussion Section

Type A Type B
Findings/Result Findings/Result – Topic 1
Topic 1 Discussion
Topic 2
Topic 3 Findings/Result – Topic 2
Topic 4 Discussion

Discussion
Topic 1 Findings/Result – Topic 3
Topic 2 Discussion
Topic 3
Topic 4 Findings/Result – Topic
Discussion

Reporting the Findings or Result of a Study

As mentioned earlier, the most common way of presenting findings or result of a study is
through charts, such as pie-chart and bar chart, and tables. Other ways of presenting the
findings or result are through graphs, diagrams, photographs, etc. You do not just present
the findings in tables or charts; you need to describe the findings by explaining them in
general terms what they mean, and highlighting the major or significant results. The
following list provides the tips in presenting your findings or results of the study.

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Tips on Writing the Findings Section
1. Begin with an introduction of the topic.
2. Describe your findings or results, pointing the reader to findings that are important
and significant.
3. Explain the statistics clearly.
4. Use visual aids or graphics to support findings.
5. Support your statistical figures with qualitative data (from interview) and your
explanation.
6. Conclude by relating it to the next section.
7. Use short, concise statements of facts within the rules of correct grammar and
spelling. Avoid long-winded sentences, although grammatically correct.
8. Be specific by presenting only important findings and essential facts. Avoid
including unrelated or unnecessary material.
9. Refer to visual displays using the following labels “Figure 1, “Table 3” and (refer
to Appendix C)”.
10. Follow logical progression beginning from the most important topics to the least
important. Other logical order patterns are also possible depending on the topics
you are writing.
11. Use correct verb tenses. Use past tense to present results and to describe
completed actions. Use present tense when referring to figures or tables and to
explain current actions. Modal auxiliary verb such as may, might, could, would,
will may also be used to express opinions or evaluate the findings.
12. Improve your writing for clarity of ideas, coherence in structure, conciseness of
presentation and correctness in mechanics (punctuations, grammar and spelling).

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Presenting the Statistics
The use of statistics in your report to present your findings will make the report more
effective and impressive. Without statistics, your report might not be convincing and
persuasive. However, you should not let the statistics speak for themselves. As the
writer, you have to inform the readers what the numbers represent and why they are
important. In presenting your findings, use numbers or statistics selectively. Do not
provide readers with a volume of unorganized and uninterpreted numbers. You do not
have to write or mention every percentage found in your data. If you simply list every
response to every question, you will only confuse the readers. To increase clarity in
your report, you need to present only important findings and essential facts, and to be
brief in reporting them.

When reporting responses to Yes/No questions, you do not need to give percentages
for both the ‘Yes’ answers and the ‘No’ answers. For example, when you write that
75 percent liked new peripheral services offered by the service provider, you do not
have to tell the reader than 25 percent did not.

Poor Seventy-five percent liked the new peripheral services offered by their
service provider; while 25 percent did not.

Better Seventy-five percent liked the new peripheral services offered by their
service provider.

However, if there is a number of respondents who did not answer the question, you
will have to provide the statistic.

e.g Seventy-five percent liked the new peripheral services offered by their service
provider, while 20 percent did not, and another 5 percent did not answer the question.

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Writing Percentages
In writing your report, you will use different statistic especially percentages and
frequency counts. In some instances, you might also use average, mean, mode and
median, which are all represented in numbers. A part from the written language used
when writing the findings of your research report, you need also to pay special
attention to the presentation of the percentages. Writing percentages can be a difficult
task for some writers, especially students. To help you write the percentages in your
report, follow tips below.

1. Do not be confused between percent and percentages. The word percentages

should not be used for percent. Percentages is used without numbers to indicate a
range or a size, while percent will always come with numbers.

Incorrect : TalkTime dominates the market Percent with a leading 72

percentage, followed by Aircom 16 percentage and LemonRing,
12 percentage.

Correct TalkTime dominates the market Percentage share with a leading

82 percent, followed by Aircom 16 percent and LemonRing, 2
percent.

Incorrect a large percent of the students favored the new sports complex.

Correct A large percentage of the students favored the new sports

complex.

