Research Brief

Spring 2011

Tips and Tools for Research Brief Layout

Vol. 5, No. 1

Indiana University School of Education

Introduction
This edition of Research Brief presents the guidelines for preparing the final Microsoft Word written component for the semester project of the Foundations of IR course. The course is offered as part of Indiana Universitys Graduate Certificate in Institutional Research. This report is complemented by a PowerPoint Slide show that provides guidelines for that aspect of the final stage of the module. The remainder of this report will describe recommended components of the written report. Students are free to use these components or other techniques they think will achieve the same level of professional output. These components include: Use of formatting styles for section headers and list bullets Bordered and shaded text boxes as sidebars Advanced page layout features, including different odd and even page headers combined with a different first page header and footer. Column formatting and breaks Embedded pictures

Highlights
Eight students began an Odyssey in January 2011 to develop a scholarly understanding of institutional research as well as to develop some of the basic skills and abilities required of IR practitioners. The capstone stage of their trials and tribulations are related in this report, which provides guidelines for their final reporting assignment. Through this course, the students learned Institutional research takes many shapes and forms but, at its core, provides support for planning, evaluating, and decision-making among academic and administrative managers in postsecondary institutions. The institutional research role straddles the academic and administrative realms and does not fall squarely into either. Institutional research is a viable career path but does have limitations regarding professional advancement. Institutional research has been dominated by positivist and quantitative methods, although constructivist and qualitative approaches are gaining a foot hold The field of institutional research has always been highly dependent on accessible technologies. The explosive growth of these technologies over the past 20 years has helped propel the field to its current status.

Each of these features is described as applied in this document, which serves as a model for the final report.

Use of Format Styles

The section headings of this document employ the builtin heading styles. As described in the Microsoft Word help menus: A style is a set of formatting characteristics that you can apply to text, tables, and lists in your document to quickly change their appearance. When you apply a style, you apply a whole group of formats in one simple task. For example, instead of taking three separate steps to format your title as 16 pt, Arial, and center-aligned, you can achieve the same result in one step by applying the Title style. The following are the types of styles you can create and apply:

A paragraph style controls all aspects of a paragraph's appearance, such as text alignment, tab stops, line spacing, and borders, and can include character formatting. A character style affects selected text within a paragraph, such as the font and size of text, and bold and italic formats. A table style provides a consistent look to borders, shading, alignment, and fonts in tables.

Foundations of Institutional Research

Learning Brief Vol. 5, No. 1 A list style applies similar alignment, numbering or bullet characters, and fonts to lists. the Text tools.

You can create, view, and reapply styles from the Styles and Formatting font, paragraph, and styles segments on the Home tab (Word 2010). The format painter is a very useful tool for promulgating formats through different sections of a document To apply a style to text, you select the text, and then either use the style drop down box located at the right side of the Home toolbar, or you can right click on the text and use the pop-down context menu to select a style or any formatting feature. If you do not like some features of a particular style, you can change those features and they will impact all text in the document that uses that particular style. For example, the first heading style, by default, employs 16 point font. Since that was too large for this type of document, I modified the Heading 1 style so that it is only 12 point Arial bold font. One of the most common features that I reset in the Normal paragraph style is the spacing before and after paragraphs. When set appropriately, you do not have to put an extra return between paragraphs. For example, this document uses 5 points (pts) as the spacing before and after each paragraph. You can see this by either examining the Normal style or by selecting Paragraph from the Format menu while you are situated within a block of Normal text. Another popular Normal style choice is indentation for the first line of a paragraph. Once you master the use of styles, you will never have to play around with the formatting for specific blocks of text. You just pick a style and type. I recommend that you to use heading styles (which you can modify as you see fit), and a List Bullet style at least once in your document (for example, in the highlights sidebar).

The icon is the text box tool. When you select the textbox tool, a menu appears with a set of text box style choices. I find this very annoying as I always start with a simple text box and make changes later. This is an example of text sitting in a text box that Ive created right below where I was typing. This whole box can be moved around. I have set this box to be in-line with the text so that it follows immediately the last paragraph, and anything I type outside the box will continue after the text box. Ive had to enlarge the box several times while typing to see what Ive written.

With your cursor anywhere in a text box, a text box tools tab appears in the Ribbon. You can use that to format features of the box. Alternatively, if you select the border of the box (that is, not the inside) and right click, you can access a dialog box that contains all the formatting feature, which looks like

Bordered and Shaded Text Boxes for Sidebars

The Highlights section you see on the first page was created using a text box that includes a border and shading. The text box tool is located Insert tab among

The Colors and Lines tabs that you see active lets you set the shading, (which is done through selecting a light gray fill) and the line style and thickness. The Size tab can be used if you want to specify the exact column width that you need. Perhaps the most important tab is the layout tab, which is where you can indicate whether

Foundations of Institutional Research

Learning Brief Vol. 5, No. 1 the box sits in-line with, in front of, or in back of the text, or whether the text will wrap around the box. Particularly useful is the Advanced section of the layout, which lets you place boxes in line with margins and determines how much space there is between the box and the surrounding text. Check it out! Although you may only use one text box in your report (for the highlights), these same formatting options are available for the embedded pictures that we will discuss later.

