a guide to writing reports and project proposals by andrew newman

8/7/2019 A Guide to Writing Reports and Project Proposals by Andrew Newman

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A guide to writing reports and project proposals by Andrew Newman

Dr. Andrew J. Newman (2005) Page 1 10/3/2005

GUIDELINES

FOR

REPORT WRITING

"This booklet contains guidelines and advice to help you when

you are writing a business or a technical report. It is not a set of

rules to be followed slavishly. You will most probably find that

different organizations have slightly differing requirements andprocedures for report writing. So you may need to adapt and

modify these practices to suit your particular purpose and the

demands of the organization for whom you are writing the

report.

REPORT WRITING

A report is an account of predominantly factual information, which covers more subject matter than a

letter or memo.

It is usually written for circulation to more than one person.

A report is a response to a specific request for information and so it has to have a definite purpose.

The purpose is generally one or a combination of some of the following.

to give information

to report findings

to put forward ideas

to recommend a course of action.

Unlike an essay, reports have a very formal structure. Hence, you should try tomake

the reader's task easier by planning the structure and layout carefully. You


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will therefore need be systematic and use:

a series of headings

suitable subheadings

appropriately numbered points

Most organizations recommend to their employees a particular layout for reports:the

following comments should correspond in principle, if not in detail to themajority of

such recommendations.

STAGES OF REPORT WRITING

There are five stages of report writing that should be observed in sequence as follows:

clarifying the purpose

research

planning

writing

checking and reviewing

1) CLARIFYING THE PURPOSE

Before you begin you should consider:

your reader(s)

what your reader(s) want to know

(i) Your reader(s)

Most readers are interested only in the conclusions and their significance. It is thus important to use

headings and sub-headings in the final layout, and preferable to have too many rather than not

enough.

A reader sometimes has a different background from the writer. So write at the appropriate technical

level, using the appropriate vocabulary. Research what the reader already knows about the subject

could prevent you submitting irrelevant material.


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(ii) Your purpose - what your reader wants to know.

This will be decided for you by the report brief - a good brief should give you an

indication of the subject and angle of the report. Bearing this in mind, ask yourself

"what will the reader expect to find in a report of this type?"

For example, a report on:

Technical problems should provide answers to:

1. What is/are the problems?

2. The size of the problem

3. What is being done and by whom?

4. The approaches used

5. Suggested optimum solution

6. What other solutions exist? Why reject them?

7. The proposed schedule

8. Other work to be done

9. Implications

New Project and Products should provide answers to:

1. The potential and risks involved

2. Scope of the applications

3. Commercial implications, e.g. competition

4. The importance to the company

5. Other research/work to be undertaken

6. Further problems, e.g. manpower, facilities, equipment

7. Priority of this/these projects?

8. The life of the project

9. The impact on the organizations technical position


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10. Schedule, lead time, target date(s)

11. What financial capital would be required?

12. How will it be financed?

Tests and Experiments should provide answers to:

1. What was tested/ investigated?

2. Why, how and results

3. Alternative methods of testing

4. Conclusions

5. Recommendations

6. Implications for the organization

Once you've decided on the questions your research will furnish possible answers.

2) RESEARCH

Your sources may be oral, written or from personal information depending on the circumstances, but

remember:

to collect only relevant Information

to separate fact from opinion

to check the accuracy of "facts" where possible

As you begin your research organize your material. Use a temporary system of

classifying notes to assist you and always make sure that the notes you make can be

read at a later (perhaps much later) date. Remember also to record the source of

information. You will need this when you compile your references or bibliography.

2.1 The Methodology Section

Your Methodology section should provide enough detail for a prospectivesupervisor

to assess the viability of the project, and the amount of research required(in the time

period allowed).


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You must indicate where you will be sourcing your data from, e.g. company

accounts, reports, Government papers etc. If you need to approach a company or

customers for information (that is not already publicly available), please state if you

have already agreed access.

If your methods involve the use of surveys, questionnaires or focus groups, please

state to whom they will be directed (either the company name or title of positionheld,

e.g. HR Managers).

Rationale - you must state the reasons for your choice of data sources - how do they

support the investigation? How will the data collected prove or disprove your

hypothesis?

Type of data - do you intend to make use of qualitative or quantitative data sources?

Do these types of data complement the area in which you wish to research?

