Research reports are a great way to document research objectives, ensure you stay focused, and share your findings in an easy to interpret way. They can be difficult to utilize at first because they may be seen as a delay to your research but in the long run, they will prove themselves to be a huge benefit and prevent duplicate research down the road. Here I’ll describe how to create a research report and what to consider as you utilize them.
Define Your Objectives
What is the purpose of this report? What are you hoping to discover in your research? What boundaries or constraints are you working within?
Let’s be honest, you’ll never use a research report if you aren’t clear with what it’s for and how you’ll use it. It’ll become another piece of paper or electronic file you save and never open again. It’ll be a major waste of your time and effort. Prevent this from the beginning!
Clearly define what your objectives for this research are. Include how you plan to accomplish your objectives, what steps you intend to take, and if applicable, your timeline to get there. This is especially helpful if you have a deadline or milestone coming up you want to have the research completed by. Like a family reunion, an anniversary, or a holiday where you intend to share your findings!
Conduct Relevant and Focused Research
Creating a plan based on your objectives is the best way to stay focused on your research. Are there specific records you know will help answer your question? Do you have a specific geographical region you can or want to restrict your research to? Is there a specific timeframe or range of years you can bound your research within? All these questions will help to identify records and determine if the record supports answering your objective.
Carefully review records and determine if their information is credible. Does the record provide direct or indirect evidence? Is the record original or is it derived from another source? If the record is derived, look for where the derived information is from and if you can obtain the original information.
As you conduct your research, try your best to keep to the objectives you originally defined. I recommend utilizing a Future Research Log for all the information you stumble upon that is not related to your objective. This way, you don’t lose the information (which is always my fear!) but don’t get distracted down rabbit holes.
Organize and Structure the Report
Confession time: This step is the hardest part for me, ending the research and actually compiling my findings! But this is the reason for starting the report! Getting the final picture of my original question!
There are many ways to structure your report, and the right way is the way that makes sense to you and whoever you’re potentially sharing the report with.
An obvious structure is chronologically, compiling the information year by year. But this isn’t the only way! My grandmother has an amazing memory, but she thinks in the way of events and milestones. So if I were writing a report for her, it may be better to organize the report into “categories” and related events then by year instead of strictly by dates. There may be other ways depending on your objective. If you’re really unsure, try a few different organization methods and see what makes the most sense to you.
Clearly Present Findings
Don’t forget to add Headings and Subheadings to clearly define your report’s flow. Avoid jargon or overly complex descriptions that could confuse another reader.
Include charts, graphs, and tables to illustrate key points and highlights. Dates in a table are easier to read than in a paragraph. Showing the number of ancestors born in one state over another may be really clear in a bar graph.
If you have pictures, add them! The old saying pictures are worth a thousand words hold weight here! Utilize them as much as you can. If you’ve found anecdotes, include them! This is your report, add whatever makes sense to you!
Document Future Objectives
The chances of you finding some other information not relevant to your objective but something you’ll want to research in the future is high. Document these new objectives in your report or a future research log so you know what else you’ll want to look into down the road.
Be descriptive in these new objectives. Make sure to include enough information that you can pick up where you left off no matter how much time has passed. If you don’t get back to this new objective in a year or two, will it still make sense or will you have to duplicate your efforts to get back to it? There’s nothing more annoying than to realize weeks into your research that you have already gone down this path. You will undoubtedly run into this dilemma at some point unintentionally, but there’s no reason to set yourself up for it!
Review and Revise
Before considering your complete or sharing it with others, make sure you do one final review. If you can, get a friend or family member to review it and give you feedback. Revise any sections that seem incomplete or confusing. Ensure your references within the document are accurate and you have source citations for any records you found and used.
Share Your Findings
Share your findings with relevant family members. Get feedback on your objectives and research findings. Document ideas for future research, recommendations, or potential modifications for future reports. As you can or want, revise your report based on the feedback you get or any new information you receive.
Research reports are an excellent way to document your research, keep you on track, and share your findings with others. I encourage you to continue to make your research reports your own and don’t be afraid to experiment with how and what and who to include in them!
Happy Researching!