PRESENTATION ON EFFECTIVE REPORT WRITING

BY- Leshlie MarkeySchool of management

D.M.S PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY

Report Writing

Some simple rules for gaining more marks for your

project

Writing a report is simple …...

if you follow some simple rules

Writing can be fun …

if you are confident in your knowledge of your subject

The KISS principle

•Keep

•It

•Simple

•Stupid

Simple rules for good writing

One idea per sentence

Not more than 20 words per sentence

Not more than 5 sentences per paragraph

Not more than 3 paragraphs per heading

Do not use that or which more than once per sentence

Define it before you use it

Mathematical terminology

Technical terms

Define specific terms in terms of general concepts

Include a Glossary

PicturesA picture is worth 10,000 words

A well-thought diagram can save a lot of words and is much easier to

understandNumber all diagrams and pictures

Refer to each diagram in the text

Include a brief descriptive legend for each diagram

Lists and Tables

Lists and tables can present complicated ideas succinctly. They are and are easy to write

and assimilate.Lists and tables eliminate a lot

of verbose text. (No “connecting” text is

needed.)

References

Include a good number of relevant references.

List references in standard form - refer to good text-books for

examples of formatting.Formats

Cite each reference

Contents

Important as it helps the reader to gain an overall view.

The Contents page is like a road map.

It must be accurate.

Acknowledgements & Gratitude

You must acknowledge work by all other people, including

Previous students

Contemporary students

Other workers, including Internet authorsFriends

supervisor.

Thank people who have helped you. Your supervisor is human and likes praise, if it is deserved.

Spelling

Bad spelling is a distraction and an annoyance to the reader.

Use a spell checker where possible but it may give spurious results on technical

writing.A spell checker will not help, if the

original is too far removed from the correct spelling, or if there is a similar

sounding word, e.g. currant and current, college and collage.

Grammar

Try to adhere to the conventions of grammar - failure to do so annoys the

reader and obscures meaning.

Think of another way of expressing the same idea.

What do I include?

Context

Prior work

General design principles

Self analysis

Testing

Imaginative ideas tempered with common sense

New applications: minor modifications that could help other markets

Further work

Who are you writing for?What is the level of competence of your

reader.

Do not “talk down” to your reader.

Your reader does not have your technical expertise, so you must help him/her.

A good test of your understanding: explain your ideas to a history student. (I.e. somebody who is intelligent but not trained technically.)

Respect other technical disciplines

Yours is not the only subject of merit.

There may be a non-computer solution that is much cheaper, more reliable, faster and less complicated

than one based on a computer.Other workers are worthy of respect.

Tell them

Tell the reader what you are going to tell him/her.

Tell him/her.

Tell the reader what you have told him/her.

A poor report

“My supervisor told me to do XXX, so I did XXX and it worked.”

Vague

Inconsistent

Inaccurate

Not self critical

Narrow in its scope.

Organising the material

Use an idea processor or an outliner (MS -WORD has one)

Top-down design

•I organised my PhD thesis in a morning!

Good Planning

Saves time and effort

Produces a better, more complete and more accurate

report