Analysis - state (where possible) which data analysis tools you may wish to employ

in your project. They make take the form of statistical analyses, for example. Your

supervisor will be able to advise you as to the best methods of analysis foryour data,but some initial thoughts on how you plan to use your data must be included.

Bibliography/literature sources: please list information resources, such as research papers, books,

newspaper articles or web pages that will provide additional literature or data to begin your project.

Your supervisor will generally not expect this list to be exhaustive, but that you have made an initial

investigation into the current research and/or articles published on your chosen area of research.

3) PLANNING

This is a very important stage and you need to allow sufficient time for it. It is the

stage when you organise and order your information into a logically sequenced

structure. You may make several plans before you achieve your final plan, which

should be a list of the headings and subheadings you will use in your final text in

the order in which you will deal with them. It is essential to work these out before

writing begins.

4) WRITING

(i) Layout


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This is important. Attractive presentation predisposes the reader in your favour. The

use of both headings and "white space" are particularly important.

(ii) Language

You will need to determine the appropriate language for the reader(s) who may be

supervisors, specialists, company directors and colleagues. Where there is a wide

spread of readers it is better to write for three or four readers who are considered

the key recipients.

(iii) Format

This may differ according to the recipients or requirements of the collaborating

organisation for which the report is intended, and the purpose and subject matter of

your report.

A typical format will probably include:

A title page

List of contents

A summary or abstract

An introduction/terms of reference

The main text of the report

Conclusions

Recommendations

References

Acknowledgements

Appendices

Glossary

(iv) The title page


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This should indicate precisely what the report is about. Sometimes, in order to do

this, you may require an additional sub-title. Some report titles tend to be long but

the shorter the better.

Also on the title page you should include the following information:

name(s) and formal identities of the principle readers. These are usually the

persons who have commissioned the report.

your name and those of other authors.

it is important to include your student number in the report

the date and time.

Word count

This information is necessary so that the report can be filed and referred to at a later

date.

(v) (Executive) Summary

In some cases, senior management will use your report to assist in decision-making

and will therefore need to determine whether to:

read the report in full

send it to someone else

The manager should be able to make these decisions after reading the summary.

Therefore, the summary should be short (not more than 10% of the length of the

report). It should contain the essential points of the report and help by clarifying

some or all of the following.

what is the report about?

who wrote it?

what is the problem being considered?


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what actions are recommended?

who should carry out such actions and when should they carry out such

actions?

what are the implications for the company?

what are the chances for success of the recommended actions?

The summary should be written after you have finished writing the main text, but

must be placed at the beginning of the report so that it is immediately accessible to

the reader.

(vi) The Introduction or Terms of Reference

This section should tell the reader what the report is intended to provide, and is not

simply the first section of the report. It should include a statement of the purpose

and aim of the report.

This section may provide necessary background information but only if this can be

communicated briefly. It may inform the reader how the subject will be developed

and how the author(s) have researched the information. For example:

"This report has been complied in order to analyse the major problems

facing company x and to make recommendations so that the company can

improve its financial position.

The report analyses the problems in five sections representing different

functional areas of the collaborating organisation.

The conclusion and recommendations follow in a separate section and may be

divided into two:

Immediate and long-term recommendations

(vii) The Main Text of the Report


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the results of the survey were inconclusive (see Kramer 1989).

The person reading your work can then locate the full description of the item you

have cited by going to the alphabetical list of references you have provided at the

end of your report.

You may need to cite more than one work by the same author published in the same

year. You can do so by adding letters after the dates:

Dow (1964a) and Dow (1964b)

If you are giving exact quotations from other works you should identify the page

numbers.

Dow (1964, p.28)

Insertion of extra citations is no problem as the references are listed in one

alphabetical sequence.

Numeric System

Numbers are inserted into the text which refer to a numerical sequence of

references at the end of your document:

Dow and Jenkins, or Dow (7) and Jenkins (9).

You can also use numbers on their own:

It can be argued orit can be argued (10)

Page numbers can either be given in your list of references, or after the numbers in

your text:

Dow7p27 or Dow (7, p.27)

Quotations

As indicated in the earlier examples, when using either the Harvard or Numeric


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system, you should provide page numbers if quoting from another document.

There are certain other generally accepted conventions described below that you

might like to observe:

If you are only quoting a few words, usual practice is as follows:

Jones (1989, p.114) has challenged, what he calls, the peculiar assertion by

Howard that the moon is populated by librarians.

