Just Thoughts

In one of my courses I wanted to teach my students how to do a proper research report.

First Attempt

• I listed topics and gave the students the freedom to choose the topic that interested them and wanted to write about

• I layout the report structure, how it should like and what to include in each

• Abstract: What is this paper about? You can mention the flow of the paper and what the reader expects to read

• Introduction: Talk about your topic

• Body of the report which can include details about your topic, comparison, advantages, disadvantages, usage, future implementations, history, charts, graphs, tables, etc.

• Conclusion: Summary of the whole topic.

• References: books, website and other resources you used to write your report.

Second Attempt

• I chose a single topic, WiMAX

• I broke down the research report into sub assignments so they can build the report as they go along

• For the first assignment, I asked them to write questions that popped in their mind when thinking about the topic. Imagine you’re asking a WiMAX technology expert. For example, What is WiMax? What does it stand for? etc. For assignment 1 a list of questions typed on a single A4 paper.

• In the second assignment, I handed them questions about WiMAX I have prepared and told them now you can compare if you have listed some of the questions you see in the paper or not. In this assignment, they had to answer these simple questions in a line or two and then at the end list all the references they used. All question numbers should tail the end the reference that they used to answer the question.

• Example Question: Q1: What factors affect, if any, the range and signal strength of a WiMAX network?
• Example Reference: www.anywebsite.com–Q1,Q5&Q8

• In the third assignment it was a matter of grouping similar questions and relative information together in a form of a paragraph under a heading. I wanted them to visualise how the report will look like. So there should be a heading, a small description of what they are going to include or write about and list the questions that will form the paragraphs under that heading. Also, the listing of the headings or paragraphs should make sense, for example you can not start with Challenges of WiMAX as the first heading.

• In the fourth assignment, they had to write the report. This will be the first draft.

• The fifth assignment was the final report.

I actually thought this would work. Well it didn’t! This also failed!