Report Writing Guide

Sample Layout For Regular Reports

Various schools may set forth different structure recommendations for reports and term papers. We present the most comprehensive layout that should be followed for most report writing purposes. Nevertheless, it should be noted, that not all sections are mandatory and should be used when applicable.

• Title Page.
  Must specify the title of the work, the name of the author, name of institution, and date.
• Table of Contents
• Abstract.
  Provides a brief summary of the subject matter of the report or term paper, describing the methodology, the work accomplished and the results attained. Abstracts must be concise and comprehensive and may be up to 2 pages in length.
• Introduction.
  The author describes the background of the problem, the previous work done by other influential scholars and the aspects of the problem studied in the report.
• Materials and Methods.
  This section is only applicable if the author conducted some experimental work. Here the author includes the description of the apparatus and the materials used. The unique items must be described in detail whereas common items can be mentioned briefly. Drawings may be included if applicable. The author must describe the process or method used in obtaining the experimental data. The level of detail varies depending on the type of project and nature of research. For standard laboratory or pilot plant practicals, if no modifications were made to the procedure given in the manual, then it is sufficient to write something like "the procedure was as outlined in the practical manual". In case the author modified the suggested procedure, the introduced changes must be explained in this section.
• Methods of Analysis of Data.
  This section may be required in some reports. If there is any special methodology involved in treating the experimental data collected and analyzing that data to obtain the relevant results of the project, the author must describe such special methods in this section. As an example, the author may list the computer programs to process the collected data.
• Results. This section is mandatory. Here the author presents the actual findings of the work and describes them in ample detail. The description of findings must be sufficient in order to be able to make references to the findings from the Discussion section without reference to the Appendix. If there are a number of replicates used in the study, the author must introduce some measure of variability. For example, a "Statistical Analysis" subsection may be introduced. Such subsection may present regression analysis results, confidence intervals, standard deviations, minitab results, etc., if necessary.
• Discussion. Analysis. Reliability of Data.
  This section should be devoted to discussing the findings of the conducted study and their implications in terms of the underlying theory. The methods of arriving at those results must also be discussed. Moreover, the author must define and discuss the potential room for error.
• Conclusions.
  The author draws a conclusion and explain what has been learned and how the study has been helpful in learning the subject.
• Recommendations.
  The author lists possible recommendations as to potential improvements to be done to various aspects of the study.
• Appendix.
  The Appendix includes (1) Original experimental data, (2) A detailed example of the method used for deriving the final results from the original data for one of the experimental runs, (3) Graphs, (4) Table of Nomenclature, (5) Bibliography.

Sample Layout For Short Reports

Short reports may have a simplified layout. If the author is doing a study utilizing common equipment and methodology, many sections proposed in the preceding paragraph can be omitted. The layout can be abridged to the following structure:

• Title Page.
• Abstract.
• Results.
• Description of apparatus and Procedure.
• Discussion.
• Appendix.
• Original experimental data.
• Sample calculations.