COMM 300 Preparing for Reports

Creating Problem and Purpose Statements and Collecting

Primary Data

4 Steps to Report Planning

• Step 1: Analyze the problem and purpose

• Step 2: Anticipate the audience & issues

• Step 3: Prepare a work plan

• Step 4: Implement your research strategy

Preparing to Write Formal Reports: Definitions of Preparing to Write Formal Reports: Definitions of the Problemthe Problem

•Begin with a definition of the project; prepare a written problem statement.

•A definition of the problem is usually one sentence long and it specifies what the problem is.

Criteria of a good problem:

A good problem is interesting and embedded in some sort of hypothesis:

For example:• Men communicate differently than women;• texting will make us illiterate; • paperless classrooms are not as efficient

as first assumed, etc.

Is your problem researchable?

A good problem is researchable.• How do men communicate differently than

women?• How can texting improve or negatively change

literacy potentials in students?• How will the paperless classroom change

learning for students?

Make sure your problem deals not with what ought to be but with what can be shown.

Preparing Purpose Statements

• Purpose statements define the focus of the report and provide a standard that keeps the project on target.

• Purpose statements use active verbs that tell what you intend to do: analyze, choose, investigate, compare, justify, evaluate, establish, determine. They also consider scope, significance, and limitations of the report.

Example Purpose Statement

• Here is a typical script for a purpose statement. Remember, however, that your statement may vary based on the scope, significance and limitations of your report:

• The purpose of this report is to ________ (understand? recommend? describe? develop? discover? etc.) the ______ (central phenomenon being studied) for ________ (the name of the participant or the name of the organization) at ____ (research site). The report is significant because ______ (name reason). The study is limited (state limitations).

Getting to data

• Data is the ‘stuff’ you work with; data resembles notes, numbers, information collected through interviews, observation, questionnaires.

• Based on data we put together findings and results.

Anticipating the audience and issues

• As you are considering what research you will use (secondary and primary research based on questionnaires, observations, interviews), ask yourself the following questions:

• What do my readers need to know about this topic?

• What do they already know about this topic?

• How will they react to this information?

• Which sources will they trust?

• How can I make this information readable, believable, and memorable?

Preparing a Work Plan

Works plans are important; they force you to evaluate your resources, set priorities, outline a course of action and establish a time schedule.

Consider including the following in a work plan:

1.Statement of the problem

• 2. Statement of the purpose including scope (how deep you will be looking or examining the issue), significance, limitations

• 3. Research strategy including description of sources and methods of collecting data

• 4. Tentative outline that factors the problem into manageable chunks

• 5. Work schedule.

Primary Research

• Your reports require that you at the very least prepare a questionnaire and distribute it to your subjects.

• You may also conduct interviews and ethnographic observations as well.

Writing Questionnaires

• Good questionnaires require thought and effort.

• There are many steps to preparing the ideal questionnaire and the most important one to be aware of is “audience.”

• Ask yourself: Who is my audience? Who are my subjects? How much time do they have? What answers do I need them to complete?

Key principles to questionnaires

• There are two key principles to questionnaires:

1. Avoid confusion.

2. Keep the respondent’s perspective in mind

Avoiding confusion and keeping the respondents in mind:

• Good questionnaires avoid confusion by providing essential information and helping the respondents clearly and effectively move through the questionnaire.

• They tell the respondents what should be done every step of the way.

Writing questions: points to keep in mind

• 1. Avoid jargon, slang and abbreviations in your questionnaire.

• 2. Avoid ambiguity, confusion, and vagueness. Do not make implicit assumptions. For example, the question, “What is your income?” could mean weekly, monthly, yearly, family or personal, before taxes or after. Be specific: What is your monthly salary after taxes?

Avoid emotional language and prestige bias

• 3. Avoid emotional language and prestige bias.

• Recognize that titles or positions in society carry prestige status.

• Avoid prestige bias – associating a statement with a prestigious person or group. Respondents may answer on the basis of their feelings toward the person or group rather than addressing the issue.

Avoid double-barrelled questions

• 4. Avoid double-barrelled questions. A double-barrelled questions consists of two or more questions joined together. It makes a respondent’s answer ambiguous:

• Do you exercise or play sports regularly?• Better: Do you exercise regularly?• Or: Do you play sports regularly?

Poor: Are sales reps polite and responsive?Problem: Sales reps may be polite but not responsive.Better: Are sales reps polite?

Are sales reps responsive?Tip: Make each question about one and only one topic.

Avoid constructing questions with the word and or the word or.

• Avoid constructing questions with the word and or the word or.

• The word and can signal that you might be combining questions.

• The word or is often associated with a double question or with a false dilemma: Do you prefer a Liberal or Conservative Government?

• To make certain that you are only asking one question, do not use the words and or or in your question (s) .

Avoid leading questions

• 5. Avoid leading questions. A leading or loaded question is one that leads the respondent to choose one response over another by its wording:

“You don’t smoke, do you? (in an interview)

“Should the mayor fix the potholed and dangerous streets in our city? Yes __ No__?”

Avoid asking questions that are beyond respondents’ capabilities

• 6. Avoid asking questions that are beyond respondents’ capabilities:

• For example, asking someone to recall past experiences: “How did you feel about your brother/sister when you were six years old? Please be specific.”

Avoid asking questions which require the respondent to think about future intentions

• 7. Avoid asking questions which require the respondent to think about future intentions. For example: “If a new grocery store opened across the street, would you shop at it? Yes___ No___?”

A good question has mutually exclusive options

• A good question leaves no ambiguity in the mind of the respondent.

• There should always be only one correct or appropriate answer.

For example Poor question: Where did you grow up?(check one):(A) Farm __ (B) Country __ (C) City __• This question yields many possible answers. • To correct this problem, you would have to reorganize

the various possible questions into single specific ones.

Also, you would have to clarify what is meant by “grow up.”

A good question produces variability in response.

• When a question produces no variability in a response, we learn very little.

• For example: What do you think of this instructor? (check one):

• ___ It’s the worst course I’ve taken?

• ___ It’s somewhere between the worst and the best.

• ___ It’s the best course I’ve ever taken.

Hints:• Design your questions so that they are

sensitive to differences among respondents.

• Consider questions which rank and have respondents judge the value of something.

• Consider including some questions which ask the respondent’s opinion.

• Make sure your questionnaire takes no longer than 10 minutes to complete.

The End