Conducting Experiments

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Authors & Contributors

Once you have completed the experiment, you will want to share findings by publishing academic paper (or presentations). These papers usually have the following format, but it is not necessary to follow it strictly. Sections can be combined or not included, depending on the structure of the experiment, and the journal to which you submit your paper (see more in Rhetoric and the Presentation of Research in English).

• Abstract: Summarize the project: its aims, participants, basic methodology, results, and a brief interpretation.
• Introduction: Set the context of the experiment.
• Review of Literature: Provide a review of the literature in the specific area of study to show what work has been done. Should lead directly to the author's purpose for the study.
• Statement of Purpose: Present the problem to be studied.
• Participants: Describe in detail participants involved in the study; e.g., how many, etc. Provide as much information as possible.
• Materials and Procedures: Clearly describe materials and procedures. Provide enough information so that the experiment can be replicated, but not so much information that it becomes unreadable. Include how participants were chosen, the tasks assigned them, how they were conducted, how data were evaluated, etc.
• Results: Present the data in an organized fashion. If it is quantifiable, it is analyzed through statistical means. Avoid interpretation at this time.
• Discussion: After presenting the results, interpret what has happened in the experiment. Base the discussion only on the data collected and as objective an interpretation as possible. Hypothesizing is possible here.
• Limitations: Discuss factors that affect the results. Here, you can speculate how much generalization, or more likely, transferability, is possible based on results. This section is important for quasi-experimentation, since a quasi-experiment cannot control all of the variables that might affect the outcome of a study. You would discuss what variables you could not control.
• Conclusion: Synthesize all of the above sections.
• References: Document works cited in the correct format for the field.