1. The Importance Of Report Writing In The 21st Century

A short introduction on report writing skills and the motivations behind this blog. 

Report writing is the soft skill for the 21st century, whether in an academic context to improve your grades or professionally to further your career. Indeed, while writing a report sounds like a deceptively simple task, it is in fact an art that must be mastered, allowing you to achieve that high grade you need at University this semester, or impressing your boss get that promotion and pay raise you have been waiting for.

There are a number of "report writing guide" available online, mostly published on University website... but none of those seems quite right, elements are often missing, and there is a complete absence of real examples. And what better way to illustrate what a proper report should look like than with examples? Moreover, there is no applications of the report writing skills to a professional context. Those are the motivations behind this blog.

And at this stage, I believe I ought to introduce myself. Under the cover of my online anonymity, as Mister Report Writing, I want to present, detail, explain and illustrate what an excellent report is, and help you develop the skills required to reach an outstanding standard. As a lecture, I have suffered through thousands and thousands of pages of blend and boring student papers. As a businessman, I have wasted hours and hours flicking through endless reports. With this blog, I want to provide students and professionals with the most honest inside advice on crafting a concise, pertinent, captivating report, in its content but also form, with an efficient layout that will attract and retain your reader's attention.

This blog aims at providing a complete guide to all the aspects of report writing, as detailed in the article list below, constantly updated as the blog progresses:

1. The Importance Of Report Writing In The 21st Century
2. The Anatomy Of The Report
3. Know And Target Your Audience
4. The Cover Page
5. Executive Summary And Abstract
6. Page Layout
7. Page Numbers
8. Table Of Contents And Section Numbering
9. Table Of Figures, Table Of Tables, Table Of Equations
10. Nomenclature and Acronyms
11. Introduction
12. Literature Review And Previous Work
13. Method, Procedure Or Protocol
14. Results
15. Creating Graphs
16. Creating Tables
17. Creating Equations
18. Discussion
19. Recommendations And Future Work
20. Conclusions
21. References
22. Appendices
23. Proofreading
24. Getting Help

If you have any suggestions or particular aspects of report writing you would like me to tackle, please leave a comment below :)

2. The Anatomy Of The Report

A detailed presentation of the different sections of a report.

The skeleton of a report is based on three main and distinct sections, namely:

• The front matter
• The main body
• The back matter

The front matter is serves as a guide to potential reader, it therefore need to be attractive to ensure the reader will pursue to the main body. But the front matter also help the reader locate a particular area of the report. The front matter typically comprises:

• The cover/title page
• The abstract of executive summary (sometimes replaces by a preface of foreword)
• The acknowledgment
• The table of contents
• The table of tables/figures/equations
• The nomenclature

This then leads onto the main body, which is the core of the report. In this section, the work undertaken, its purpose and the results should be presented in a thorough yet clear and concise manner. The main headings of the main body can vary widely depending on the subject of the report; for instance, a philosophical essay should present the thesis, antithesis and synthesis, while a technical report will focus on the method, results and discussion. There are nevertheless some key sections common to all report, such as:

• Introduction
• Main headings
• Conclusions
• References

Finally, the back matter should not be neglected, as it can provide to some reader some much needed information in order to complete the main body of the report. In addition, the back matter offers another opportunity to guide the reader towards specific content. Generally, the following sections are found:

• Appendix
• Glossary
• Index

To better understand the role of the three main sections, namely the front matter, main body and back matter, it is vital to consider the target audience, as each section is aimed at a very specific type reader.

3. Know And Target Your Audiences

The key to report writing is to know who your audiences are.

The question I probably get asked most often by my friends is: "Come on, do you really read all of the reports? Or just the beginning?" Now this is a very interesting question, and my answer will depend on who you ask this question to.

As a lecturer, I will read everything, not matter how awful and boring; and even if I lose the will to leave half way through the first page, I will carry on. The reason is that it is my job.

As a businessman however, my answer will be very different. If I am given a great report (the kind I am detailing in this blog), I will only read the cover page, and it will provide me with all the information I need, thus making efficient use of my limited time in a busy schedule. If the report is not good however, it will earn a one way-trip to the round filling cabinet, i.e. straight to the bin.

Behind the two different answers lies the key stone to good report writing: you much know and target your audiences. And note that, since the beginning of this post, I keep using the plural: audiences. This is because there are three types of reader that will take interest in your work.

