Research Project Report Template
Abstract
The abstract will be the last thing that you write. It will be a very tight and succinct presentation of the
most important information from only the analysis and conclusion sections and not the introduction or
background sections.
Introduction
In this section you will establish the issues that are relevant to your topic. Your goal here is to provide the
reader with sufficient information so that he/she can easily place your work into context versus the entire
universe of scientific knowledge. This will be the most difficult section to write because its construction
will mirror your own growth in understanding about your topic and it will need to be carefully crafted to
provide the reader with a good entry into your topic. Ultimately, you will want this section to be “the
words you wish you could have read before you started the project”. When you achieve that, you will
know that you have a great introduction.
The structure of a good introduction follows that of a knowledge and context “funnel”. That is, you begin
with a broad statement and then progressively narrow the intellectual field of view until you have reached
the area in which you will be working. You may try to simplify the process into a series of stages.
In stage one, read substantially from the literature and then make a bullet point list of all the appropriate
keywords that provide context for your work. Then, write as much as you can of the other sections
(Background, Analysis, Conclusions). You may not be able to say much in each of them, but try to put
something into each section.
In stage two, modify the bullet point list and elaborate from keywords into key phrases. As you do so,
incorporate the new knowledge you gained after reading more literature and writing bits of the other
sections. At the same time, you should reorder the list so that it contains a “funnel” structure with the
most broad and general key ideas appearing first and narrower and more specific ideas appearing later.
Significant creativity will be required to find the best ordering. Again, refine the other sections.
In stage three, expand the bullet point key phrases into sentences that are simple direct statements. Then,
refine them into compound sentences to give your writing better flow and more intellectual nuance.
Again, refine the other sections.
In the final stage, you may refine the sentences into coherent paragraphs. By this time you should have a
fairly good feel for the other sections so that they do not need too much more refinement. Once
everything is complete, then write the abstract. You should look at the abstract as a complement to the
introduction. The abstract will be short and narrowly focused on the results while the introduction will
provide necessary context. They should not at all be repetitions of each other.
2
Background
In this section you will provide a coherent picture of the relevant literature. Your goal here is to create a
readable (not-too-boring) catalog of what is known and what is unknown. This is tricky because you want
to make the text have a flow to it as opposed to just reading like a shopping list. This is where you will
work to expose the relationships between the existing works. This should be a relatively easy section to
write because it simply requires dedication of time and it does not require much in the way of creativity.
Analysis
In this section you will you will take the exposed relationships and expand on them with your own
observations. This is a bit more difficult to write because it requires some creativity. You are welcome to
comment on the applicability of the issue you are studying to other areas of research, you can also
speculate on new theoretical ideas (but be sure to back up speculation with a well-reasoned rationale).
My expectation is that this section will probably be the shortest simply because of the time limitations
associated with the project and the fact that you are not required to advance knowledge and
understanding. (One semester is not a lot of time to really get into a topic and understand its complicated
nuances and express them. Simply digesting the state-of-the-art in the Introduction and Background will
be quite difficult already so you do not need to create new knowledge.)
Conclusions
A conclusions section can do many things and there is no one set rule for it. Generally though, you will
want to use this section to distill the most important information from your report into a few brief
sentences. Keep in mind though that the conclusions section should probably not simply be a summary of
the report. It may provide a set of new unanswered questions that have been exposed by your research.
It may provide a final analysis statement that ties together a variety of points given earlier in the paper. It
may point out directions for new possible research.
Another way to think of a conclusion is that it complements an introduction by providing boundary
conditions to all of the topics raised in the introduction at similar levels of detail. That is, where you have
broad statements in the introduction, the conclusion will have broad statements to close that topic. When
you have narrow introductory statements, you have narrow concluding statements to close that topic.
References
I strongly recommend that you make use of a reference manager such as Zotero or Mendeley (I like
Zotero). All journal references must include a full list of authors (up to 10, then use et al.), the article title,
the full journal name or a clear abbreviation, the volume number, issue number if available, page number
range, year, and a DOI link. Book references must include the author list, the book title, publisher,
publication location, editor (if there is one), and a DOI link. If it is a book section then also include the
chapter or section title along with page numbers. If a DOI is unavailable, use a URL instead.
Final Comments
Make every section meaningful. Do not write fluffy sentences that carry little meaning. Vigorous writing
is concise. “Omit Needless Words, Omit Needless Words, Omit Needless Words”
these are some references you need to include it:
Ajith, Asokan, et al. “Comprehensive Analysis of Copper Plasma: A Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopic Approach.” Photonics, vol. 10, no. 2, 2023, p. 199., https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics10020199.
Cui, Haohao, et al. “Influence of Laser Wavelength on Self-Absorption Effect in Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy.” Optik, vol. 204, 2020, p. 164144., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2019.164144.
Sabri, Nursalwanie Mohd, et al. “Spectroscopic Diagnostics of Laser Induced Plasma and Self-Absorption Effects in Al Lines.” Physics of Plasmas, vol. 25, no. 7, 2018, p. 073303., https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5023666.
the samples are used copper and aluminum
the laser source is Nd:YAG