22. Appendices

Declutter your report while being thorough and providing all the necessary details.

When it comes to what an appendix is and how it works, I always give the same example. Imagine a tourist asking you where the train station is, you answer you not be: "go down the street, turn left at the Starbucks where you can buy a small coffee for $2.95, a medium one for $3.65 or a large one for $4.15; you can also get a small Mocha for $3.75, a medium one for $3.95...... and the train station is just there". Does detailing the Starbucks menu useful? Absolutely not. You want to keep it as short and concise as possible to make you instructions clear: "go down the street, turn left at the Starbucks and the train station is just there", however, to be complete and should you be writing a guide book, you may want to attached the Starbucks menu afterwards: this is an appendix.

The appendix is primarily aimed at the technical reader, as outlines in the different audiences for your report. As such, it should provide all the details that will allow someone else to consult and check your work, while ensuring the main body report is not over-crowded with results.

Nevertheless, the appendix is not the place to dump all your work in a random fashion; it should be properly structure. Appendices are typically designated by a letter, and segmented into sections. In essence, it is a report inside the report. The following structure could therefore be adopted:

Appendix A ............

    A.1 .........

    A.2 ..........

Appendix B .........

   B.1 ......

        B.1.1

        B.1.2

   B.2

Those appendices titles and sub-sections should be part of the table of contents. All other report writing conventions apply, such a figure/table/equation numbering, use of references, etc...