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 2. In using percentages in your report, spell out the word percent; do not use the sign
(%). The percentage sign % is used in tables and chart.

Incorrect: As for the reasons in choosing a service provider, a total 68 % of

TalkTime users responded that better coverage was the main
reason for their choice.

Correct: As for the reasons in choosing a service provider, a total 68

percent TalkTime users responded that better coverage was the
main reason for their choice.

3. If a percentages begins a sentence, SPELL the number in words:

Incorrect: 12 percent of the students stated that popular brand was the reason
why they chose TalkTime.

Correct: Twelve percent of the students stated that popular brand

was the reason why they chose TalkTime.

5. You can also provide percentages in brackets.

Correct: Majority of the students (75 percent) prefer the pre-paid plan.

Presenting Numbers in writing

When using numbers in writing, there are certain rules that you have to follow.
 Spell out the number that begins a sentence, and use figure when they appear in the
middle of a sentence.
Seventy-six students returned the questionnaire.
From the faculty, 76 students returned the questionnaire

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 Hyphenate compound numbers.
twenty-seven eighty-four sixty-nine

 Use number to express dates, street numbers, room numbers, telephone numbers,
Page numbers and percentages, and spell out the word percent.
16 July, 2005 pages 44-121 20 percent 201 Jalan Semarak

Language Expression that can be used when writing the Findings.

Writing the Discussion Section

This is probably the most difficult part in writing a research report. In spite of its
difficulties, discussion section is the most important section which provides answers to
research questions and solutions to problem that justifies the research. In research report
writing, discussion means looking at the issue or problem that is being investigated based
on the results of the research and implications from different angles and sides. In the
discussion section, you should discuss the possible causes of observed findings and results
based on underlying characteristics or theory. If there are different contributory factors,
you need to describe their relationship and to assess their important contribution to the
research. If certain parts of the findings or results are not understood for various reasons,
the discussion should acknowledge this lack of understanding.

Strategies in Writing the Discussion Section

The discussion section may include the following approaches: i) explain the findings, ii)
compare the findings, iii) evaluate the findings, and iv) infer from the findings Krishnan,
2003). The following are discussion of each approach with examples.

Explain Result of Findings of the Research

 Give reasons for the findings.
 Explain the scenario circumstances during the data collection period or at the time of
experiment which might have some influences on the results of the research.

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 Explain the result based on the limitations or constraints of th research during the data
collection period.

Compare the Findings

 Compare the findings of the research with the findings of other research within the
same field (discussed in the literature review section).
 Compare and relate the different findings of the research to highlight certain results as
significant.

Evaluate the Findings

You can also evaluate the results by providing an assessment of the findings. Since you show
the scenario of the issue or problem, you can decide whether the results obtained are as
expected and have turned out to be successful, or otherwise, i.e. the results are unexpected,
unsatisfactory or insignificant.

Infer from the Findings

Inferring means developing your viewpoints and ideas based on the facts and results from
the responses that you have accumulated through survey or interviews. This is what most
researchers need to do in order to make sense of their findings. If the findings are left in
their statistical form, no one would be able to understand them. So, be creative and do not
be afraid to speculate.

Language Expression that can be used when writing the Discussion Section

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Writing Conclusion
The conclusion section is where you sum up the main points of the report. The conclusion
should clearly relate to the objectives and results of your research. The purpose of a
conclusion is to tie together or integrate the various issues covered in your research and
for you to draw logical deductions based on the research findings. There should not be
any new ideas in your conclusion. Since the conclusions you arrived at are merely
opinions based on the findings of your research, you should not tell the reader what to do
or what action to take. Save the discussion of future actions in your recommendations.
Furthermore, it is important to write your conclusion clearly so that readers could relate
the conclusions to the overall research.

What to Include in a Conclusion?

There are several elements that you need to include in your conclusion in order to make it
effective. A typical conclusion usually has the following elements:
 Overview of the study
 Restatement of the objectives
 Review of the findings
 Implication of the findings
 Limitations of the research (optional)

These five elements are discussed below, with examples of language expressions to be
used.

