4. The Cover Page

A report is judged by its cover... so make it good!

Whether you like it or not, your report will be judge by its cover - period. For an academic report, your grade can pretty much be estimated before the report is even open. For a professional report, the cover page is all your boss will see. So, make that one page count!

A cove page, also referred to as title page, is an advertisement for you report. Just like the movie trailer aims at making everyone want to watch the whole movie, your cover page should attract the reader in. There are several key elements that should be displayed on your cover page, which will vary a little depending on whether it is an academic or a professional report; I will therefore treat each type separately.


Academic Report

For an academic report, your cover page should feature the following:

• The name (and ideally logo) of your College or University
• The faculty, department or school you belong to
• The title of the course you are undertaking
• The name of the module or unit, as well as its code
• A clear title for your report, which can in some cases be supplemented by a sub-title
• You full name and student ID number
• The date (normally the date at which you would submit the report)
• A short and concise paragraph, either an executive summary (preferred in technical, scientific and engineering disciplines), or an abstract (more suited to literary subjects)
• If fully relevant to the work you are presenting in the report, an illustration may also be added to the cover page

With all of these, you are sure to impress and achieve better grades as early as the first page!


Professional Report

Remembering the various audiences for the report, tackled here, the cover of professional reports should be particularly refined, as it is primarily aimed at your boss. A number of elements should therefore be incorporated:

• The name and logo of your company
• For large companies, the department you work in
• For large companies with a document referencing system, the document number for your report
• A clear title for your report, generally completed by a sub-title providing further details on the work done
• You full name, job title and professional contact details
• The date you have completed the report by
• If relevant, the client or company you have performed the work for
• A concise yet thorough summary, clearly presenting what you did, why you did it, and your conclusions
• If relevant, you may want to complete the cover page with a picture or illustration; this is normally done if the report will be forwarded to a client, for strictly internal reports, no need for an illustration

Despite the slight differences in what should feature on the cover page of academic and professional reports, a vital part of each is the summary (or abstract in certain cases); this will therefore be the subject of my next blog post.