Smith (1986, p.4) has argued it is simply not possible to know everything

[but] it can be stated that some knowledge is attainable.

The quotation forms part of your text and is indicated by enclosing it thus or

. The indicate omissions. Square brackets [ ] tell your reader you have added

your own words to the quotation.

If you are quoting a longer passage, it is common practice for the whole quotation

to be indented:

Heresy requires the presence of at least a semblance of orthodoxy, a

remaining vestige of an established paradigm, a doctrine or truth open to

contradiction or challenge. Likewise transgression needs a limit, indeed

each term evokes the other (Smart 1993. p.121).

The above conventions are not prescribed by national or international standards, but

have been included because they are usually adhered to by the academic

community.

Book References (Harvard System)

A reference is the description of the source you have used. In addition to the

conventions for referencing a book by a single author, we included a variety of


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more complex examples of works that you might need to reference.

You should use the title-page rather than the cover of the book as the source of your

reference. The order of the elements (including upper and lower case and

punctuation) of the reference is:

AUTHOR Date Title Edition Place: Publisher, Numeration within item (if only a

part is cited.)

1 Single Authors

DOW. D., 1964.A History of the world. 3rd ed. London: Greenfield.

If neither place of publication nor publishers name appears anywhere on the

document then use:

(s.l.) to indicate place unknown (sine loco)

(s.l.): Greenfield

and

(s.n.) to indicate name unknown (sine nominee)

If you do not know the publisher, you are not going to know the place either, so you

will have to do the following:

(s.l.): (s.n.)

But do try to find the publisher if at all possible!

Multiple Authors

3 or less

CUTLER, T., WILLIAMS, K., and WILLIAMS, J., 1986Keynes, Beveridge and

beyond. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul

(N.B. The order in which authors are given is that of the title page)


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Journal Article References (Harvard)

The order of the elements (including upper and lower case and punctuation) of the

reference is:

AUTHOR. Date. Article titleJournal title. volume (part), Pages

GREENFIELD. J., 1990. The Sevso Treasure: the legal case.Apollo,132 (341). 14-

16.

GOTT. R., 1989. Crumbs and the capitalists. The Guardian 20th Jan, 21-22.

Multiple Authors same rules apply as inBook References (Harvard).

If no author is mentioned in the source of your reference, use Anonymous

Anonymous. 1989. Obscenity or censorship. The Economist, 312(5 August), 33-

34.

Points to note

You should always indicate both volume number and issue or part number. In the

above examples the numbers before the brackets refer to the volume and those

inside the brackets to the issue or part number.

Apollo, 132 (341)

Volume Part

Style Tips

You should highlight the journal title, but not the title of the article. Months can be

abbreviated as in the above example, e.g. Jan for January.

You can add pp. before page numbers in journal references if you wish, but it is not

necessary to do so.

Apollo, 132(341), pp. 14-15.


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their locations charge with great frequency and you are informing your readers that

the information was accurate at the date stated.

LIBRARY & INFORMATION ??? 1998

Electronic library resources: a subject guide to selected resources on the Internet

[online].Nottingham: The Nottingham Trent University. Available at:

[Accessed 16 June 1998].

DEFOE. D., 1995. The fortunes and the misfortunes of the famous Moll Flanders

[online]. Champaign, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Available at:

[Accessed 16 June 1998]

If a web page does not appear to have an author we would recommend referencing

it by title.

Electronic Journal Articles

AUTHOR. Year. Title.Journal Title [online], volume (issue).

Available at: [Accessed Date].

If you cannot discern volume/issue details simply omit them. Indicating pages can be

problematic, as they are often not given in electronic journals, so we suggest omitting

them.

COYLE. M., 1996. Attacking the cult-historicists.

Renaissance Forum [online], 1(1). Available at:

[Accessed 16 June 1998]


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HAMMERSLEY, M., and GOMM. R., 1997 Bias in social research. Sociological

Research Online [online]. 2(1). Available at:


If you are quoting from and article in an electronic journal, you should provide as

exact a possible. For instance, you could give the paragraph number (if available).

Electronic Mail

Discussion list

AUTHOR, year. Title of message.Discussion list[online], day and month.

Available at: email address or [Accessed Date].

SMITH. D. 1997. UK unemployment definition/ figures.European-Sociologist

[online]. 13 June. Available at: [email protected][Accessed 16 June 1997].

