IQP WRITING GUIDELINES

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

This document is primarily about IQP writing, but if you follow these guidelines and suggestions

effectively, you will simultaneously achieve many other learning objectives related to critical

thinking, project formulation, and implementation.

Contents and Structure of a Typical IQP Report

A full IQP report usually has the sequence of sections shown in Table 1; these are similar to those you

use in most scientific writing. The components in bold font are the chapters that comprise the main

body of the report; those chapters could be titled or arranged differently based on the nature of your

project. The rest is standard content, suggested for all IQP reports.

For the main section of the report we have included length guidelines. The purpose of suggesting a

number of pages is to emphasize quality over quantity. It is often more challenging to write concisely!

The wide range in length for some of the chapters reflects the fact that each project is unique.

TABLE 1: SEQUENTIAL CONTENTS OF A TYPICAL IQP REPORT, WITH LENGTH GUIDELINES

Section / Chapter

# Words

Pages (single-spaced)

Pages (double-spaced)

Title Page

Abstract

Acknowledgements

Executive Summary

3-4

4-5

Authorship

Table of Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables*

Introduction

600-700

1-1.5

1.5-2

Background

2800-4200

7-10

10-15

Methodology

2000-3500

5-8

8-12

Findings

3500-4500

8-12

14-18

Conclusions & Recommendations

1500-3500

4-8

6-12

References

Appendix A**

Appendix B… etc.

*Everything up to the List of Tables is “forematter” and is numbered with small Roman numerals that begin after the

title page. Arabic numbering (1, 2, 3,…) begins with the Introduction.

**Each Appendix should have a descriptive title (e.g., Appendix A: Interview Protocols). Put project-related

appendices first. Two required appendices are Teamwork Assessments.

Report Submission: WPI requires electronic submission of project reports. The process is described

at www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/

The Writing and Feedback Process

The following sequence describes a suggested process for your continuing development as thinkers

and writers. For each chapter of the report:

• Read carefully the guidelines and tips for the chapter in this document, focusing on the

rhetorical purpose and conventions of the chapter (e.g., What do researchers try to establish

in this chapter? How is the chapter typically organized?)

• Look over one or more chapters in model IQP reports (see listing below)

• Meet as a team to discuss your approach (the substance and sequence of your argument,

what evidence you will draw upon). Request a meeting with advisors if you have major

questions about content and organization.

• Submit full draft. Advisors will provide detailed comments on the full draft.

• Use advisors’ comments and additional face-to-face discussion as necessary to further

revise each chapter for the full draft of the report.

Model IQP Reports

The following projects were chosen as finalists in the President’s IQP Awards Competition, and can

be found in the Gordon Library’s Electronic Projects Collection:

• N. Labbe at al., Erosion and Flood Control in the Informal Settlements of Windhoek,

Namibia

http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-050406-

032633/unrestricted/FinalIQP.pdf

• L. Baldassari et al., Investigation of the Effects of the Built Environment on Patient

Health Outcomes and Staff Satisfaction http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-

project/Available/E-project-050205-

002200/unrestricted/Built_Environment_Patients_Staff.pdf

• R. Eley et al., Two Sides to Every Story: A Case of Environmental Communication in Mae

Moh, Thailand

http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-030908-

163940/unrestricted/MaeMoh-Thailand-C08.pdf

General Writing Tips

Following are some general tips that will help throughout the report:

• Use active voice and a variety of verbs. Almost all effective writers write with VERBS.

Some less effective writers use mostly nouns with over 50 percent of their verbs being some

form of “to be.” As a result, actors fall out of the picture and the real action of the story gets

lost. This issue is not one of style; it is a content issue. Look for examples in the subsequent

sections (particularly Methodology) regarding how to transform from passive to active voice

by making better use of verbs.

• Make your references clear. Avoid using “this” as a noun without a clear referent; be

precise. Sometimes you can solve the problem by adding a noun after “this”; other times you

can combine the two adjacent sentences to good effect.

