Parts of An Empirical Report

1
Parts of An Empirical Report

• Title Page
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• References
• Appendix (possibly)
• Author Note
• Tables and/or Figures

2
Title Page

• What should be included?
• Well, the title the title page must quickly
  convey the focus of the study.
• Author(s) name(s) and affiliation(s)
• APA has specific guide lines on how this
  information should be presented
• Running head
• This should be a condensed version of your title
• Page header
• This is typically the first couple of words of
  your title and will appear on every page of the
  manuscript
• Page number
• In top right corner, this also will appear on
  every page of the manuscript
• Author note
• If the submission is to be anonymously reviewed

3
Abstract

• Next to your title this is the portion of your
  paper most likely to be read by others (very
  important)
• Your abstract must succinctly convey
• The problem under investigation
• The participants
• The method
• The results
• Conclusions and implications based on the results
• Your abstract should NOT be any more than 120
  words

4
Introduction

• A good introduction answers
• Why is this problem important?
• How do your hypothesis and design relate to this
  problem?
• What are the theoretical implications of this
  study/how does it relate to other work in this
  area?
• What theoretical tenets are tested?

5
Methods

• This section describes in explicit detail how
  this study was conducted
• You will describe
• Participants who was in the study
• Apparatus or materials what was used in the
  study
• Procedure how was the study conducted

6
Results

• This section summarizes the data collected and
  the analyses conducted. This section should be
  reported in sufficient detail to justify any
  conclusions drawn.

7
Discussion

• This is where you evaluate and interpret your
  study
• Was your hypothesis supported? Why, Why not?
• How do the finding relate to the rest of the
  literature?
• What are the limitations of this study?
• What are future directions of study based upon
  the results of this study?

8
References

• Here you provide the complete article and author
  information for any work cited in the study

9
Appendix

• An appendix is called for if the detailed
  description of certain material would be
  distracting if included in the body of the paper.
• You would include an appendix if your were
• using unpublished testing procedures
• using specifically designed computer programs
• unusual and/or complex equipment

10
Author Note (if not on Title Page)

• Here you provide
• Departmental affiliation of author(s)
• Funding sources for research
• Acknowledgment of others contributions
• Contact information for interested readers

11
Tables and Figures

• In APA format tables and figures discussed in the
  results sections (or elsewhere) are not included
  in the text they are provided at the very end of
  the document.
• Tables and figures are used to quickly convey
  complex information about the data you collected.
• There are very specific guide lines for the
  formatting of tables and figures. You must
  follow these guidelines.