Or

SMITH. D., 1997. UK unemployment definitions/ figuresEuropean-sociologist

[online]. 13 June. Available at:


Personal email

AUTHOR. (email address) year. Title of email, day and month. Email to:

recipients name (email address).

Referencing personal emails like any personal correspondence, is probably not

something you are likely to need to do very often. But as most sources we have

consulted cover them, we thought it would be remiss of us not to include them.


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HIGGINS. J., ([email protected]) 1996.Email is fun. 20 June. Email to:

Peter Smith ([email protected]).

CD-ROM and Online Databases

These formats cover a range of resources from bibliographic databases to full-text

books and articles.

Bibliographic databases

DATABASE [Type of medium e.g. online or CD-ROM].

(inclusive dates). Place: Publisher.

ABI/INFORM[CD-ROM]. (1986 April 1997).

Louisville: UMI.

ECONLIT [CD-ROM]. (1969 MARCH 1997). (s.l.):

Silverplatter.

Or

ECONLIT[CD-ROM]. (1969 March 1997). [London]:

Silverplatter.

Both ECONLIT examples are correct. The first indicates that no place of

publication is listed on the CD ROM. The second indicates that the place of

publication is known but not listed on the CD-rom.

Electronic Journal Articles

The Schools recommendations are similar to those given for citing journal articles

from the internet. However, for sake of clarity, we thought it useful to create this

separate section.

In the following examples the same article is cited from two different databases to


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illustrate minor changes in referencing:

EZARD, J., 1995. Lottery comes up to scratch in an instant. The Guardian

[CDROM],

29 December, 4. Avaliable from: The Guardian and the Observer on CDROM


EZARD, J., 1995. Lottery comes up to scratch in an instant. The Guardian [online],

29 December. Available from: Reuter Textline [Accessed 19th June 1997].

As you can see, the main differences are changes in [type of medium] field and no

page numbers on the second reference (because Reuter Textline does not provide

them).

Individual Works

These could comprise works by individual authors, conference proceedings,

encyclopaedias, dictionaries and myriad other types of publications. Our general

advice would be to follow the examples given for printed materials and add a [type

of medium] field after the title.

ALBERS, J., 1994.Interaction of Colour[CD-ROM]. New Haven: Yale University

Press

ANDERSON, L., 1995.Puppet Motel[CD-ROM]. New York: Canal Street

Communications, Inc.

COOK, R.L. ed., 1995. Computer graphics: SIGGRAPH 95 conference

proceedings, Los Angeles, California, 6-11 August, 1995 [CD-ROM]. New York:

The Association for Computing Machinery.

We have omitted [accessed date] as the content of such individual works is unlikely


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to change. However, if you think there is any possibility that the content of the

electronic work you are citing may be subject to change, and then it would be as

well to include the accessed date.

Examples of Other Materials that Can Cause Problems!

1. British Standard Publications

BRITISH STANDARDS INSTITUTION. 1981

BS 5930: 1981. Code of practice for site investigations

2. Patents

AZIZ, A., 1997. Method and apparatus for a key management scheme for

internet protocols. United States Patent Application 68-438, 27 May.

3. Published Music

STRAVINSKY, I., 1920. Three pieces for clarinet solo. London: Chester,

Ltd.

4. Sound Recording

ELY, J., 1990. Drivin to the poorhouse in a limousine.In: Live at Liberty

Lunch. Stereo sound disk. New York: MCA, MCG 6113, side B, track 2.

5. Illustration

SANDBY, P., 1746.A bandit with a halberd. Pen and Ink. At: London:

British Museum Department of Prints and Drawings, Register Number 1880-

9-11-1773

6. Films, Videos and Broadcasts

As a general rule, these should be cited by title, as they are usually

collaborative ventures with no one person being the author as such.


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Father Ted, 1995. Episode 1, Good Luck Father Ted. TV, Channel 4. April

21.

New Voyager, 1942. Film. Directed by Irving RAPPER, USA: Warner.

Crimewatch UK, 1993. TV, BBC1. Jan 21.

Acknowledgements

These can be given in a preface at the beginning of the report or at the end. They

are of a more general nature than references. They usually acknowledge the help

given by individuals and/or organisations.

Appendices

Appendices present detailed information, which would interrupt the main

development of the report if presented in the main body. Examples could be the

detailed results of experiments, tables of statistical data, series of graphs or "stop

press" information.