• Use helpful, clear formatting. Be mindful of “document design,” and use white space,

headings, lists, figures, etc. in judicious ways to make the report as readable as possible. Do

not have too many sub-sections or sub-sub-sections (no 3.1.4.2!) Use words, rather than

structure, to connect one section to the next. One or two paragraphs are generally not

sufficient to warrant their own section. Use bold and italic font, vary font size, and consider

annotated lists (like the one you are reading now) to make your document reader-friendly.

The Introduction Chapter: Five Moves to Set Up Your Project

The Introduction chapter of an IQP report serves to introduce the reader to your general area of

inquiry, clarify the specific challenge you will address, and explain why the work is worthwhile. The

Introduction is usually no more than two pages and follows a set of “rhetorical moves” that you may

have seen when reading experimental or research papers. The five moves, in order, are to:

1. Establish the general topic, problem, or field that your project addresses

2. Introduce the specific problem or issue;

3. Define the scope of problem or issue by summarizing previous work, what is already known,

and/or what has already been done;

Features of an Effective

Background Chapter

• Starts with an introductory

paragraph (just introduce;

don’t try to summarize)

• Uses descriptive headings

• Synthesizes multiple sources

of information (vs. merely

transferring information) and

explains its meaning and

relevance

• Calls upon authoritative

sources while also

distinguishing between facts

and qualified assertions

4. Create a research space by identifying a gap in previous work or opportunities for extension

or new work (motivating but not quite declaring your particular project by establishing a

specific need)

5. Establish your project by explicitly stating its goal, how it was achieved (objectives),

justifying it, and suggesting its implications and possible impact.

This chapter is brief but important, and deserves your best writing efforts. Plan one (or at most two)

tight, well-written paragraphs to achieve each move. Since the report will be read in the future, use

past tense to describe your specific efforts, e.g., “The goal of this project was to…” Check the

wording of your goal statement to make sure it is “smart”: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic,

and tangible.

The Background Chapter: Elaborating on the Problem, the Stakeholders, the

Debates, the Setting

The Background, also sometimes called a Literature Review,

can be thought of as a longer and more detailed version of the

first four moves of the Introduction. It presents relevant facts

and interprets previous related research—some drawn from

articles and books you’ve read and fact-finding interviews

you’ve conducted, and importantly, some drawn from

interviews and observations during the project—to help the

reader understand the problem at hand and what others have

done. By the end of this chapter, the reader should find your

project important, should understand how your work relates

to previous work, and should have a sense of how you are

likely to proceed (even though you will not have stated that

directly yet.) By drawing on evidence from credible sources,

you will lead the reader up to the point at which your own

work will begin.

Content: Much of this chapter will focus background research you needed to do to understand your

project in context of the work of previous researchers. As the project evolves, you will want to

incorporate new material that you come across, and cut some that is no longer directly relevant. Even

when the project is mature, you may need to incorporate new material. Be willing to rethink the

contents as you adjust your conception of the project.

Remember: The background chapter is for readers, not for you. When deciding on content for this

chapter, consider what readers need to know to understand your project. Here are some useful

questions:

• Where is the setting for the project? What is its history and geographical context?

• Who are the major stakeholders (people who have a “stake” in the subject you are studying)?

• What is the gap or problem you are hoping to help with?

• What are the causes of the problem?

• What approaches have been or could be taken to address the problem?

• What are the major points of consensus and the major point of debate on the subject of your

project?

• What have others learned elsewhere about these problems? What are the criteria for a

successful project in your field of work?

The Relevance Test: A common weakness is when student writers do not distinguish between what

is vaguely relevant to their project and what is directly relevant. If it’s not directly relevant, cut it. A

related problem is when writers don’t explain or show the relevance of even relevant information. A

relevant detail that appears irrelevant because you haven’t explained its relevance is irrelevant as far

as your reader is concerned; this will undermine your effectiveness. Either explain an article’s

relevance or eliminate it.

Structure

• Make sure there is a logical “storyline” and sequencing of topics. Proceed from the general to

the specific, and follow the order of the first four moves in your Introduction chapter. The

final sections of your Background chapter should lead the reader “up to the brink” of your

work.