• The boss
• The average guy
• The technical person

Your boss is busy, and has not time to read through pages and pages. Yet he needs to be aware of the work you have done, why you have done it, and what you have found. This is critical as he will sign you pay check, but will also decide on your pay raise and promotion. This is where the front matter, or more precisely executive summary comes into play: you need to get across as concisely as possible what the report is all about. This is the reason why I always advise to feature the summary on the cover page.

The average guy will then move onto the main body of the report, curious to know more. This is why you need to provide clear and precise explanation, supported by appealing visuals, to retain the attention of the reader right until the end. This reader my however not have the same level of technical understanding as you do, and may therefore not question of be critical of the work you have done.

Finally, the technical person is on the same level of understanding as you, if not on a higher one. This person will therefore be very critical of your work, and will want to question your report in greater details. This is why the back matter, and principally the appendix is vital: it allows for the technical person to check all your detailed calculations for instance, so that he can be convinced the work has been performed without any mistake.

Now coming back to my earlier answers: as a businessman, I am the boss, and I am looking for an extremely succinct outline, without the details, and therefore I am satisfied with the executive summary. As a lecturer however, I am the technical person, I need to make sure the work presented is fully accurate, so that I can award marks and provide constructive feedback.

So, when writing your next report, keep in mind your target audiences for each section:

• The boss for the front matter
• The average guy for the main body
• The technical person for the back matter

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.

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.

12. Literature Review And Previous Work

Demonstrate that your work fits within the state of the art of your field

Following your introduction, the second section of your academic or professional report should generally be the Literature Review, also known as the Previous Work section. This is absolutely essential: it demonstrate to your reader that you have research the state of the art of what your report will be discussing, but it also proves the relevance of what you are undertaking by relating it to previous work undertaken, thus showing the relevance of the work you are about to present. Furthermore, this is a very useful section for you, the writer, as studying  similar work performed before might provide you with valuable insights into what you are about to start, thus allowing for self-reflection.

A tip I often given to colleagues and students, is to go and read the second section of the reports or articles they are studying. Why is that? Simply because that second section will be the literature review, a concise and condensed review of the best and most up to date work that has been done in your field. This is a gold mine of information to conduct efficient research in a limited amount of time, so do not pass on such a fantastic opportunity.

It is good practice, especially from an academic point of view to achieve better grades, to ensure that there is a chronological order to your literature review. You may start from a historical discovery of application, moving onto some of the key progresses made, and ending with the most up to date knowledge and discoveries. This should be reflected in the publication dates of the authors you are citing as part of that literature review. Finally, emphasis where your work fits with respect to the literature review you have conducted, what gaps you are hoping to fill, and how far forward are you planning to move the present knowledge.

13. Method, Procedure Or Protocol

Structure your report to structure your ideas.

Having properly introduced your report and presented the work previously undertaken by others in the field in your literature review, it is now time to present your contribution and the work you did. This can take many name or forms, depending on your field of study; laboratory experiments might refer to a protocol, while other research field will simply name it the method section.

But no matter what name or form it takes, the function is always the same: structure logically your reflection and the work that you have performed, to guide the reader through your thought process and clearly detail the research or experiment undertaken. By laying out this structure, you will also realise potential flaws or weaknesses in your research, or highlight an area that should have been covered in more depth.

This is the reason why I always advise my research colleagues, students and employees to start by writing the structure of their report and the work they intend to do first. This is the best way to ensure ideas a flowing smoothly, and that there is no gap or omitted parts of the problem. And this can be critical: for a research paper, the peer-reviewers may reject your paper if your ideas are note strongly underpinned; for a college or university assignment, this will result in a lot of marks lost; finally, from a business point of view, your reputation could be at stake if an important area of the work has been overlooked.

It is therefore best practice to start structuring your report and arranging your ideas in logical sequence to discover any future problem areas and remedy to it effortlessly, has you have not conducted the bulk of the work yet. This is the prefect opportunity to start working on the sections and headings for your table of contents, and is one of the key to a successful report.

14. Results

Now this is where the party is!

Finally! The suspense is killing your reader! After a focused introduction, targeted literature review and clear presentation of your method, it is now time to present your results. The previous sections respectively presented the context and motivations behind your work, the previous work undertaken in the field, as well as your approach to the work performed. The results, i.e. your contribution to the state of the art and the outcome of the work undertaken can now be presented.