If more than one Appendix is required they should be clearly separated and titled

e.g. Appendix A. Appendix B etc. Appendices should be placed at the end of the

report. You will note, for example, that guidelines on proposal writing have been

relegated to the Appendix of this document. Appendices should be referred to at the

relevant point in the text.

Glossary

Some reports include a glossary at the beginning of the report. This is a list in

alphabetical order of explanations of any specialised or technical terms, which form

an important part of the report. Of course you usually include a glossary, if you

think your principal readers will not be familiar with the technical terms.


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Checking and Reviewing

After you have written your report, try to leave it a day or so then read it

through carefully. The following points may help:

Content: Is it relevant to the purpose and the reader of the report?

Structure: Is the information logically and clearly sequenced?

Presentation: Is it clearly and attractively presented within the report

conventions?

You may find the following list of common errors in report writing helpful to use as

a checklist:

1. Title Page:

Date missing

Formal identity of author missing

Title too brief, or vague, to be useful

No indication of intended readership within the case study

Report said to be written for a member of staff

Title page missing altogether

2. Summary

Summary too general to make sense to a new reader

Summary more like an introduction

Summary omits recommendations3. Introduction/Terms of Reference

Introduces the topic and not the report

4. Main Text


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Too full of assertions without reasons

Goes straight into problems without giving any information about the situation or

context in which these problems occur

Too much description

Insufficient headings

No reference in the text to any diagrams, charts included in the report

5. Conclusions

Adds more factual information

Confused with Recommendations

Confused with Summary

6. Recommendations

Add more factual Information

Lost in a sea of text, such as reasons, comment, costings, alternatives etc.

Requires different syntactic form. e.g. "x should be done" "do y"

7. Acknowledgements

Often not enough detail to trace source of information at a later date

8. References

Not enough information to trace the source easily at a later date

9. Appendices

Not referred to in the text

Appendix 1

Project Proposals

The choice of topic is central to success. Any problem, whether in the form of a


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project or dissertation, that truly interests you will be accomplished with seemingly

less effort, afford far more benefit than one dredged up in order to complete the

degree, and will provide the certainty that you have benefited from the course.

Poor selection will turn your final few months of study into a test of your

selfdiscipline.

When you have a clear idea of your proposed topic in mind put down in 500 words

or less your project proposal covering the following key matters:

Working Title:

We need a title from you, but this of course may change as your work progresses.

Research Question

This should be clear and concise, and where possible should focus on one particular

area. This will do wonders in concentrating your mind and bringing efficiency and

clarity to your reading and writing.

Overview of Company / Problem

This should be an outline of the central question or problem that needs resolution.

Methodology

Your Methodology section should provide enough detail for a prospective

supervisor to assess the viability of the project, and the amount of research required

(in the time period allowed).

You must indicate where you will be sourcing your data from, e.g. company

accounts, reports, Government papers etc. If you need to approach a company or

customers for information (that is not already publicly available), please state if you

have already agreed access.


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If your methods involve the use of surveys, questionnaires or focus groups, please

state to whom they will be directed (either the company name or title of positionheld,

e.g. HR Managers).

Rationale - you must state the reasons for your choice of data sources - how do they

support the investigation? How will the data collected prove or disprove your

hypothesis?

Type of data - do you intend to make use of qualitative or quantitative data sources?

Do these types of data complement the area in which you wish to research?

Analysis - state (where possible) which data analysis tools you may wish to employ

in your project. They make take the form of statistical analyses, for example. Your

supervisor will be able to advise you as to the best methods of analysis foryour data,but some initial thoughts on how you plan to use your data must be included.

Bibliography/literature sources: please list a small number of information resources,

such as research papers, books, newspaper articles or webpages that willprovide

additional literature or data to begin your project. Please note that we donot expect

this list to be exhaustive, but that you have made an initial investigationinto the

current research and/or articles published on your chosen area of research.

Purpose / Perceived Value

This needs to set out briefly what you hope to achieve by the research

The proposal will form the basis for the Academic Team to identify an appropriate

supervisor for you. If you have a particular supervisor you would like us toapproach

on your behalf, please state this in your email message when you send usyour

proposal.

Once a supervisor has been appointed, you will have 12 calendar months from the

date of notification in which to complete your project.

References

See report guidelines.

a guide to writing reports and project proposals by andrew newman

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