• Prepare readers for your storyline with a short introductory paragraph at the start of the

chapter. The purpose of the introductory paragraph is to introduce and motivate—but not to

summarize at length—the chapter (or section). Following is an abbreviated example:

In this chapter, we begin with a brief overview of the general problem of X and debates about

its sources and possible solutions. Next we will synthesize best practices related to Y that are

agreed upon by experts in this field. We conclude by introducing the [Name of Sponsoring

Organization] and its specific needs for Z.

• Similarly, start each major section with a short introductory paragraph explaining what is in

that section and stating your main point.

• Use section headings that are descriptive and specific to your project. (This tip applies

throughout the entire report AND in your presentations!)

Example: Mission and Programs of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental

Protection is descriptive and specific. Something like Sponsor Background is NOT

descriptive and conveys no useful information to readers.

• Create smooth transitions and logical connections between sections using transitional phrases

and words.

• Check each and every paragraph: Is there a topic sentence that conveys the main point of the

paragraph, and is all information in the paragraph related to that theme?

How to Acknowledge and Discuss Source Materials

Often the greatest challenge in writing a Background chapter is to develop a “research voice” that

presents evidence and arguments in a factual, unbiased way. You should have no claims that might

cause a reader to wonder “Says who?” That means you need to explain and back up any knowledge

claim you make and show where you are getting your information. Remember that just providing a

reference is not enough. The source must be reliable and even then you should never treat any source

as “The Truth.” Writing the Background section effectively requires an understanding not only of how

to cite reference materials, but also of when and how to discuss them.

Note that the only parts of a research report that do not require acknowledgement are common

knowledge, facts available in a variety of sources, and your own findings. That implies that

everything else requires acknowledgement! However, certain types of material require more than a

reference; they require explicit discussion of the source in the text, to establish the nature of the

authority behind the assertion. Only then can readers decide whether they can trust your information.

Direct quotations should be used very sparingly; rarely should an entire sentence be quoted. In

general, you should be summarizing and interpreting source materials. However, sometimes the

actual wording itself, or the person who said it, will be of interest to the reader. In that case, it is

typically appropriate to explicitly acknowledge the source in the text as well as providing a citation:

Thai food is very complex; experienced world traveler Seth Tuler has referred to it as “a party in

your mouth.”

Facts not widely known or easily available are cited in the normal way. Because they are facts,

there is typically no need for you to identify the source explicitly in the text:

Pad Thai is a noodle dish with origins in both Chinese and Indian cuisines

Judgments, opinions, claims, and arguable assertions are the most challenging type of content to

properly acknowledge, since they fall on a continuum. The findings of previous researchers often fall

Note that all of the material and sources used as examples in this section have been fabricated. Normally, you

will cite sources using APA citations to your list of referenced works, but here we’ll use footnotes.

Tuler, Seth. Slow Food Around the World. Achewood Press, 1995.

Tantayanon, Supawan. Eat Like Me! Chula House, 1998.

into this category. The more controversial, extreme, or subjective the content, the more necessary it is

to explicitly indicate or discuss the source. Some examples follow.

Although the following statement is not a fact, it is a mild assertion that few would argue with, and

you could probably get away with stating it as long as it was followed by some evidence:

Thai food is considered one of the great cuisines of the world.

However, note that you can actually turn the statement into a fact by attributing it:

Several renowned critics have identified Thai cuisine as one of the world’s greatest

cuisines

As the assertion, judgment, or opinion gets more controversial or subjective, the writer must get more

careful. The following is one researcher’s conclusion, and probably not agreed on by all:

Demetry concluded that Thais have developed the world’s most complex and interesting

cuisine

Extreme positions require great care, and perhaps some balance. The following is one writer’s

claim, presented in a way that makes clear its extreme nature:

Vaz has gone so far as to claim that Thai food will bring diners total consciousness

;

however, most authors have been content with praising the food’s physiological effects.

