An Investigative Report

For most of you, the graduation thesis which you write will be a kind of "investigative report".  You will investigate a topic of interest, and you will write a report about that topic. Whenever you write an investigative report, especially if it is intended for policy discussion, you should do the following:

1. Describe the way it is. Introduce the reader to the topic and focus of your report. Remind the reader of the important background facts. Use the journalistic style of "general to specific" when writing this description. Try to write this description from a "neutral" perspective; i.e., write in such a way that many other observers can easily agree with your description of the facts.

2. Give us your evaluation. Policy discussion demands evaluation. You must be prepared to have an informed opinion about what is "good" and "bad" in the world. You need not talk about moral goodness, for there are many kinds of goodness and badness. You can talk about efficiency and inefficiency, about beauty and ugliness, about pleasure and pain, speed and slowness, or in terms of any other evaluative standard. Whatever standard or standards you use, you should answer the following:

2.a. What's good? Why? How can we keep it that way?

2.b. What's bad? Why? What would be better? Why? How can we implement the improvement?

3. Conclude quickly. Leave the reader with a very brief conclusion which summarizes the most important points of your description and, especially, of your evaluation. Keep it short and simple, because not all readers have good memories.

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A good way to begin writing a report is to make an outline. The outline, like the report, is your creation; but here is a good outline schema you may wish to follow:

  1. introduction and thesis statement
  2. literature review summarizing previous work
  3. your research findings
  4. the meaning of your research findings
  5. concluding remarks

Aim for at least three (3) levels of depth in your outline. Not only will a good detailed outline help you to write your report, but also the outline can later be used (with minor modification) as the Table of Contents of your final report.

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Your method of investigation must be appropriate for the information you seek.

Consult the collections of archives, libraries, and museums to learn about:

Use the Internet, newspapers, ads, radio, and TV to learn about: Use participant observation to learn about: Measure things or sample a population to make: Use questionnaires and interviews to obtain:

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