Overview of the Study

An effective way to start writing in your conclusion is for you to give a brief summary of
what the research is all about, that is, the why and how you conduct the study n a nutshell.
You may use the following phrases or expressions when summarizing the activities of the
study.

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 This study/research gives/gave an account of and the reasons for the widespread use

of ……

This study/research/project has investigated ……

Restatement of the Objectives

When restating the objectives, start with the most significant objective. The restatement of
the objectives should not be exactly the same as the way they are stated in the introduction
of your report. To avoid this, you could use introductory phrase at the beginning of the
sentences such as: as mentioned earlier n the introduction, to reiterate, returning to the
question at the beginning of this study and so on. The following examples show how to
restate the objectives.

As mentioned earlier in the introduction, the purpose of this study was to investigate/find

out/determine/evaluate…..

To reiterate, this study set out to investigate/find out/determine/evaluate…..

Returning to the research questions at the beginning of this study, it is now possible

to state that…..

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Review of the Findings
This part of your conclusion needs to you to state whether or not the objectives of your
research have been achieved and whether they are as you have expected. You may have
several findings to present and if this is the case, you should start with the most important
ones and then proceed to the less important ones. Another alternative would be for you to
review only the most positive results that you have obtained. The following are some
examples of phrases that you could use when reviewing or summarizing your findings.

The following conclusions can be drawn from the present study….

This study has shown that….

The findings of this study suggest that in general….

One of the significant findings emerges from this study is that….

The most obvious finding that emerges from this study is that….

The study/research has shown that….

The major finding of the research is that….

The results of the investigation show that….

Implications of the Findings

Once you have stated your conclusions clearly, you can move on to discuss the implications
of your findings. Implications are the conclusions or deductions that you have arrived at
based on your findings. It is important for you to discuss the implications of your findings
because they will be the basis for you to make recommendations on what course of action to
be taken to solve the identified problem. Examples of language expressions to suggest
implication are as follows:

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 The evidence from this research suggests that….

The results of this study indicate that….

The results of this study support the idea that….

Overall, the findings of the study suggest that….

In general, it seems that….

Limitations of the Research

Limitations of a research are two weaknesses that you have identified in relation to your
study. Small sample size, inappropriate research instruments used and limited time factor
are some examples of research limitations. The following table gives examples of phrases
that can be used to discuss the limitations of your research.

One of the limitations of the research is that….

The present study has only examined ….

The most important limitation lies in the fact that….

The present study was limited by….

The research was limited in several ways. First, the research….

However, the findings of the research cannot be generalized to other population….

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Writing your Conclusion
A good conclusion shows that you have successfully answered the research questions or
completed the task given to you. You could write your conclusion in a paragraph form or
list your conclusions based on your findings. The sample given below illustrates how the
conclusion can be written and the elements that are commonly found in this section.

The Dos and Don’ts of conclusions

When writing your conclusion, you need to be aware of what you should include and what
to avoid in your conclusion. The following are some dos and don’ts of conclusions
adapted from Lakshmy et al (2003).

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 Dos Don’ts
Draw conclusions for each major issues Do not introduce new ideas or facts
raised in the study E.g. Hand phones can also cause brain
E.g. It was found that MMS holds the cancer (when health issue is not mentioned
biggest potential in attracting customers in the objectives of the study).
from a list of new peripheral services to
be offered by service providers. Do not focus on minor results of the study

State the findings and give specific Do not exaggerate the implications of
explanations if necessary your findings

E.g. Simax proved to be the top service E.g. Only Simax provides the best service
provider due to its better coverage to its customers.
compared to other service providers.
Do not generalize the findings
Use discourse markers to ensure cohesion
E.g. Furthermore, SMS is the most E.g. All university students have hand
popular means of communication among phones.
students. This is because it is more
economical compared to making calls. Do not apologize by saying such things as
“I may not be an expert” or :At least this
Select verb tenses according to functions is my opinion”
of the statements

E.g. The purpose of this study was …..

(Purpose). It was found that…..

(results). This could be due to…..

(explanation).