When you find a particularly relevant piece of previous research, you will want to help the reader

understand both that research and its findings, and to tie those findings to the authors. Note how each

sentence of the following paragraph discusses the source to make clear where the information came

from:

A 2003 study by Tuler described an attempt to categorize the varieties of Tom Yum by

analyzing over 100 versions of the soup in terms of ingredients, preparation, and subjective

effect on tasters. Tuler concluded that no matter how it’s prepared the soup is “damn fine

stuff,” but was able to define three distinct categories based on the extent to which foreign

palates were accommodated. The study also developed a useful scale of spiciness based on

volumetric measurement of forehead perspiration.

When proofreading your background chapter, if you find yourself (or anticipate your advisor) asking

“Says who?” or “Is this a credible source?” then you probably need to provide an explanation of the

nature of the source.

Remember to use APA format for your citations, although the examples above are in footnote style.

For specifics about how to cite both published sources and conversations or interviews, see Lunsford,

the APA Publications manual (on reserve at Gordon Library), or the Purdue Online Writing Lab APA

guide: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/10/

The Methodology Chapter: Justifying the “What” and the “How”

The Methodology chapter is often the most challenging to write. The chapter needs to state how you

broke down your project into analytical components and the systematic process you used to achieve

your goal. Typically, the chapter is organized in terms of a set of project objectives that lead toward

the goal. Each objective typically involves answering certain research questions. Research

questions are answered by applying a methodology (research approach) and suitable methods (data

collection techniques). The types of questions asked will determine the appropriate research

approach, and methods. So, despite the name of the chapter, the methods aren’t really the most

important part of this chapter!

This chapter should not read like a diary or timeline of what you did – rather, it should make clear

what you set out to learn, why this information was important, and how you got it, why the methods

Robertson, Thomas. Good Stuff. McGraw-Hill, 2007.

Demetry, Chrysanthe. All My Luncheons. WPI Press, 1999.

Ibid.

Vaz, Richard. Meals and Mysticism. Prentice-Hall, 2001.

Tuler, Seth. “Tom Yum Deconstructed,” Journal of Tasty Things, February 2003.

The Best Methodology

Chapters

• Clarify the goal, objectives,

research questions, and

methods

• Describe and analyze the

limitations of the

methodology/research

• Describe and analyze the

challenges to learning what

you needed to learn (without

drama or complaints)

• Develop issues raised in the

background section in a

consistent and systematic

fashion

you chose were a reasonable choice, how you overcame challenges and what limitations remain. The

focus is on information: what you wanted to learn, and how that knowledge was subsequently used.

After you have clearly identified the what, discuss the how. Researchers can choose from, or

combine, many methods to answer research questions and achieve objectives, so your job is not to

present your approach as the only correct one. However, the reader should conclude that everything

you did was intentional, purposeful, planned ahead of time,

and based on good practices.

Content

• Start with the purpose. Begin by reminding readers of the

goal of the project.

• List the objectives in the introduction to the chapter, and

use them to organize the chapter. For many projects, it

will make sense to have a section for each objective.

• Begin each section with an explanation of the purpose of

the objective. This is not what you did but what

information you intended to learn. Readers will not be

able to assess your methods unless they know what you

are looking for. Explain WHY you needed this

information. Make sure each purpose is clear before

jumping into details of technique--the “how.”

• Frame each objective in terms of a set of research

questions. These are the “big picture” questions you need

to answer to satisfy that objective.

• Describe HOW you got the information you needed. Here is where the methods come in.As you

plan the research, you may initially write up the methods that you will use to collect information,

then change the tense as you report what you did do.

• After describing the HOW, justify your choice of methodology and methods (another type of

WHY). Drawing upon best practices for methods in the literature gives you more credibility as

researchers. Provide enough, but not too much detail. Someone should be able to repeat your

work using information provided in this chapter and in associated Appendices. (For example, a

general idea of the nature of interview questions should be evident in this chapter, but you could

put the actual schedule of interview questions in an Appendix.)

