In this course, you are earning a social science credit. An especially critical part of any science is the sharing of information and exchange of ideas generated through empirical research. Learning how social scientists exchange information is an important part of understanding the social sciences. That is why there are several writing assignments in this course, in which you report to others the results of your own investigations, using the template of the trade: a lab or research report.

The Audience

Imagine as you write these that you are writing for an educated audience, but one that does not know much about your topic of study. Do NOT write these as though you are writing them for another member of the class, or for me. Assume that your reader does not know anything about Wheaton, or about our class. This means that you will have to be thorough in your use of details.

All of your writing assignments should be written up as research or lab reports. As such, they should follow the natural progression of a research paper, though they need be no more than a few pages in length. Writing assignments must be word-processed, spell-checked, and double-spaced, with adequate margins for comments. Assignments turned in that do not meet these requirements will be returned without a grade.

Be sure to number your pages, including the title page. This makes commenting on your paper easier.

There are normally seven parts to every research report. Your writing assignments should have these basic parts:

1. A Title Page: The title page should include a title for your paper that concisely and accurately summarizes its topic, and that shows your name and affiliation. Use the following template to draft your own title page:

How to Write Research Reports

Kathleen N. Morgan
Wheaton College, Norton, MA 02766
Draft 1, 9/15/03

2. An Abstract: Following a title page, provide an abstract of your study. The abstract should appear on a page of its own, just after the title page and before the pages that start the main body of the text. An abstract is a short summary of the entire paper. As such, it should include a sentence or two summarizing the introduction to your paper, a sentence or two summarizing the methods, a sentence or two summarizing the results, and a sentence or two summarizing the discussion section of your paper. Ordinarily, it is best to write the abstract last, when you are certain of the content of the report. It can be pretty hard to write a summary of something if you don't know what it is you are summarizing! Keep abstracts short and concise (typically, under 125 words).

3. An Introduction: In this section, you introduce the topic and explain the question that your study asks. What is the general topicof your paper? Why did you conduct this investgation? Show the reader how what you did is a logical progression from what is already known.

The introduction starts on the 3rd page of the paper (the title page is page 1, and the abstract is page 2). It begins with the title of the paper centered at the top of the page (see sample assignment). For the papers you will be writing in this course, it can also be quite short, as you can see in the sample assignment!

4. Methods: Describe in detail your procedure, your subjects, and any equipment that you used. Be sure to explain your methods sufficiently, so that a naïve reader could replicate your study. That means that you should indicate your operational definitions, etc. Remember--your intended audience is a person who is not a member of our class, or familiar with Wheaton College. Write your methods in sufficient detail to allow your reader to replicate your study without having to contact you personally for specifics.

5. Results: Describe your results. While you may use tables and graphs, you should accompany these with enough text that they are clearly interprettable by a naive reader. In other words, don't just say "See graph." That is NOT OKAY. Put your results in prose.

6. Discussion: Discuss and interpret your results here. How do they answer the question that you set out to answer? How do they fail to do so? Why do you think did things turned out as they did? What do you think your results might mean?

7. References: You should do a little reading about your animal or topic of study before you begin your research. Use the information you gain in this way to help you set the tone for your report by including it in your introduction. If you utilize citations (which I strongly encourage), be certain to include a brief reference section using the following citation format:

Adamo, S.A. & R.T. Hanlon. (1996). Do cuttlefish (Cephalopoda) signal their intentions to conspecifics during agonistic encounters? Anim. Behav., 52, 73-81.

ONLY list references that you actually cite (don't include those that you only consult), and be sure to list any references that you DO cite.

For this class, your writing assignments should also include a final section called "Appendices," in which you present your raw data or data sheets. Include the raw data you collected for each assignment at the end of your document.

1. Use the spell-checker function to proof your paper BEFORE you turn it in. Yes, spelling will count!

2. When referring to the genus and species of an animal, put these Latin names in italics. The tradition is italicized genus and species names, with the first letter of the genus name capitalized. Ex. Homo sapiens, Macaca mulatta, Eublepharis macularis. Your papers should include the Latin names of the species that is their subject.

3. Use the grammar checker, too, if you know you have some trouble with run-on sentences, sentence structure, etc.

4. If you include graphs, tables, or figures in your paper, be sure to refer to them in the body of the paper, so that your reader knows that s/he should go looking for them.

5. REMEMBER: Do NOT write your paper with me as the intended audience. Write your paper with an intelligent, science-minded audience in mind, but an audience that does NOT consist of people in our class. DO NOT ASSUME that the reader knows what YOU know about what the assignment was, or what we have done in class.