1. Writing up the Final Report

2. Overall Guidelines Maintain a clear and logical structure Have a storyline simply, tell us what problem youre trying tosolve, what you did, and what you found. Avoid hyperbole Good research speaks for itself; no need tooversell Have a clean document Proofread before turning in the paper Read the entire document make sure the first half isconsistent with the second half! Follow APA style Use in-text citation; all references must be cited in the text andall citations have to be listed in the bibliography Check out the sample papers Use online resources for example,http://www.uwsp.edu/PSYCH/apa4b.htm#toc 3. Literature Review Include valid research only Commercial materials are not considered research Opinion pieces are not considered research Apply what we have learned this semester (e.g., Bests book) toevaluate your sources objectiveness and determine whetherthey are worth including Compose the literature review to motivate your researchquestion Use articles to illustrate the research gap and why your study isneeded Tell us how your study is different from previous ones Compose the literature review to motivate your hypotheses Use articles to convince us what youre hypothesizing makessense e.g., What existing research makes you believe womenare smarter than men? Weave existing research together in a logical way to supportyour story. Youre not making a list of other peoples work. Youre 4. Method Key Point: Document the data collectionmethodology in sufficient detail such that otherscan use this section to replicate the study (noneed to document how you did the literaturereview; this section is for data collection only) Provide specific information on the following: Participants How many of them? Basicdemographics (# of males? Females? Age? Otherrelevant information?) Number ofdisqualified/dropped participants? Reason fordisqualification? Final sample size? Procedure Step-by-step recipe of what you did tocollect data Briefly explain the materials you used for data collection andpoint the reader to the Appendix for the instruments 5. Results Present descriptive statistics for your key variables in atable means, standard deviations, ranges, sample size,and other notable summaries. Include figures whenappropriate. Present inferential statistics for your hypotheses correlations, regressions, ANOVAs, and their significancelevels. Include tables and/or figures to illustrate yourfindings. Make sure you understand the statistics yourepresenting. Use the lecture slides, textbook Chapter 12,and sample papers for references. A simple guide is available athttp://www.uwsp.edu/PSYCH/stat/index.htm A simple example is available athttp://www.uwsp.edu/PSYCH/apa4b.htm#A2 Summarize your findings in simple, straightforwardlanguage. Again, no hyperbole. No need to interpret your results against the hypotheseshere. Save that for the discussion section. 6. Discussion Restate your research question(s) andhypotheses. Give a non-technical summary of your results Evaluate and interpret your results with respect toeach hypothesis. Summarize whether hypotheses are supported ornot in a table. Discuss implications of your results What do the results mean? To other researchers? To the organization? Discuss limitations of your study Provide a summary conclusion