Nueman explains in the last chapter different aspect of writing a final report on a research project. Research project doesn’t end at data analysis and interpretation. However, researchers still need to communicate their project’s results with others because this what the scientific community holds as one of its norms. The final report is a written document that shows the audience what the research is about, why it is conducted, how it was designed, how data was collected, and what are the results yielded out of it. Researchers need to know their targeted audience in order to communicate their results effectively. People have different interests and they look for different aspects from different views. For instance, scholars are paying close attention to how the research is linked to abstract theory and literature, how the research was designed in details, and how the variables were measured. However, practitioners are only willing to see a summary of how the study was conducted, what are its results, and if there is any other alternative paths of action to take and its practical implications.
Writing a final report is a process that has three stages (prewriting, composing, and rewriting). Some researchers start from the second stage. Yet, researchers who start from composing stage need to be very talented and experienced researchers. Writing a report on a qualitative research is harder than writing a report on quantitative research because qualitative research has less rules and less structured. For instance, field research report is facing more skepticism more than any quantitative research. The researchers shouldn’t ignore the audience’s demands while they reporting about their field research’s results. Otherwise, the researcher will end up with many doubts about his/her research’s credibility.
Nueman also differentiated between research proposals and research reports. The researcher states in his final report the results he/she reached after conducting the research. On the other hand, before conducting any study, the researcher write a proposal in which he/she explains the research problem and what methodology will be used and why it is appropriate for his/her topic.
Additionally, Nueman explained in this chapter what political and ethical limitations that any researcher may face on his/her research. I found table 16.8 well summarized in which Nueman categorized the limits on research into direct and indirect limits. After all, researchers need to be always aware of what political and ethical issues they may encounter, its subsequent dangers, and adopt a realistic view sociopolitical environment.
SL2 Lab meeting notes - 06-20.doc