5. Executive Summary And Abstract

Know the difference between executive summary and abstract, and make the most of this critical part of your report

Having established the place of an executive summary or abstract on the cover page here, it is now time to dive into what they differentiate them, which one is best suited for you, and the information it should contain.


The Executive Summary - Spoiler Alert!

The executive summary is really there to spoil all of your work: and this is what you want! Remember your target audiences, the executive summary is aimed at your boss, too busy to read the whole document, but that needs a succinct summary. Therefore, emphasize what you did, the reasons and motivations behind it, and more importantly what you found and what your conclusions are. At the end of the summary, the reader should know all about your work: the boss will stop there, the technical person will carry on. Executive summary are perfectly suited for the professional environment, as well as academic report in engineering and scientific fields.


The Abstract - Please Read Me!

Conversely to the executive summary, the abstract is not there to spoil anything, but to invite the reader in: it is a teaser that should invite the reader in. The abstract should therefore present the topic you will tackle, the approach you will be taking and what you aim to achieve, but do not reveal your findings just yet. In an academic context, especially when publishing research paper, the abstract is there to convince the reader to purchase the paper based on the abstract, this is why the findings cannot be revealed.


Whether you are writing and executive summary or abstract, it is worth spending extra time on this short section, as it is the key stone of your report. This only paragraph you can be certain every single reader will actually go through.

6. Page Layout

Making effective use of margins, header and footer!  

There are three main areas of the page layout, besides the obvious report taking most of the space, that we are interested in:

• Margins
• Header
• Footer

For the margins, keep a sufficient amount to give a clean look to your pages. If your report is to be solely consulted online, you can ignore the gutter. However, if your report it to be printed and bound, make use of the gutter and set it to a sensible value. In this case, you also need to think about single versus double sided printing. If you only print on one side of each sheet of paper, keep the gutter on the same side. However, for double sided printing (which has become the normal in both Colleges/Universities and Workplaces), you will need mirrored margins so that the gutter changes side.

The header is the space at the top of the page. This is a very convenient location to reiterate the title of your report, with potentially a College/University of Company logo in the outer corner of the page. This can be quite useful and help the reader identified what they are reading. For much longer reports, the header can alternate between the report title and the chapter/section title every other page.

The footer, at the very bottom of the page, should comprise two key elements. On the one hand, your name should feature to make your work clearly identifiable. On the other hand, a page number should appear. This is absolutely vital, in fact, it is so important it will be the subject of its own blog post. Note that the page number should always be on the outer edge of the page; therefore you need to use different footers for even and odd pages if the report is printed double sided to ensure the page number is always in the right place.

7. Page Numbers

Number your pages!

There is nothing more annoying than a report without page number; and there is nothing more inconvenient either. Think about your local postman/postwoman: how can your mail be delivered if there is no number on your house? The same applies to a report, the reader needs page numbers, so that he can latter reference a particular one. For instance, your lecturer might say "I liked the point you made on page 27", or your manager could comment "Very nice diagram on page 43".

You therefore need to set up page number on your report... but it is a little more trick that it sounds.

• You should not display any page number on the cover, or on blank pages (which would not be blank otherwise!)
• For the front matter, you should use roman numeral. Note that, although not displayed, the cover page technically counts as page i, the following page should therefore be ii, the next one iii etc... for the entire front matter.
• One you reach the main body of the report, you want to star again with your typical page number, 1, 2, 3 etc...
• Finally, the after body can either carry on from the main body, or have a separate numerical system. This is often the case for work with large appendices, where pages can be numbered A1, A2, A3, etc...

In any case, do make sure to check that your page number are there and accurate.

Lastly, as mentioned in a previous article, do make sure the page numbers are always on the outside of the page, this makes them must easier to access for a reader looking for a specific page.

8. Table Of Contents And Section Numbering

Send your readers where they need to go!

The table of content is an important part of any report, as it enables the reader to find specific sections without having to flip through the pages or reading the entire document.