3 identical, but actually has to be entered three times: once as the first page footer, once as the even footer, and once as the odd footer (you can cut and paste). If you are not already familiar with Header and Footer features, read the help screens on this feature. In your explorations, make special note of the Same as Previous. This little button has caused me more grief for than any other feature of Word. It only applies when you have section breaks, which we will talk about shortly.

Borders around Text

One other feature included in all headers and footers in this document are lines either above (footers) below (all but first page headers) or surrounding (first page header) a line of text. These lines are inserted using the Borders and Shading dialogue in the lower right corner of the Paragraph section of the Home tab as the last entry of the border pop-down, icon,

Advanced Page Layout Features

Open this document in Word and from the Page Layout tab. Click on the arrow in the lower right corner of the Page Setup section and then the Layout tab of the dialog. You should see the following:

This dialog can be used to set lines over, under, or even around a line or block of text. If you just want a simple line, there are shortcuts within the border icon pop-down menu for commonly used components (e.g., line under, line above, etc.). This can be used for tables as well as for straight text.

Column Formatting and Breaks

Although these are two separate formatting components, I am putting them in the same section because you must often use breaks when employing column formatting. As you can see, this document is prepared in two column format. Its very simple to set up. To do so, you click on the Columns menu from the Page Setup section of the Page Layout tab ( ). You can then either choose one of the default two column style or click on More Columns to control spacing. This document

Notice that this document uses Different odd and even and Different first page headers and footers. The first page header of this document contains the Nameplate of the publication. The subsequent even and odd page headers are simply mirror images (swap of left and right elements), which is a set up for printing back to back (page numbers away from the fold). Finally the footer is Foundations of Institutional Research

4 uses all the defaults for a two column format (note that this document has narrow right and left margins, as do most newsletters).

Learning Brief Vol. 5, No. 1 section heading as the last entry in a column. To create a column break, select from the Page Setup section of the Page Layout tab, Column Break. and then select

Breaks: Column, Section, and Page

You may already be very familiar with the concept of a page break, that is, forcing material to a new page.

Perhaps you have already incorporated in your repertoire the Ctrl-Enter short cut to insert a page break. When using columns you occasionally may want to force a Column Break so that, for example, you dont have a

Section breaks are a bit more complicated because, as you see on the Break menu, they take many forms. The most common way I use section breaks is when I need to switch to landscape orientation for a page or two to place in wide tables. Another frequent use is when you want to get out of column mode for part or the remainder of a document. For example, I can place a continuous section break in right here

which will force my columns to balance right where I place the break. Note that I inserted the line above and below to help articulate the break. I can then switch to single column mode for a few lines, or, if Im in a really crazy mood, I might go back and forth between various column formatting styles, as when I now switch to three column mode for the next few sentences. The most important things to remember when you place a section break in a document, is that you can really mess up your header situation. This is especially true if you create a new section starting with the next page. That page will be considered as a First Page and therefore get the first page header. You can go in and change that header, but this is where the Same as Previous feature of the header and footer toolbar can get you. All the headers of the new section will start out as the same as their corresponding header from the previous section. If you attempt to change the header, without turning off the Same as Previous switch, you will be changing the previous section first page header as well. As I said earlier, Ive fallen victim to this problem many times. Page, Column, and Section Breaks are a very powerful but often confusing feature of Microsoft Word. Its worth further investigation, either through play or reading of tutorials or help files.

Transferring an Excel Table Embedded Pictures

Perhaps the most important feature of your written report is incorporating the tables and charts you created in your analysis. You will remember that I created one prototype chart, which I had embedded in the Stage 4 instructions. Now that you know a little about placing objects within a word document (such as a text box), it should be easy to extend that to tables and charts created in Excel. First lets establish some parameters to consider as you decide on the form of transfer you want to use for your charts and graphs. As an example, lets consider a table prepared in Excel . If I select the cells that comprise the table in Excel and then Copy that to the paste buffer, I can do a straight paste in Word, and it will look like this (after I adjust the column widths a little bit):
FT Freshmen Enrolled % of N Total 143 7% 337 16% 317 15% 127 6% 1,110 53% 630 30% 812 39% 295 14% 2,091 Enrollee Retention Rate 60.8% 64.1% 63.7% 62.2% 63.1% 56.3% 59.6% 58.3% 61.5%

Pasting Tables
The way you transfer items from Excel into Word (or PowerPoint as well) depends on whether the item is just a table, just a chart, or a table and chart. Ill consider each of them, in turn. Foundations of Institutional Research

ANTH 104 BUS X100 COM R110 CPT 106 ENG W131 MATH 001 PSY B104 SOC R100 Total Cohort

