Writing up Business Research

It is easy to forget that one of the main stages in any research project, regardless of its size, is that it has to be written up. Not only is this how you will convey your fi ndings, but being aware of the signifi cance of writing is crucial, because your audience must be persuaded about the credibility and importance of your research. This chapter presents some of the characteristics of the writing-up of business research, including writing up a student research project. The chapter explores: • why writing, and especially good writing, is important to business research; • how to write up your research for a dissertation project; • how quantitative and qualitative research are composed, using examples; • the infl uence and implications of postmodernism for writing; • key issues raised by discussions about the writing of ethnography, an area where discussions about different ways of writing have been especially prominent.