The Formal
Report
What is research?

Why learn about research in a ‘work communication’
unit?
◦ Research  gathering information

Without accurate and complete information, you
can’t make good decisions at a job
◦ This information may be in people’s minds, in a computer,
or in books/periodicals/other documents
Some jobs: gather info, write progress reports,
incident reports, trip reports, meeting reports
 At work, we do research to solve problems and
support new ideas.

Define your purpose

the reason for communicating

Categories:
• to express ideas
• to inform
• to explain
• to explore a topic
• to persuade
 TO DO: CIRCLE the categories that apply to
your project
Define your audience

ASK:
• What do you know about age, gender, geographical
location, education, professional position, and so forth?
• What does the audience already know about the issue?
• What is the audience’s current point of view on the issue?
• What background does the audience need on the issue?
• What will the audience want to know about the issue?
• What information will interest the audience?
• What personal information about the audience might
influence their position or feelings on the issue?

TO DO: Write the information about
audience on the right side of this slide
Formulate a question

TO DO: To help you define your purpose,
make a guiding question about your topic:
 ----------------------------------------------------
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Primary and Secondary Research

A primary source is an original object or document -- the
raw material or first-hand information.
◦ Primary sources include historical and legal documents,
eyewitness accounts, results of experiments, statistical data,
pieces of creative writing, empirical studies, and art objects.

A secondary source is something written about a primary
source. Secondary sources include comments on,
interpretations of, or discussions about the original material.
You can think of secondary sources as second-hand
information. If I tell you something, I am the primary source.
If you tell someone else what I told you, you are the
secondary source.
◦ Secondary source materials can be articles in newspapers or
popular magazines, book or movie reviews, or articles found in
scholarly journals that discuss or evaluate someone else's
original research.
Primary and Secondary: Examples
PRIMARY SOURCE
SECONDARY SOURCE
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
Garry Wills' book Lincoln at Gettysburg:
The Words That Remade America
The poem "Field Work" by Seamus Heaney "A Cold Eye Cast Inward: Seamus Heaney's
Field Work." by George Cusack in New
Hibernia Review (2002 Autumn), pp. 53-72.
The figures for Ithaca College found in a
An article in the Ithacan entitled "Study
table of "Number of Offenses Known to
finds eastern colleges often conceal campus
the Police, Universities and Colleges" in the crime"
FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, 2008
The lyrics of 2 Live Crew's album As Nasty
As They Wanna Be
The article "Discouraging 'Objectionable'
Music Content: Litigation, Legislation,
Economic Pressure, and More Speech"
found in Communications & the Law, April
2003,
Cynthia Scheibe's doctoral dissertation on An article in Parents Magazine discussing
the developmental differences in children's experts' views on the harm of lying to
reasoning about Santa Claus
children about Santa Claus
The text of Barack Obama's keynote
address to the 2004 Democratic National
Convention, found in The New York Times
A 2004 editorial in The New York Times
entitled "Everybody Loves Obama"
TO DO:
1.
ONE primary source – list to the right
1. Show questions to Ms K before using your
primary source
2.
ONE secondary source from Ebsco
Host – list title to the right
Recording Information from
Sources

Options (choose 1 or more):
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
Quotations
Paraphrases
Highlighted notes
Mind maps
Summaries

I will ask for exit slips detailing who took notes
on what part.

Keep list of sources used for future reference
list!!!
Presenting the Report

You choose the genre/format
◦ E.g.,
 Powerpoint
 Video
 Demonstration

TO DO: List your format of presentation
here:
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