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428 PART V: Analyzing and Reporting Research• WRITE AN INTERESTING REPORT. Scientific writing need not bedull! Clearly, scientific writers do not have the license given a novelistor essayist, nor is this the place to show off what you have learned in a“creative writing” course. Nevertheless, an effort should be made to writein a way that will interest your reader in what you did, what was found,and what you concluded. As Cronbach said, “Technical writing can aspireto literary virtues.” One way to try to achieve an appropriate tone inwriting your research reports is to strive to tell a good story about yourresearch. Good research makes for good stories, and well-told stories aregood for advancing research.As you make preparations for writing a research report, we urge you to readjournal articles reporting research in an area of psychology that interests you.Ultimately, however, you will develop the skills for writing research reportsonly by actually writing them.STRUCTURE OF A RESEARCH REPORTThe structure of a research report serves complementary purposes for the authorand for the reader. The structure provides an organization that the author canuse to present a clear description of the research and a convincing interpretationof the findings. The reader of a research report can expect to find certain informationin each section. If you want to know how an experiment was done, youwould look in the Method section; if you want information about the analysis ofthe data in the study, you would refer to the Results section. A research reportconsists of the following sections:Title Page (with Author Note)AbstractIntroduction}Method Main BodyResults of ReportDiscussionReferencesFootnotes (if any)Tables and FiguresAppendices (if any)Tips on Manuscript Format You will need to go to www.apastyle.org or usethe Publication Manual to learn about preferred typeface, spacing, margins,paragraph construction, page numbering, proper use of headings, and otheraspects of manuscript format. See also the “sample paper” in both thesesources for a look at how the structure of your completed manuscript shouldappear.