Case Exercises

You have been assigned a semester-long research project covering a topic of your choosing. This topic must be something that directly impacts your college experience. For example, you might choose to research how students purchase books for classes, or student opinions of campus dining facilities. To get started, search for an appropriate business template and create a proposal for your research. Use the template as a guide to lay out the plan for the research project. Keep in mind that you will need to construct a report at the end of the project that includes the following sections: introduction, research question/problem, literature review (background information on the topic), methods used to collect data, results of the research, key recommendations, and conclusion.

The next step to completing your research project is building the framework for the full document. Start by adjusting the margins of your report template so that the left and right margins are 1” and the top and bottom are 1.25”. Insert the following headings: Introduction, Research Problem/Question, Literature Review, Methods, Results, Recommendations, Conclusion. Now, add section breaks between each heading. Be sure to save the document so that you can build from here.

Set up your document to track changes, and start to insert comments for yourself on what information you will include in each part of the research report. Also be sure that you have formatted the document to be double-spaced, as is typical line spacing for reports.

Apply a theme to the research report document you have started. Change the chosen theme’s colors. At this point, you will notice changes in fonts for the most part as the rest of the document has not been added.