Assignment: Interim Report Structure
Structuring your interim report
Like all academic writing, your interim report consists of three parts: an introduction, a body and the conclusion. While some general advice is provided below, the body of your interim report will be determined by your topic, the available literature and the broader requirements of the project
You are also required to write an abstract for your work that provides a summary of your research.
The abstract should include:
• Purpose/Motivation: research questions, relevance & context of the project (one or two sentences).
• Design/Methodology/Approach: Explain the methods used for the data collection in your project (this includes literature; and other analyses your project requires)
• Results/Findings: Briefly outline the results of your systematic search; the consistent themes, any gaps if appropriate (one or two sentences).
• Conclusion: final assessment of the overall evidence and how it will help you conduct the rest of your project (one or two sentences).
The introduction should include:
• the nature of the topic under discussion (the topic of your project)
• the reason for the project
• relevance
• the research questions addressed
• the parameters of the topic (what does it include and exclude)?
The body paragraphsshould include:
Methodology/methodologies
Research project
• Searching the literature
o targeted search: identify names, dates databases, professional sources searched
o Search strategy: keywords, phrases used
• Literature/article selection
o Why information was included and/ or excluded?
o What specific topics of interest were targeted?
• Evaluating the evidence
o Study design classification? (in the articles selected, did you look at the types of methods used to report findings)
Implementation projects
• This should include information about how you found your peer reviewed/professional sources
• You also need to detail what our methods were using for researching your project (ie requirements analysis for software)
Maths projects
• Requirements for this assessment need to be negotiated with your supervisor and the co-ordinator.
Results
Research project
• Literature collection and selection
o How many sources collected
o How many reviewed
o How did you classify organise the literature? (eg methodologies and methods in use; general conclusions that are being drawn)
• Critical evaluation and synthesis
o What are the key themes and ideas common in the literature
o What contradictions/ inconsistencies did you find?
o What relationships did you find between articles
o What gaps did you find?
Implementation projects
• You should discuss the results of each of the tasks you undertook to gain data for your project
• You then need to synthesise this information to show how you will then use this in the next part of the project
Maths projects
• Requirements for this assessment need to be negotiated with your supervisor and the co-ordinator.
Discussion
• Examining the evidence
o What does the evidence mean overall? Explain the information found. What answers did you find to your research questions?
o What gaps did you find?
o What else needs to be done?
• Implications
o From the information found, what will you do to implement your project?
o What processes/information/practices do you need to use/follow to successfully complete your project?
The conclusion should include:
• Summarise findings
o Restate the purpose of your review
o Describe the overall evidence: a summary of major findings (agreements and disagreements)
• A summary of general conclusions that are being drawn.
• A summary of where your project sits in the literature and how your research will help you conduct your project.
o What has been gained from the review
o What is your take home message?
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
1. The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
2. The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
3. Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.