The copy, which maintained almost all formatting (it messed up a few of the lines), is not a Word table. That

Learning Brief Vol. 5, No. 1 is, I can alter the text, lines, or any other part of the table while it is in Word. This is a reasonable way to copy tables from Excel to Word, but there is often a loss of some formatting. There are several alternative ways to paste in a table, which are all accessible through the Paste Special dialogue. I will make note of two of these: pasting as a Microsoft Excel Object or a Picture. If you paste it as a Microsoft Excel Object, you then have the ability to edit the table (or chart) using all of the Excel features, while it is in Word. That is, if you double click on a table (or chart) pasted in Word as an Excel Object, you will remain in Word, but get all the Excel menus at the top and available for your use. But this comes at a major price: file size. Anytime you paste an object into a Word document as an Excel object, it copies over the whole spreadsheet. So, if you choose three different tables from the same spreadsheet to copy over, it brings along three full copies of the spreadsheet. For this reason, I rarely use paste as an object. The alternative I use most often is to paste as a Picture (You can choose several formats. I tend to choose the Enhance Metafile version, but most will work). The table in the upper right corner is the same table pasted as a picture. This method keeps all the formatting of the Excel table.
Enrollee FT Freshmen Enrolled Retention N % of Total Rate 143 7% 60.8% 337 16% 64.1% 317 15% 63.7% 127 6% 62.2% 1,110 53% 63.1% 630 30% 56.3% 812 39% 59.6% 295 14% 58.3% 2,091 61.5%

0%

10%

ANTH 104 BUS X100 COM R110 CPT 106 ENG W131 MATH 001 PSY B104 SOC R100 Total Cohort

When pasted as a picture, you cannot edit the contents of the table. I think that works out for the best, so that you maintain only one source copy of the table; the one in the Excel file. If you need to change it, you do so in Excel and the copy and paste it as a picture again.

Transferring an Excel Chart

For Excel Charts, you have more limited choices. You can only paste them as Excel objects or pictures. In fact, the default straight paste is as a picture, which is what I recommend.

Transferring an Excel Table/Chart Combination

If you create a table/chart combination in Excel, as I will show in class, you can do a straight copy and paste, but you better make sure there is enough room for the results or else you will loose parts of the display. I recommend using the paste as picture method. Since the display is larger than can fit into a column, we will need to choose a layout other than inline with text, or else the display will get sized to fit within the column width and look like the chart shown at the beginning of the next page.

Retention Rates for Full-Time, First-Time Freshman Enrolled in the Most Popular Freshman Courses Enrollee FT Freshmen Enrolled Retention 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% N % of Total Rate ANTH 104 143 7% 60.8% BUS X100 337 16% 64.1% COM R110 317 15% 63.7% CPT 106 127 6% 62.2% ENG W131 1,110 53% 63.1% MATH 001 630 30% 56.3% PSY B104 812 39% 59.6% SOC R100 295 14% 58.3% Total Cohort 2,091 61.5%

Foundations of Institutional Research

6
Retention Rates for Full-Time, First-Time Freshman Enrolled in the Most Popular Freshman Courses Enrollee FT Freshmen Enrolled Retention 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% N % of Total Rate ANTH 104 143 7% 60.8% BUS X100 337 16% 64.1% COM R110 317 15% 63.7% CPT 106 127 6% 62.2% ENG W131 1,110 53% 63.1% MATH 001 630 30% 56.3% PSY B104 812 39% 59.6% SOC R100 295 14% 58.3% Total Cohort 2,091 61.5%

Learning Brief Vol. 5, No. 1

Even if you begin with the chart looking like that, you can set it free by selecting it, choosing from the Format menu the Picture option, and then setting the layout style to Square. You see the result of this at the bottom of this page. I used the Advanced layout options to line the picture up with the right and bottom margins, and Ive also set the text wrapping so that .13 is left on top of the display. The text I am typing automatically goes to the next page when I get to the point where the next line would take me closer than . 13 from the top of the display. Also notice how the text to the left of the display wraps around the side. Finally, I sized the picture by click-dragging the upper left selection dot until it reached a suitable size.

Conclusions
With these guidelines in hand, you should be able to produce a written report that looks professional and is very readable. In a separate document, I provide guidelines on developing your PowerPoint Slides for this Stage, including specification of the required elements.

Research Brief is a publication of Victor M.H. Borden. It is published whenever he feels like it, and for whatever reason he deems appropriate. This is the fifth edition, and who knows when the next one will be published. Publisher: Victor M. H. Borden Editor: Research: Production: Robert W. Aaron Victor M. H. Borden Victor M. H. Borden

PostProduction: Victor M. H. Borden Marketing: Victor M. H. Borden

Production of Victor M. H. Borden: Sam and Betty Borden Products of Victor M. H. & Sandra M. H. Borden Zac and Senia Borden Pets-in-residence: Comet, Teddy and Buster

Foundations of Institutional Research