The results are the starting point for your discussion and conclusion, coming later in the report, they therefore need to be complete, but not clutter your report. You therefore need to find a balance between concise results depicted in the main body of the report, and the detailed results in appendix, thus proving all the technical details needed by some of your audience.

Presenting results in an efficient and concise way is therefore vital, but can be challenging: graphs, tables and equations are among the best ways to present results, each will therefore be the topic of a separate article to further characterise their use as part of an academic and professional report.

15. Creating Graphs

A picture is worth a thousand words

As part of the result section, key graphs need to be presented. Unfortunately, most people do no present graphs in a professional manner, so that it can be easily understood by all readers. As a consequence, this can result is lost grades in an academic context, or poor performance in a professional context.

Presenting graphs that are easy to understand yet contain all the relevant information is key, and in order to demonstrate how to create an amazing graph, we will be taking the following example, of the yearly price of an oil barrel since the year 2000. For most people, the data would be presented as follows:

However, this is inappropriate! 

First of all, all your figures should have a concise descriptive caption, that must also be crossed-referenced in the text; i.e., you need to refer the reader to that particular figure through the use of a figure number in the text of your report. All your figures and associated captions will then be presented in the table of figures. Note that, but using a caption, the chart title becomes redundant. I therefore always recommend NOT using a chart title, as it should feature in the caption.

Secondly, we need to scale the axis. Looking at the horizontal axis, the first year is 1998... yet no data is presented that year, the axis must therefore be adjusted to start and finish at the relevant points.

Furthermore, we need axis titles and units. What does the vertical axis represent? One can guess the price, but without certainty, it is therefore good practice to properly label your axis. In addition, what is the price in? Dollars? Yens? Euros? The axis title should be complete by the relevant units, typically between brackets.

Now looking at the data, there is no legend provided. While this is not necessarily critical since only one set of data is plotted, a legend is absolutely vital once different data sets are provided. Also note that most report will be printed in black and white, and while a blue and red line can easily be differentiated, once they become shades of grey, it is impossible to tell one from the other. This is where using markers come into place: but using distinctive markers, you can ensure you different sets of data are always discernible.

Talking about markers, you should always add markers to your lines. Indeed, this highlights what is known as the data points, namely precise points at which you have a given value. This gives the reader an idea of how reliable the line shown is: multiple closely spaced data points reveal gives the reader more confidence that some very few markers far apart.

Making those quick and simple changes instantly enhances the quality and clarity of your graph, allowing you to achieve a much more professional standard, as depicted in Figure 1 below (note the use of a cross-reference in the text to introduce the figure):

Figure 1: Yearly oil barrel price from 2000 to 2015 in USD.

And this is how you can improve you graphs, both visually and technically, to reach a professional standard of report writing and presentation.

16. Creating Tables

Sleeker tables to better present your data

After the graphs, the second visual way to present your results is via tables, and again, the sleekness and professionalism of your table will have a huge impact on the audience's appreciation of your work.

Let's start with a typical table format found in so many report, in this instance presenting the population and size of the ten largest US cities.

Firstly, we need units to be able to quantify the data: what does size refer to? This can only be clarified by specifying the appropriate units.

Secondly, the table is too cluttered: the columns should be made wider, which will give the table a lighter feeling, but more importantly will be easier to analyse for the reader

Looking in the size column, we have an inconsistent number of decimal places, which must be remedied for.

Finally, the table is too blend, not all borders need to be displayed, colours, although not necessary, can be added. Furthermore, the title row should stand our more; this is typically achieved by using a bold font. Enhanced examples of the above table are presented hereafter, with the addition of the required table number and descriptive caption, starting with a black and white table.

Table 1: Comparison of the population and size of the 10 largest US Cities. [Black and White]

This can be made easier to read by using colours, starting with grey-scale.

Table 2: Comparison of the population and size of the 10 largest US Cities. [Grey-Scale]

But a colour code can also be used to suit your College, University or Company colour scheme and logo, below are a blue and orange themed examples.

Table 3: Comparison of the population and size of the 10 largest US Cities. [Blue]

Table 4: Comparison of the population and size of the 10 largest US Cities. [Orange]

You are now is a position to display your result in table that are elegant, professional and easy to understand, thus maximising the impact of your work on the reader, and ensuring your work is fully appreciate.

17. Creating Equations

Here comes the Maths!

