Report Writing Diana Musgrave [e-mail] Based on a presentation from the University of Derby

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Report WritingDiana Musgravedmusgrave_at_dmu.ac.
ukBased on a presentation from the University
of Derby

• CPRJ2003
• Systems Development Group Project

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Module web site

• This presentation will go on the module web site
• http//www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/jennyc

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Module Schedule Reminder

• Week 9
• Meetings with tutors. Bring feedback from user
  trials of product
• Week 10
• Product demos
• Thurs 1 April, 4pm final report due, with
  working disk/CD of your system
• Then peer assessment and individual essay after
  Easter.

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Report Writing

• An important skill
• In this module
• During your Placement next year
• For your Final Year Project
• In your future career.

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Report Writing

• A bad project cannot be made into a good one by a
  good report
• A good project can be ruined by a bad report
• Often a report provides important evidence of the
  substantial amount of work that has gone into a
  project.

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Report Writing Topics to be covered

• Your report for this module
• Structure of a report
• Presentation and style
• Reviewing your report.

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Final Project Report for this Module

• 15 of the marks for the module
• Detailed requirements are in the module guide
• Briefly
• What you planned to do
• What you actually achieved
• Project evaluation
• A good report is likely to be at least 5,000
  words, excluding appendices
• Report will be marked on presentation as well as
  content.

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Overall Structure

• Title page
• Abstract or summary
• Acknowledgements
• ¹ Table of contents
• º List of tables As appropriate
• List of figures
• ¼ Report Introduction
• Main body
• Conclusions/recommendations
• ½ References
• ¾ Appendices/documentation/user manual.

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????? Question ?????

• Whats the difference between an Abstract/Summary
  and an Introduction?

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Front Pages

• Title page
• Clear title, authorsnames, date
• Abstract/summary
• A summary of the whole report
• Acknowledgements
• Name people outside the group who have helped you
  in this project.

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Contents List

• Page
• Summary 1
• Introduction 2
• First chapter heading 3
• 2.1 Section heading 3
• 2.1.1 Sub-heading 5
• 2.1.2 Sub-heading 6
• Etc
• References 10
• Appendix 1 Name of appendix
• Appendix 2 Name of appendix

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Figures Tables

• Note that tables here does not mean Access
  tables!
• Figures and tables add much to a report
• Should be uniquely numbered and titled
• Cite source, if not your own work
• Discuss them in the text
• List them after your contents page.

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Structure

• Overall, and each section / chapter has
• Introduction
• Main body
• Conclusions.

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Introduction

• Sets the scene for the main body. Provides the
  reader with a clear idea of the task being
  undertaken
• Used to state the aims of the project
• May include outline of work - when, where, and
  how the project was carried out.

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Main Body

• See p7 of module guide the following sections
  should all be included
• Plans
• Product overview
• How the product is intended to be used
• Requirements specification
• Methodology and justification
• Discussion of orginal project plan (plan in
  appendix).

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Main Body ctd

• Achievements
• Analysis and design (ERD, table types, use cases
  etc in appendices)
• Description of product (Access relationships
  screen print, data, user manual as appendices)
• Discussion of software testing (test documents in
  appendix).

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Main Body ctd

• Project Evaluation
• What is good/weak about your product
• User feedback (forms in appendix)
• Discussion of the effectiveness of your project
  planning (possibly include new Gantt chart in
  appendix)
• What changes would you recommend?.

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Conclusions

• Summarising the findings in the main body - not
  new material
• Be consistent with previous parts of the report.

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Appendices

• Gantt charts, design documentation etc as above
• Appendices give extra material for the interested
  reader
• Discuss the contents of your appendices in your
  main text
• As can be seen from the Feedback Forms in
  Appendix G, users were generally positive about
  the system, but they also made some criticisms.

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????? Question ?????

• Reports are structured to make it easy to find
  information - which parts of reports do you think
  managers read most/least?
• Abstract/summary
• Introduction
• Main body
• Conclusion
• Appendices.

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Reading Reports

• From most to least read
• Abstract/summary
• Introduction and conclusion
• Main body
• Appendices
• Findings of Windust (1983) as quoted by Hilton
  (1998).

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So what is the difference between an
Abstract/Summary and an Introduction?

• The Abstract/Summary tells you briefly what the
  whole report says
• It is complete in itself, and can be published
  separately from the report
• The Introduction sets the scene for the report
  it leads readers on to the main body of the
  report.

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Plagiarism

• Use of other peoples work, as if it were yours
• Make sure you reference other peoples work
  appropriately.

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Referencing
Why Cite References?

• Avoid plagiarism
• Show academic background

• Citing
• Bibliography / References.

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The Harvard System of Referencing (Examples from
DMU library advice)

• In your text
• There is some evidence (Jones, 1992) that
  these figures are incorrect.
• or
• Jones (1992) has provided evidence that these
  figures are incorrect.

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The Harvard System of Referencing

• In your list of references
• Books
• JONES, J.L. (1992) Pollution, London, Van
  Nostrand.
• Web documents
• YEATES, R. (1996) NewsAgent for Libraries
  Overview WWW Available from http//www.sbu.ac.u
  k/litc/overview.html Accessed 20 January
  2002.

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Write in a Formal Style

• Dont say
• We had a chat about what to do.
• Instead say
• The group drew up a plan.

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Review your Report

• Check your own work spell check it, read it
  through. Try reading it aloud does it make
  sense?
• Get another member of the group to read each
  section of the report and suggest improvements
• At least one person should read the whole report
  and suggest improvements.

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We have covered

• Your report for this module
• Structure of a report
• Presentation and style
• Reviewing your report.

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Further advice

• Consult the DMU library web site
• A report writing guide by Anne Hilton and advice
  on Harvard Referencing are also available on
  paper from the DMU library.

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End of Lecture