Abstract:
Somewhere in their programs many undergraduate, and most graduate, students are required to write a research report of some kind. Sometimes this is a relatively simple literature review. Often it is a report of a small-scale empirical study. These reports have two major components: one of these is the content of the report and the other is the style of writing that the student has used. This paper argues that, at graduate level particularly, writing style and content are difficult to distinguish. Despite the admonitions and advice of academic staff many students still have great difficulty in preparing a well-formed and accurate research report. This paper will discuss typical student difficulties and the attitudes of academic staff towards these difficulties.