ROOM 123

The Written Report is the second part of your IA. It follows the Research Proposal and must use the required format below.

Title Page
Includes Research Question, Intended Audience, IB Number, Session,  Proposal word count, IA word count.
 
Research Proposal (with word count)
 
Acknowledgements
Should recognize any individual and/or organization that made the report possible. Customary, but not required.
 
Contents Page
Include information about (and page numbers for): Your proposal, All parts of your IA, Your Appendices.
 
Executive Summary
From this point onward everything should be written in the past tense. For example, "First the owner was contacted to discuss possible areas of concern..." Also, include page numbers. Give a very quick (i.e. 1 or 2 sentence) background of the type of company and its situation, Give the Research Question, State the tools used, Explain major primary and secondary sources used, Explain your major findings, Mention a limitation of the findings.
 
Introduction
State the company name and explain what the company does (make sure this is really clear), Explain one of their current strategic priorities, Explain what you are going to research (your RQ), Explain the sections of the course which are involved, The word count for this section.

Methodology Employed
More detail about your procedure --what kinds of primary and secondary sources you used to explore your RQ. Explain some of the sources of information you used (i.e. 'an interview with X and Y and a survey of Z'). Make it clear you had more than one source of primary data. (Very briefly) the benefit of using these sources. The business techniques and tools you used, and (Very briefly) the purpose of your business tools. Explain how valid and reliable your data collection was. For example, how there may have been room for bias or a limited scope to your research. Explain how valid your methods of gathering data were. Mention any changes made to your IA approach as the work progressed. There should be several.

Main Results and Findings
Include: A graph of some kind is recommended, A summary of your research, perhaps as a list of a few of the key facts uncovered and their primary or secondary sources.

Analysis and Discussion
This is where you J.A.M. For each tool (3 or 4 of them) include: A clear justification of the use of the theory (how it will help answer the RQ), Make sure you are using the JAM structure and that as much of your information as possible is coming through the tools (rather than in paragraph form). The analysis (i.e. SWOT, etc.), and then The mini-conclusion (linking the findings of the tool to the RQ). Use at least one financial tool, but this should come after your qualitative tools. In general, qualitative tools (such as SWOT and PEST) come before the quantitative ones (like ratio analysis and decision trees), because the qualitative tools set the scene and provide context for the financials.
 
Conclusion and Recommendations
Pull your mini-conclusions together (synthesize them), make some interesting insights based on them (i.e. pros and cons, short-term vs long-term effects, possible stakeholder conflicts). Emphasize everything you've discovered and how it all fits together to answer your RQ.

Include: At least 3 recommendations, At least one additional type of research (or another question to research in the future) which would help ensure the reliability of your findings. To get full marks for your recommendations section (2/2) you need to do this. (A student needs to have identified "areas for further study" for full marks here). Make sure everything you write here is supported by your conclusion. The recommendations also don't include any new information.
 
References and Bibliography

- At least 2 books (one of these can be the textbook),
- At least 2 interviews. If you can only do one interview, then you'll      definitely need another source of primary research --a survey, observation data, focus group data, etc.),
- At least 4 internet sources,
- At least one source which shows your willingness to go beyond the minimum requirements (i.e. a trade journal, an advanced academic paper, an interview with a competitor).
 
Appendices
Includes only relevant information that supports or emphasizes what is discussed in the report: Transcripts from your interviews, Additional analysis you did which didn’t fit in the body of your IA, Questionnaire results, details of the calculations you did for your financial tool, Any other interesting data which you would like to refer to in the body of your work.