WRITING UP YOUR FINAL REPORT

Language style

The style of language used reports is concrete, active and formal as a rule. The rules of plain English definitely apply most of the time.

There is no room for bias or fudging results especially when they are considered to be legal documents. This is particularly the case in engineering, business, the sciences and some social sciences.

*refer to reported speech & active/passive voice

Layout

Spacing between headings, subheadings, paragraphs, ends of section, diagrams etc. need to be uniform and consistent. As a guide—one space between heading and subheading, 1.5 spacing between lines, and two spaces between the end of a section and the next heading.

Appendices

Appendices include things like raw data sheets, extra or supplementary information or diagrams, maps of regions etc. You draw your reader’s attention to the appropriate appendix by indicating this briefly at the appropriate place in the report. For example:

The student’s academic achievements indicate that there is an overwhelmed change between Session 2007/08 and Session 2008/2009. Comprehensive achievement charts for the sessions are included as Appendix A.

A title page

This section outlines the name of the report; who prepared the report; for whom the report was prepared; the nature of the report (your research title); the date the report was prepared/submitted.

A contents page

This includes the page numbers of each section within the report and any appendices that are attached to the report; it does not include the title page. These are attached to the report before the content page.