Phase Three - Writing your Formal Research Report 135 Marks

Length: Minimum. 3000 words (2000 of these will be your body research)
Required Sources: 4-6 articles, one must be included and from a database; all sources must be credible

Use an external structure with headings, sub-headings, and a properly formatted cover page. Clear topic
sentences and concluding sentences are still a must. Your paper must be word-processed, double-spaced,
and checked for errors in grammar and spelling.

1. Introduction (20 marks)

o Properly formatted cover page – See Centennial Communication Guide (1 Mark)
o Acknowledgements - if you feel inclined, you may give credit to anyone you found particularly
helpful in completing your research project)
o Table of Contents – help your reader quickly locate information with page numbers
o Abstract - 100-200 word summary of your research
o Aims and Purpose –how you narrowed your topic to a more manageable size – did you focus on one
particular aspect, from one particular geographic/political area, what were you trying to learn?
o Literature Review – does not count for your word count – include the review and evaluation of sources
you did for your research proposal
o Methodology – how did you conduct your research? Did you interview people with surveys or
questionnaires? Did you use only journal articles or did you also include books and websites? Did
you use primary and secondary sources? Did you use more than the school library resources?
o Definitions – define key terms which you had to learn about to do your research or which you think
that an intelligent but uninformed person might need to have clarified to understand your report.

3. Body (80 marks)

o Overview - Briefly preview the sub-topics to be examined
o Thesis – make a clear assertion about what you believe about your topic which you will be
supporting in your Results and Findings
o Results and Findings - Logical sub-topics – minimum of three – Clear, organized presentation of
information gathered from many different sources and presented as a unified, polished piece of
writing. This is the bulk of the assignment – hours of reading, research, note-taking, organization of
information – make sure that your Results and Findings reflects this effort.
o A minimum of six direct reference
o Smoothly integrated research – direct quotations must be in quotation marks, indirect references
must also be cited – make sure you use APA format (in-text citations and references page)

4. Conclusion (15 Marks)

o Conclusion – drawn from your findings, a logical extension of the information
o Analysis and Discussion – use the personal pronoun “I” - what did you learn from your research
process? What are the major discoveries about your topic and the impact that your discoveries had
on your understanding of your topic. How useful was this project?
o Recommendations – in light of what your have discovered, are there things which should be done?
o Possible Next Steps for Research – briefly explain how you, or someone else, could expand on this
study. Explain why more study on the topic might be useful and what would you like to learn next?

5. Bibliographic information (10 Marks)

Include a properly formatted bibliography for all of the sources you used. You may also want to include a
Suggested Reading list for sources you found which were very informative, but which you did not use
because they were not what you were focusing on.
Overall Effectiveness – (10 Marks) consider the overall effect of your proposal. You will be assigned a
mark that reflects the organization, neatness, professionalism, and the mechanics of the paper.