If you are studying or working in a scientific, technical or numerical field, equations will be a core part of your report. Well presented, you will ensure a professional standard of report writing; but poorly presented equations will make for a poor impression of your work, and therefore yourself. This is the vital role played by equations and their presentation as part of a report.

Ohm's law is one of the most fundamental principles or electricity, and the very short equation should not represent a challenge. However, the majorities of reports will feature the equation as follows:

While the equation is correct, it is poorly presented. The star symbol (*) should never be used as an alternative for the multiplication sign. Furthermore, it is best practice to define the variable of the equations, namely the symbols and the quantity they represent. Furthermore, the units to be used should be specified. 

This is why I have been recommending the following format to my students and employees. Under the equation, each variable is presented, first with its symbol as per the equation, then a description of the quantity, and finally the actual units used. This is also supplemented by the addition of an equation number, which will not only allow to cross-reference the equation in the text, but also to incorporate it as part of the table of equations.

And this is the best, most complete and most professional way to present any equation as part of a report. The equation is clearly presented and associated with its equation number, each variable is introduced, and the units specified.

18. Discussion

The discussion is your chance to shine, whether academically or professionally.

The literature review section introduced the latest developments in your field, you then presented your methodology to further the current knowledge, and latter revealed your results. You are now expected to make sense of your results and interpret them.

In a College or University context, the discussion section typically carries a large portion of the marks, as it demonstrates the student's understanding of the work they have undertaken. The same is true in a professional environment, where a careful analysis and discussion of the results will be expected.

The key to a successful discussion is to be critical. You need to show that you have understood your results through a careful analysis, but you also need to relate that to the wider context: how do your results compare to other published work? This is known as a benchmark, which you can use to validate the outcome of your experiment.  Furthermore, how accurate are your results? you may want to undertake an uncertainty and sensitivity analysis to quantify the accuracy of your results, and the impact of the potential inaccuracies.

The discussion is also an opportunity to formulate your own theory, underpinned by your results as well as other publication. You can then, and in fact should, offer counter arguments to any obvious critics that could be made of the hypothesis you have formulated.

The discussion should therefore be a critical analysis of your results, building on the literature review and benchmarks, but taking it further, with a critical analysis and relations to the wider context in your field.

19. Recommendations And Future Work

Where will the work you have undertaken will take you next?

A report is a story, set in time. The literature review summarises the past work, and brings the report in to the present. Your work constitutes the story, with the discussion being the happy ending of that story... but life does not end there, and chances are there is a lot more work to be done, either by you or others. And while your results may have answered some questions, they probably also raised others. In addition, your critical discussion most likely highlighted areas where the accuracy should be improved in the future. 

The role of the recommendations and future work section is dual. On the one hand, based on your own experience of the work you have undertaken, you should be able to formulate a series of recommendations for later similar work, whether it is undertaken by your or somebody else; it is feedback and suggestions on how to improve. On the other hand, you should suggest the future work or next steps to be undertaken; perhaps a validation of your experiment is need, or additional tests are required, or newly raised questions must be answers. In any case, you should offer your personal guidance on where the work should go next.

And while you may not realise it yet, this section will become crucial in the future. Indeed, in your time-line, the recommendations represents the future. But for the person carrying your work, it will represent the most up-to-date knowledge and how to explore it further, thus making this a vital part of your work, as it will influence a number of your readers.

20. Conclusions

Finish your report on a high note!

After working your way through the introduction, literature review, methodology, results and discussion, you can now start looking at the final touch: the conclusion. This is the end of your report, and for most readers (except the technical person, as highlighted in the target audiences of reports), it will be the last thing they reader, and most likely to keep in mind. This justifies the need for a carefully written conclusion.

A mistake made very frequently is to bring new material or thoughts into the conclusion: this section is means to summarise and refresh everything you covered in the report. It is too late to add new material or ideas; those should have been incorporated into the discussion. 

For an efficient conclusion, you should brief, and straight to the point, highlighting the key parts of your report, from the motivations behind your work to the results and their interpretations. A comprehensive list of your finds and achievements should also be features. While this to be redacted for certain fields of study or work (such a literature or philosophy), technical and engineering disciplines can (though not necessary) use a series of bullet points to emphasis the main findings.

Finally, your conclusion should be a stand-alone section, upon which any reader should have a good idea of the work and findings. Very often, conclusions are read as a way to recall the detailed information in a report read a while ago. Do keep this in mind when writing it, and ensure it is fit for purpose.

