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Writing your Research Report

Introduction

1. Explain the focus of your research and, if need be, define the idea you are

discussing (you may need to define identity for example).

My investigation examined the portrayal of sexism in texts from different

cultures and time periods.

2. Name the texts (and poets/authors/directors/etc) that you used in your research.

3. You should discuss what you expected to find and why you expected that.

I felt that older texts, such as Little Women, would portray sexism as

prevalent in society, whereas more modern texts, such as Bridget JonesDiary, would portray a less sexist society. I expected this because of thechanges brought about by the womens movement in western society inthe last fifty years.

Body Paragraphs

1. Use yourKey Questions as headings for each section.

2. The first two questions should be answered with details from the texts and thiswill enable you to make judgements.

How does the writer/director use characters to portray sexism in the text?

Little Women questions the fairness of gender stereotypes. Jo, at times,does not want to be a conventional female. In her desires and her actions,she fights against typical gender expectations. She wants to earn a living,for examplea duty conventionally left to men in the 19 th Century

American culture. Also, she wears a dress with a burn mark to a party,which shows she doesnt care for womanly things. Alcott uses Joscharacter to show how women had to fight against the sexist stereotypesof the times. The fact that the men and other women are shocked by Josbehaviour shows how deep set these stereotypes were in this society. Joeventually settles for the conventional life of marriage, so it seemschallenging stereotypes was all women could manage in those times.

3. Use your final question (which should be about the links between texts similarities and points of difference) to make wider judgements about the

portrayal of your chosen idea. You should discuss why these similarities anddifferences exist. For example, in the report above you could discuss how thesetting is extremely important to the portrayal of sexism given the rights won bywomen in the 20th century. There would also be a difference between textsdrawn from the liberal western world and other, more conservative cultures. It iseasy to see how these basic differences in setting and context could lead tosimilar judgements about racism, identity, politics, class, love, etc. Theseobservations and judgements, if supported by your research on the texts, arewhat push the grades up.

4. Bibliography you must have a bibliography or your report will not be marked.

See the reverse of this page for instructions.

Give detailsfrom the textsyouresearched.

Makejudgementsdrawn fromyourresearch

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How to compile a bibliography

Because of the nature of different text-types, there are many variations in the way different textsare recorded within a bibliography. A novel has different requirements from a short story, forexample. Both have different requirements from a film.

Entries need to be ordered alphabetically according to the surnames of theauthors/directors. This is a BASIC requirement of a bibliography.

Punctuation IS important in a bibliography. Take care to use full stops, commas, and colons in the

correct places, as demonstrated in the examples on the page opposite.

As you compile your bibliography, keep in mind what its purpose is: to make your researchprocess transparent. Your readers should be able to look your sources up if they feel the urge. Byproviding a detailed bibliography, you are providing them with the means to do this.

For a novel:Hill, David. The Name of the Game. Wellington: Mallinson Rendel, 2001.

(ie. Author. Title. City of publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.)

For a short story:Marshall, Owen. The Tsunami. In Supper Waltz Wilson and Other Stories. Dunedin: John

McIndoe, 1979. pp 21-34.

(ie. Author. Title. In Title of the book that the story is published in. City of publication: Publisher,Year of Publication. Pages on which the story is found.)

For a poem (taken from an anthology):Adcock, Fleur. For a Five Year-Old. InAn Anthology of New Zealand Poetry in English.JennyBornholdt, Gregory OBrien and Mark Williams (ed.s). Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1997.pp 267-268.

(ie. Poet. Title of poem. In Title of the book in whichthe poem is published.Names of the books editors

(ed.s). City of publication: Publisher, Year ofPublication. Page(s) on which the poem is found.)

For a film:Tamahori, Lee. Once Were Warriors. Communicado, 1994.

(ie. Director. Title of film. Production company, Year of Production.

For a TV programme:Mulheron, Danny. Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby. Direct Hit Productions, 2005.

Producer. Title of TV programme. Production company, Year of Production.

For a website:The Onion. http://www.theonion.com/. Page accessed on Thursday 5 May, 2005.

(ie. Title of website. Web address. Date on which you accessed the web page.NB: As websites do not have a particular author, and often the identity of article-writers is notgiven, list these at the bottom of your bibliography in alphabetical order according to website title.

http://www.theonion.com/http://www.theonion.com/http://www.theonion.com/