• Include a discussion of data analysis– that is, describe not only how you collected information,

but also how you planned to use that information to achieve your goal. Wherever possible, think

in terms of CRITERIA that you will use to find meaning in your data or to make decisions using

data. Sometimes lists or tables or charts are helpful for laying out criteria and judging options

with respect to them.

• Acknowledge and discuss problems, challenges, limitations, and flaws of your study. This is

important! Your work will not be credible unless you recognize its limitations. Proficient

researchers describe the problems they had in gathering and analyzing information, and avoid

overstated claims of validity. Rather than judging your work to be successful, provide enough

evidence for the reader to make the judgment.

Structure

• As in the Background chapter, provide a short introductory paragraph, positioned between the

Methodology heading and the first section heading (for objective 1), providing a preview of the

chapter for the reader. Often an exact restatement of your Move 5 (from the overall Introduction)

is a great introduction. Number your objectives.

• Here is a good sample introductory paragraph:

The goal of our project was to assess EGAT’s current environmental communication

strategies and make recommendations for improvement specific to Mae Moh’s information

needs. In order to achieve this goal, we developed the following research objectives:

1. Build trust with EGAT employees and the Mae Moh communities to learn about their

perspectives regarding EGAT’s impacts on local residents.

2. Identify EGAT’s communication strategies in terms of content, presentation and

accessibility and identify villagers’ information needs regarding pollution and other

environmental concerns.

3. Develop recommendations by comparing EGAT’s strategies with villagers’ needs to

determine gaps.

In this chapter, we describe the methodology we developed to gather and analyze input from

key stakeholders, and how the results of that analysis were drawn upon to develop

recommendations for EGAT and the Mae Moh villagers.

• The chapter should be organized by objective and research question, not method or chronology.

This chapter is not a diary of your project; don’t give a timeline of what you did, but rather

establish what you set out to do and why. This is a subtle issue of voice. Following is an

exaggerated example of the voice to avoid: “First we contacted key government officials who had

knowledge about building regulations…. After speaking to government officials we met with

representatives of advocacy groups for the hearing impaired…. Then we…” See how that sounds

like a diary? Getting rid of the “time stamps” in this passage would help a lot. Keep the focus on

types of information you sought.

• Use the past tense in the final IQP report to demonstrate what you have done. . For example, “We

will accomplish our goal by…” should be changed to “We accomplished our goal by….”

• Avoid use of “We needed to interview..” or “It was necessary to find information on….” or “It

was important to…” There is no single way to do any project, so these are not very convincing

claims. Just say what you did. You can state things much more clearly in active voice: “We

interviewed…in order to….” “We sought information on…for the purpose of…”

• Although the passive voice is common for writing scientific methodologies, we encourage you to

write this chapter in the active voice. For example, use “we interviewed three people” instead of

“three people were interviewed.” For more examples, consult a writing manual.

Example: The following segments from a Methodology chapter illustrate some of the key points

described above. This example shows a strong “research voice.”

3.1 Objective 1

Build trust with EGAT employees and Mae Moh communities to learn about their

perspectives regarding EGAT’s impacts on local residents.

Studies show that outside researchers must overcome obstacles when becoming involved

with and researching a culturally unfamiliar community. Some even believe that outside

researchers cannot understand or represent the experience of the community (Bridges,

2001). Because of this…

As outsiders in Thailand, the biggest challenge that we faced was establishing trust and

credibility with Mae Moh and EGAT. Gaining trust from the villagers was especially difficult

because…

As outsiders with little credibility in the Mae Moh and EGAT communities, we adopted

strategies recommended in our research for achieving open and trusting relationships with

both. These strategies required….

(There was much more to this objective. The team went on to describe and defend their

strategies for gaining trust with each of the stakeholders.)

3.2 Objective 2

Identify EGAT’s communication strategies in terms of content and accessibility and

identify Mae Moh’s information needs regarding pollution and other environmental

concerns.

We set out to learn about EGAT’s current communication techniques and Mae Moh’s

environmental information needs as a foundation for developing recommendations. To

evaluate communication in Mae Moh, we focused on two particularly important components of

risk communication model development: informational content and accessibility. Knowing

Features of Effective Findings

Chapters

• Move directly to stating claims,

rather than rehashing methods

all over again.

