subject: Structuring Your Research Paper Is Easier Said Than Done? [print this page] Writing up a scientific report and writing up a sociological research paper are very similar in their structure. The research report is different from the usual essay as it's usually a report on a scientific experiment or field research and in sociology the report details the findings of your empirical research study.
In a scientific report and very often in a statistical piece of sociological research, you should start with an introduction and state your hypothesis or what you believe to be the case. Very often the hypothesis is presented as a question that needs answering. The rest of the report details how you went about the experiment or social research, what you found and what conclusions might be drawn from those findings.
Once you have dealt with your hypothesis, most scientific and research reports are structured in the following way.
Rationale - your rationale is basically your reason for undertaking the study, which might rest on your assumptions about a certain scientific experiment or what you believe to be the case about a certain social group. In sociological research a rationale may also include personal reasons for a particular investigation i.e., people who have been poor might want to find out more about poverty and why some people are poorer than others.
You may be interested in the educational attainment of girls and how that compares to the attainment of boys from the same age and social group.
The next section of your report will contain your literature review. A literature review is designed to give an overview of existing work in the area and to highlight an area where there may be a gap in the literature. In sociological research your literature review will also be your guide when it comes to analyzing your findings and discussing what you have found.
Your research methodology and methods should follow on from your literature review. Whether you're writing a scientific research paper or a sociological one, the strength of what you are arguing relies mainly on the validity and replicability of your research. In science, anyone following the steps you took during an experiment should come up with the same results.
In sociological research your methodology is the most important aspect of the work as this gives validity to anything else you have to say. In sociological research your methodology should include every step you took, including those which may not have worked the way you intended. Hypothetically, if someone followed your methodology, including the mistakes, they should come up with the same or very similar conclusions to your own.
The next section of the report is where you report your findings i.e., what data you collected concerning your experiment or your social research. The next session is your own discussion of the results and what they might mean. The final part of your research paper is the conclusion where you tie up any loose ends and make recommendations for further research.
Most research reports, whether they are scientific or sociological, will follow this general pattern. As you can see from the above, the structure of a research report is very different to that of an essay or college paper. The good thing about this is that once you get used to the structure, you have a ready made format for any research report.