To create a professional and easy to use table of contents, you will need page number, as previously covered. Indeed, how can you send your reader to the content of page 35 if there is no page number? Furthermore, a table of content should build on a strong hierarchy of your headings, all of them numbered. The hierarchy is vital to visually identify the important of each section; a chapter would have a large front, be bold and underline, while a section heading will be a little smaller, and a sub-section heading even small. To reinforce the structure and allow for easier communication and cross-referencing of the various part of the report, it is advised you clearly number you sections.

An example of hierarchy and numbering is presented below:

1. INTRODUCTION

     1.1 Background

          1.1.1 Historical Importance

          1.1.2 Literature Review

          1.1.3 Contemporary Views

     1.2 Aims and Objectives

          1.2.1 Proposal

          1.2.2 Methodology

This will give the structure your report needs to appear professional but also to be convenient for your reader to use. This structure is always a great way to actually plan your report before you actually write it, thus allowing you to better structure your ideas and content, improving the overall quality of your work.

9. Table Of Figures, Table Of Tables, Table Of Equations

To complete the table of contents and guide thorough readers

For longer report, with a significant amount of Figures, Tables and/or equations, the table of content can be followed by respectively a table of figures, table of table and table of equations. This should however be reserved for larger report. Note that each table of either figures or tables or equation can be used individually if, for instance, the report mostly features figures, or table, or equations. 

The aim of those tables is to guide the thorough reader, but more importantly to allow future reference. Indeed, a particular table might prove to be very useful, and reader can therefore look up its location in the table of tables, rather than flick through the pages of the report.

For shorter reports however, this would only clutter the document, and not prove particularly used; it should therefore be avoided for shorter pieces of work with only a limited number of figures/tables/equations.

10. Nomenclature and Acronyms

Because not everyone understands specific jargon!

Every field or industry has its own jargon, with a specific nomenclature and acronyms that everyone within that field will be familiar with; your reader however may not. It is therefore essential you clearly define the nomenclature and acronyms used, respectively defined has:

• Nomenclature: system of name or terms to which a letter or symbol.
• Acronyms: a name generally formed of the initials of a phrases.

For the nomenclature, an example would be the letter g, used to define the acceleration due to gravity.

On the other hand, FEA is an acronym for Finite Element Analysis.

As part of the front matter, and after the table of contents and table of figures/tables/equations, a nomenclature as well as a list of acronyms should be presented, again to help the reader better understand your work.

When dealing with nomenclature or acronyms, the convention is to spell them out fully the first time they appear, with the acronym in brackets; this is an introduction to the acronym to guide your reader. After that, you can simply use the acronym. See the example below:

Calculation were undertaken using Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Indeed, FEA has proven a relevant and accurate way to model our current structural issues.

Please be aware of the RAS syndrome, namely the Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome, which is a perfect example of the RAS syndrome! It is defined as using both the acronym as well as some of the words contained in the acronym. In addition to the example above, other common ones include:

• The FEA analysis (Finite Element Analysis analysis)
• The RLH hospital (Royal London Hospital hospital)
• PIN number (Personal Identification Number number)

Finally, do not abuse acronyms! Use them when relevant, and ensure they are listed, as the terms of the nomenclature, in the front matter, and properly introduce in the report, thus making your work easily understandable and accessible to a wider pool of readers.

Have you got any good examples of the RAS syndrome? Let us know in the comments!

11. Introduction And The Passive Form

The best introductions are written last!

A strong and well-constructed introduction will provide a valuable and engaging insight into the motivations behind your work, what you are proposing and undertaking, and the result you are hoping to achieve. Because the introduction should reflect the work to come in the report, it is much better to write it last, once you know exactly where your report will take you (since you have now written it!). This will make for a more relevant introduction reflecting perfectly the content of the report.

One of the key aspect of the introduction, but also of the entire report, is the choice between the passive from to the active form. For reports involving self-reflection, writing in the first person may be preferred, thus the active form should be employed, as shown in the following example: "I have undertaken this experiment to assess the relevance of this commonly made assumption".

Conversely, engineering, scientific, technical report should, under no circumstances, employ the first person, whether "I" or "we"; therefore, those reports are written in a passive form. The previous example thus becomes: "This example has been undertaken to assess the relevance of this commonly made assumption".

Although uncommon in everyday life, the passive form is most common in report, and experience readers, such as your lecturer or boss, will find the use of the passive form in your report very professional.