English 102: Intermediate College Writing
Joanna Wolfe
IMRaD Report: Designing and Presenting the Results of an Experiment on Writing
Overview:
You will work with two other classmates for one week to design a research experiment that tests a writing principle or
strategy (see next page for topic ideas). You and your teammates will work together to design an experiment and collect
data, gathering at least three different variables. Based on the data you gather, each teammate will prepare an individual
report of approximately 800 words describing the experiment, results, and implications. This report must be written in
IMRaD format, use at least one graph or table for displaying data, and cite at least one source in the introduction.
Goals:
This assignment is designed to
 Give you practice writing a scientific/technical report in IMRaD format
 Help you learn more about a writing principle or strategy by testing it out for yourself and seeing whether the
advice holds up to your own research.
 Give you practice collaborating with others on an original project idea.
 Give you practice making both verbal and visual arguments with numbers and data.
Collaboration:
You will work with a team for one week to develop research a research question, design research materials, and collect
data. The work that you do collaborating with your teammates will count as your homework and in-class grades for the
relevant classes. Once the data has been collected, each team member will work independently to turn in an individual
copy of the report.
Team members will be expected to use Google Documents to send emails to the group and store copies of all documents
associated with this project. You will need to create a free Google Account ( at http://docs.google.com/) to use this
service. Be sure to include me as one of the users who can access your team’s documents (joanna.wolfe@louisville.edu)
One person on the team will serve as project manager. The project manager is responsible for making sure that everyone
can access the information on Google Docs account (be sure to include the instructor!), posting brief minutes after team
meetings on Google Docs, and maintaining a basic task schedule on Google Docs.
Formatting and other Requirements:
Your report should be approximately 4 full double-spaced pages (800 words). Be sure to include

page numbers (in Word, go to the Insert menu and select Page Numbers)

a title

your name

at least one graph or table (in the results section)

at least one source (in the introduction and discussion sections)

a list of works cited
Evaluation Criteria:
Criteria
Goal
Quality of
The writer has worked with others to implement an experiment that will provide sufficient
Experiment and
quality data for a good report. The data is presented in rhetorically effective tables or graphs
Analysis
and is analyzed well in the text. The introduction and discussion sections indicate how this
experiment contributes to our understanding of the topic.
The report follows the IMRaD genre: there is an explicit title; an abstract that includes the
Organization/
major information from each of the sections; an introduction that discusses related research
IMRaD genre
and lists the research questions; a methods section with clear headings; a results section
that uses tables/figures to display the data and words to discuss what the main findings mean;
and a discussion section that summarizes the main findings, talks about the flaws and
shortcomings of the study, and discusses the implications of the research.
Tone,
The paper was turned in on time and formatted correctly. The tone is formal and scholarly and
Completeness & the style is efficient and clear. The text contains no grammatical errors that interfere with the
Mechanics
reader's ability to understand the argument*. Sources are correctly cited and documented.
* Papers with more than one major grammatical error per page will be returned to authors to be corrected before they will
be accepted.
Getting started/Topic Proposals:
1. Everyone in class will post a topic proposal to the appropriate BlackBoard discussion board by the beginning of class
on Thursday, 2/25. Students who post their topic proposals before 7am Thursday morning will receive extra credit.
(See the BB schedule for updates to this deadline if we have any snow days, etc.). This proposal should identify the
top two research questions you are interested in investigating and some ideas for how you would set up a study to
answer these questions.
2. I will assign groups based upon interests and responsibility (i.e., I will ensure that each group has at least two people
who have been consistent with attendance and turning in assignments on time). If there is someone in the class with
whom you would rather not work, send me a private email at Joanna.wolfe@louisville.edu and I will take this into
consideration.
Topic ideas:
 Does topic sentence placement really influence readers’ recall of information?
Experiment possibility: prepare two different versions of an argument—one with clear topic sentences at the
beginning of paragraphs and one without; Give 10 students version A and 10 students version B; Time how long it
takes for them to read and have them take a quiz testing their recall of information; Then give the students the
other version and ask them which version (A or B) they prefer.
 Does Alley et al.’s PowerPoint redesign work for lecture slides in a different discipline?
Experiment possibility: take a set of slides from a professor’s lectures and redesign them according to Alley’s
principles; Give 10 students the original version and 10 students the revised version; Time how long it takes for
them to read the slides and have them take a quiz testing their recall of information; Then give the students the
other version and ask them whether they prefer the original or revised version.
 Do stronger writers really spend more time planning than weaker writers?
Experiment possibility: find three juniors or seniors who have made good grades in writing classes and three
freshmen who have made average grades and give them one of the assignments from this class. Ask them to
talk aloud as they complete the assignment. Time how long they spend on reading, planning and writing;
Measure the length of their notes; and have an English professor evaluate the quality of their essays.
 What types of writing errors bother scientists (or medical professionals, or teachers, or businesspeople)
the most? Experiment possibility: give a group a survey like that in Gilsdorf and Leonard and ask them to (a) rate
how bothersome they find different types of errors, (b) list what writing problems they find most bothersome
overall, and (c) describe what types of impressions they have of writers who commit various errors.
 Do cohesive devices like the known/new contract (also called the old/new contract) or transitions (also
known as meta-discourse) really affect readers’ abilities to comprehend information? (see
http://depts.washington.edu/engl/askbetty/cohesion.php or Gopen and Swan’s “The Science of Scientific Writing:
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/the-science-of-scientific-writing)
 Does including disagreeing viewpoints in an argumentative essay affect how readers perceive the essay?
(see Wolfe et al., “MySide Bias in Written Argument”: http://wcx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/2/183)
 Are pie charts really more difficult to comprehend than other types of graphs? (see Stephen Few’s “Save
the Pies for Dessert: http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/08-21-07.pdf).
 How do changes in font size or font type affect reading time and perceptions of a document? ( see
Usability News: http://www.surl.org/usabilitynews/32/font.asp )
Due Dates:
See the daily schedule (on Blackboard) for all due dates associated with this assignment.