21. References

Correctly acknowledging the work of other is a vital and legal responsibility.

References is always a tricky subject, which unfortunately most ignore until the very last minute, and end up sorting in a rush, when it is a significant part of the report. Before diving into what references are, how to use them and the numerous tools available, it must be pointed out that failing to properly reference material that is not yours can be extremely costly.

In an academic context, not referencing the work of others is equivalent to attempting to pass the work of others as you own; in other word plagiarism. This is an extremely serious offence, classified as academic misconduct, and can be sanctioned by anything from a fail to an expulsion. YES, it is that serious. In a professional context, failing to reference could be considered a violation of intellectual property rights (IPR), or breach of copyright, and could lead to extremely cost legal matters.

The references are there to acknowledge that some of the ideas, illustrations, equations, or others, is not yours. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that; in fact, it is a sign that you have performed research, and is therefore seen as beneficial. For the purpose of academic assessments, you should have at least one reference per page of report. For instance, a 20 pages report should include at least 20 references.

Now what needs to be referenced? Essentially, anything that is not yours. There are however exceptions, such a general knowledge and well known facts; thus there is no need to reference that 1+1=2, or that Columbus found America in 1492.

A common question is which reference format to use... and the answer is that is does not matter, as long as you are consistent and use the same throughout. However, note that the Harvard Referencing System is the most commonly used, and if in doubt, this is the safest option. There are however formats you may found more useful; I personally use the APA referencing system as it suits my needs better.

When it comes to in text references, most field will require the author name and the publication date, between bracket. For instance: The first law of motion (Newton, 1687), states that... Alternatively, if you use the name of the author, it is then followed by the publication date between brackets, as in the following example: Newtons (1687) presents the first law of motion as... Nevertheless, in technical and engineering fields, numbered references are preferred, with the number between square brackets, thus giving the following: The first law of motion as given by Newton [1] is...

At the end of your report, and depending on the referencing format chosen, you reference section should present your complete list of references.

Please note the distinction between references, which is work you have directly referred to in the report, and the bibliography, which gathers publications that you may have read or have influenced you, but are never referred to directly. In certain cases, you may very well have a bibliography section following you reference one.

Finally, there are several tools now available to help you manage you references and simplify the process, such as RefWork, RefME, EndNote, etc...

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...

23. Proofreading

The difference between win or lose. 

So you have now followed our recommendations and guidelines to craft the perfect report... but is it that perfect? We all make mistakes; because we type too fast, because we get distracted, because we have a new idea, because we assume everyone has the same knowledge as us... the list in endless. But the fact is: you need to proof read your work over and over.

This is one of the main argument for starting your work early, and finishing it ahead of the deadline: so that you can sleep on it, and read it again, to see if it still makes sense. But very often, as you cast your eyes over your work, you realise that you know it by heart, making it extremely hard to spot typos and grammatical errors.

You therefore need what is often referred to as a Guinea Pig, someone you can use to proof read your work and get an outside opinion. I generally advise my students to make a deal with a friend studying a completely different subject, and get them to proof read their work and vice versa. In most of my businesses, I have implemented the Wingman concept: each employee is assigned a Wingman to go over their work and proof read it.

This is absolutely crucial as errors can negatively impact the perception of your work: a CV with typo will end up in the bin straight away; so will an invitation to tender with wrong grammar. As far as essays, reports and academic papers are concerned, your grade could easily go down by 20% if the work submitted as not been proof read properly.

24. Getting help

Because it's okay to get help.

As the old proverb says: "If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together". This is very true of report writing; you can come up with a rather large volume of content rapidly on your own, but the reality that that quality is unlikely to be there. Conversely, you can achieve a much higher standard of work by getting help, and it is okay to do so!

We have previously mentioned the importance of proofreading and how you can use various strategies to your advantage. A number of friends, peers or colleagues are there and most likely very happy with helping you out, so make use of it!

Sometime however, you need an external view on the matter, someone from the outside that can be more critical of your work, because there is no emotional attachment. This for instance might be your teacher or lecturer reviewing and grading your work; or it could be your boss reading you latest report while having your application for a promotion on his desk... In those cases, it is too late! 

This is why we offer our help with professional proof reading services, to ensure your latest homework, paper, report, dissertation, thesis, contact, or any thing is to the highest standard of quality in both its content and format.

So please drop us an email at: misterreportwriting@gmail.com, and let us know how we can help :)