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Writing Recommendations
What is a Recommendation?
The recommendation section of your report is the place where you give suggestions or
actions to be taken based on your findings. They are written as action statements using
clear and specific language. Furthermore, they should be written in order of importance.
However, not all reports require recommendations and this part may sometimes be
included within the conclusion section. The recommendations that you have made should
be related to the conclusions of your study and should not include any new facts or ideas.
Finally, do not present recommendations based on your beliefs or biases that are not
supported by your data.

Types of Recommendation
There a two types of recommendation that you can make in a research report. The first is to
recommend actions to be taken based on the findings and the second is recommendations to
other researchers. No matter how complete your study was, there would always be further
research that will be required to shed light on the research question, particularly if there is
an interest in generalizing the findings beyond the study’s parameters. Furthermore, you
will also find areas within the literature itself that have considerable gaps that should be
addressed, and to which your study may or may not have contributed. Therefore, a
summary section regarding recommendations for further research is appropriate.

Writing your Recommendation

The recommendation could be written in a paragraph form or point form. The following
phrases can be used to show that you are giving suggestions or making recommendations.

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Phrases for Making Suggestions or Phrases for Making Recommendations
Recommendation Recommendations for Future Research
The following are several recommendations It is recommended that further research be
based on the findings and conclusions of the undertaken in the following areas:
study: More studies need to be done to establish

whether…….
Based on the findings and conclusions of the
Further research in this area would be
study, the following are several
beneficial in…….
recommendations to…….
This research has brought up many questions
in need of further investigation
The following recommendations are made Further research might explore…….
to…….

The following Examples show how Recommendation could be written:

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Language Input: Modal Auxiliary Verbs
The general rule for the use of verbs in Conclusions and Recommendations is quite simple.
The present tense is used for any general conclusions while the past tense is used to describe
project activities.

Examples of General Conclusion

1 Simax is the top service provider used by students in Permata University.

2 Pre-paid is the most popular service plan among Permata University students.

Examples of Project Activities being Described

1 Majority of the respondents had opted for the pre-paid service plan rather than the
fixed-line one.

2 Most of the respondents chose MMS as the peripheral services that they would be
interested in using.

When making general implications, use the present simple/ modal auxiliaries/ tentative
verbs.

Example

1 The results of this study indicate that price and network coverage are the two important
factors that will influence students’ choice in selecting hand phone service provider.

2 The evidence from this study suggests that hand phone brands can affect students
buying preference.

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When making recommendations, use the present simple/modal auxiliaries/tentative verbs

Example

1 We recommend that other service providers provide good coverage and improve that
promotional strategies if they want to compete with Simax.

2 It is recommended that service providers aggressively promote new peripheral services

that would be of interest to students in their effort to attract more customers.

3 Further research could also explore the different types of promotional strategies used by
service providers to attract more customers and the effectiveness of these starategies.

It is important to note that when making recommendations, the appropriate modal

auxiliaries are used for emphasis. Modal auxiliaries that give strong emphasis should be
used when making recommendations.

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Modal Auxiliary verbs Degree of Emphasis and Examples
The following examples show the types of modal verbs that can be used when making
recommendations and their degree of emphasis.

Modal Auxiliary Verbs Degree of Emphasis and Example

May, Could, Might Indicate mild suggestion
1. Students could/may opt for the post-paid
plan if their talk time is more than 267
minutes per month as it is cheaper than the
pre-paid plan.

2. Ii might be a good idea to investigate the

effects of using hand phones on people’s
health so that the public will be more
aware of the hazards of using it.

Should, Ought to Indicate strong suggestion, advice or

obligation
1. Simax should introduce more peripheral
services in order to attract more
customers.

2. Simax ought to provide good coverage

if it wants to compete with other service
providers.
Must, has/have to To indicate necessity
1. Simax must/has to aggressively promote
their new peripheral services if they want
to attract more customers.

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Example can be put on the door of the action or on the action itself as shown in the
examples below.
Example

1 Simax (doer of the action) should introduce more peripheral services in order to attract
more customers.

2 This sentences is in the active form and the emphasis is on the doer of the action.
More peripheral services should be introduced to attract more customers.

This sentence is in the passive form where the emphasis is on the action (introducing more
more peripheral services). The doer of the action is not important.

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