Writing tips for a report

Structure of a report

Before writing anything it is good to keep your audience in mind. Why would they be interested in reading your report/story/website/article? What is the background of my readers, how much do I need to explain? For a report, a good audience to consider is your fellow students.
A report typically contains the following components:

Title

This should be descriptive of the content and invite the reader to read.

Abstract

This is a short summary of the work and the last thing to write. A good way to start is to write one or two sentences on context, aims, methods, results and conclusions and then link these sentences together.

Introduction

Give a bit of background. Why is the topic interesting? Explain the problem and your aim for the project. For instance, consider two programming assignments on orbits of planets. Although the topic is the same, th aim of the projects could be very different: a program that describes only Earth's orbit, the orbits of all planets in our Solar System, or the orbit of any random planet given a set of input parameters like sun and planet mass.

Theory

Depending on the type of report, this part is not always required. It typically contains theoretical background information from the literature. For instance, when performing Density Functional Theory calculations during an internship, this would contain the background of the technique. In scientific articles, this is typically omitted since it is considered common knowledge.

Methodology

Describe your approach. Your readers should be able to reproduce it. Specify all important parameters. Background on the method is not needed (should go in previous part). When using multiple techniques, it can be good to help the reader by specifying the type of information that can be obtained by each method.

Results and Discussion

Present your results in clear figures or tables. Describe what can be seen and which conclusions can be drawn. Is the result what you expect? Can you compare against literature values? Always try to build up a story and motivate your choices.

Conclusions

Summarize and go back to your initial aim. Did you meet your aim? What did you learn?

Bibliography

Quote all sources (including web pages with dates).

Checklist for report

Apart from the structure of the report, there are some standard layout and presentation points to consider:

General points

• Report must be in PDF.
• Do not forget names and student numbers
• Pages must be numbered.
• All tables and figures must have captions and be numbered.
• The main text should refer to all figures and tables in the order in which they appear in the report.
• Use only one type of paragraph (alinea), e.g., a new paragraph starts at a new line with indentation, or always separate paragraphs by empty line.
• Tables and figures should be at the top of pages if possible (except for the first page), if more space is needed put them at the bottom of the page.
• The axes of a figures should be labeled and give units (example: \(T\)(K))
• Tables have no frames/boxes/vertical lines. Use:
  • Double line at the top
  • Single line under header
  • Double line at the bottom
• Always specify units. Use the proper symbols or, when units are written in full use lower case (e.g., newton, angstrom).
• Use words or formulas to explain trends/concepts, not code (Matlab or other).

Language points

• Use a spelling checker
• Learn the difference between "amount of" and "number of".
• Try to avoid "There is" constructions.

Equations, abbreviations and symbols

• Define all abbreviations the first time they are used.
• Equations must be numbered.
• Equations are part of a sentence, and may have comma or period at the end.
• Use symbols in equations (no words) and specify them in the text. Do not use a multiplication symbol in an equation (*,\(\times\),\(\cdot\)) (Only for the appropriate vector operations).

The following example includes all of these points:

The TD or traveled distance, \(d\), within a certain time \(t\) can be obtained by \begin{equation} d = vt, \end{equation} where \(v\) is the velocity of the object.

Figures

• Make sure the fonts in the figures are not smaller than the size of a subscript in the main text. Note that in software the default font size is suitable for viewing the figure on a screen, but fonts can become too small when the figure is scaled to fit in a report.
• For figures that show functions "vectorgraphics" formats are the most suitable: use, e.g., .eps, .pdf, or .svg files. Bitmap formats, like .jpeg or .png are more suitable for regular pictures.