• Avoid data dumping (present

new knowledge, not raw data)

• Contain in-depth analysis

• Have firm but appropriately

qualified claims rather than

overstated claims

• Refer and utilize the literature

wherever possible

• Are consistent with what you

said you would do in the

Methodology chapter

these components from both perspectives allowed us to compare EGAT’s efforts with the

community’s needs and determine disparities. To determine the problems with content, and

accessibility, we chose historical research and semi-standardized interviews due to limited

information on interviewees. The historical research mentioned earlier allowed us to discover

previous efforts in environmental safety and communication. Interviews at EGAT and

informal discussion with communities helped to bridge the gaps in the literature. Interview

and discussion questions were based on the following research questions used to establish

our information needs:

 What informational content does EGAT communicate?

 What do Mae Moh villagers want to know?

 What is the presentation of information?

 Who presents this information?

 How does the community receive information?

 How does the relationship between EGAT and the community influence reception?

Using our research questions, we formed interview and discussion questions specific to the

interviewees’ responsibilities and knowledge. We were also careful to avoid offensive and

unprofessional language.

We directed interview questions at EGAT employees. In total, we interviewed 18 EGAT

employees in several departments (see Table 1 for details.) Each group member undertook a

task during the interview process….

For interviewing community members, we faced similar language concerns. A translator

minimized such communication problems to the extent possible. Our translator, Hatarat

Poomkachar, is a social science researcher from Chulalongkorn University. She facilitated

communication between our team and the community. She has had experience…We

intended to present our research findings back to the community at the end of our research

process to allow for corrections and feedback. However, due to time limitations and lack of a

translator in our final week in Mae Moh, we could not implement this feedback process….

With these difficulties in mind, we spoke with villagers to determine their understanding of

EGAT’s operations and their awareness of communication efforts. In total, we spoke with 22

villagers, generally in a group discussion format (see Table 2 for details). Personal interviews

usually lasted about one hour while group discussions lasted longer, about 1.5-2 hours. We

visited Pong Chai and Na Sak once, each for approximately 4-6 hours. We visited Hua Fai

twice due to villagers’ eagerness to speak to us and share their opinions. We also spoke with

teachers and students from the local high school, all of which are residents of villages in Mae

Moh district. We gathered general community knowledge of EGAT’s operations and pollution

through informal discussion. We discussed EGAT’s efforts in order to assess the public’s

comprehension of and access to environmental information. The data collected provided

insight into possible communication improvements. It indicated what informational content

the people are concerned about, which presentation methods best suit their needs, and who

they trust to communicate the information.

The Findings or Analysis Chapter: Making

Meaning from Your Data

The Findings chapter presents what you have found—the

key discoveries and/or creations you have made while

following your project methodology. It is sometimes

called Results and Analysis, or you can give it an even

more informational title specific to your project.

This chapter is the most important part of your entire

project report! It is where you tell what you learned about

the big questions that the previous three chapters set up.

To think about what to include in this chapter, it is helpful

to make a list of the two or three big questions at the heart

of your project. Think about the goals of the IQP: to

examine the relations between science, technology, and

society. What does your project tell us about these

relations? Also, reread your introduction and background. What is this project all about?

Content: This chapter should not be a wholesale information dump of all of your “raw data”

organized by technique (e.g., you should not have section headings of “Interview Results”,

“Questionnaire Results”, etc.), but rather it should tell the reader what your data mean. You need to

process the data and decide what key findings or patterns have emerged. In this chapter, your readers

will want a SUMMARY of where you ended up and why, not every step along the way. “Analysis”

may be a better word than “findings” to describe this chapter.

Note that the following would not be a finding: “The average yearly wind speed at the Princeton wind

farm is 13.5 mph.” This would be a piece of data. The finding goes deeper and is supported by data.

For example, the finding might be, “An expansion of the Princeton wind farm to two 750 kW turbines

would pay for itself in eight years.”

Some good questions to think about:

• What were your research questions?

• How did different groups of people respond to the situation you are describing?

• What explains why things turned out the way they did? What evidence can you call upon?

• What surprised you about the information you found? How does what you found confirm,

contradict, or supplement your sources in the Background chapter? (Be sure to bring up these

sources.)

• Who will be interested in your findings and why?

• What do your findings tell us about the relations between technology and society?

It is critically important to weave in discussion about the limitations of your findings—to distinguish

between what you can and can’t claim—and to acknowledge alternative interpretations and alternative

viewpoints. Although it may seem counterintuitive, your work will seem more credible if you

acknowledge limitations and concede some uncertainty. Your job is not to “sell” any particular

results—your job is to help the reader understand how well the results are supported by evidence.

A common question, related to interview results in particular, is “What belongs in the Background

chapter and what belongs in the Findings chapter?” It depends, and often there is no clear answer,

but you do want to avoid repetition. If the information from the interviews provides additional

background information that helps readers understand the problem your project addresses, then you

probably want to include it in the Background chapter. This approach is especially common for

interviews done in the first week or two of the project that provide context about local issues.

However, if the information from your interviews is directly aligned with a research question posed in

your Methodology chapter, then that information should be presented as evidence in the Findings

chapter

Structure

• Prepare the reader for your approach by writing an introductory paragraph to the chapter, prior

to the first section. The introduction of this chapter would be an overview of your findings,

setting up the rest of the chapter to support those findings.

• Often you can follow the same sequence of objectives or moves that you laid out in the

Methodology chapter.

• Depending on your findings and the nature of your project, other organizational strategies

might be more effective. For example, in a project that gathers opinions from various stakeholder

groups, you could arrange results according to stakeholder group if you want to emphasize those

different perspectives, or you could identify themes in the results and then present the views of

each stakeholder group within each of those themes.

• An effective format is to state a finding in an introductory paragraph or topic sentence and

then support it. It is often tempting to do the reverse, but stating the finding first generally works

best for a reader. (See the sample below.)

• Be careful about the amount of detail you provide. While you should not present all of your

raw data, you also need to support your claims; be sure to draw upon your data as evidence for

Features of Effective Conclusions &

Recommendations Chapters

• Provide a succinct summary of key

findings

• Have directly-stated recommendations

that stand out at the beginning of each

paragraph or section

• Use formatting that makes it easy for

readers to quickly find specific

conclusions and recommendations

• Make clear who the recommendations

are directed toward

• Show consistency with Background,

Methodology, and

Findings chapters

• Do more than recommend

something; they provide a roadmap

for implementation: What methods?

What criteria should be used? What

sources should be consulted? What

obstacles might come up?

any claims that you make. For example, you could include some quotations from interviews and

present summaries of your data in tables or figures.

• Remember that when you include Figures and Tables, you do so to reinforce points you’re

making in the narrative, not to replace narrative. Never present a figure or table unless you refer

to it in the text, explain it, and interpret it for the reader. For example: “Table 2 (not ‘The table

below’) shows a summary of the results of interviews with the various stakeholder groups,

divided into the areas of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Note that grass-roots

contacts and interpersonal connections were a theme among strengths identified by both groups A

and B…, whereas …” Then Table 2 should be included in the next available space following this

paragraph, and the table should have a fully descriptive caption that is also included in the List of

Tables and Figures following the Table of Contents at the front of the report.

• If you are producing some stand-alone documents as part of your work (manual, website, or other

materials), plan on placing them in an appendix. In the Findings chapter, you would describe the

findings and principles that guided the development of those documents, and point the reader to

them. The audience for those stand-alone documents is whoever will be using them. The

audience for the report is other researchers.

Example: Following is a sample organization for a Findings chapter that illustrates some of the

points above.

By analyzing the information gathered from our site visits and interviews, we developed the following

findings concerning the tree planting projects in Heredia province, and the various stakeholders and

principles which affect their success:

1. Most of the thirteen tree planting sites we visited contained trees that were correctly placed and

watered, but were harmed by pests or other isolated incidents