[SOLVED] CS Excel scheme Report

Report
Report
Ability to communicate ideas and results
Presentation is almost as important as the results!
Much of your degree assessment is from reports
Success at work: 20% ability, 80% communication
Key to successful technical document is clarity and succinctness
Preparing clear diagrams is an important skill too Gooddatapresentationessential

Report preparation cont:
STRUCTURE
A typical technical report has following structure:
Summary
Introduction
Main body of report Conclusion
Summary
Summary is at start of report
The reader needs to know if report is worth reading
It is usually no more than one page long
It is a brief statement of objectives, method and conclusions
Introduction
Introduction provides essential background knowledge
Convince the reader you are knowledgeable of your subject
It also serves to provide context of current investigation
This section is as long as it needs to be

Report preparation cont:
Main body of the report
This contains the main body of investigation
Typically the main body consists of three sections:
1. Methodology
2. Results
3. Discussion
Main body: 1. methodology
What techniques are you using? Describe them!
It might be experimental work
It might be a computational method you used
But make it clear what you did and what you used
Main body: 2. results
Provide important, representative results of your investigation
You may have to leave a lot of results out.
but make sure you get your message across

Report preparation cont: Main body: 3. discussion
If its a research report, explain how your results contribute to the field you are investigating
If its a laboratory report, here is your chance to show you understand the laboratory and the theory
Very often you need to do some additional data analysis here to prove your point or demonstrate an idea

Report preparation cont: Briefly state your main findings
Conclusion

Report preparation cont:
Organization of report
Use clearly numbered sections, for example as follows:
1. Introduction 2. Methodology 3. Results
4. Discussion 5. Conclusions
Use subsections within the main sections to provide structure
Writing style
You need to use clear, unambiguous language Avoid the first person (i.e. I or my)
Bad spelling and punctuation misleads the reader
Take care with spell checkers
Avoid repetition, as it makes the report over-lengthy Be succinct in your descriptions
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Report preparation cont:
Diagrams (1): use of diagrams
Diagrams are figures or graphs
These show results and data in graphical form
Embed diagrams in body of text, or put them together at the end of each section, or in a separate section at the back of the report after the references
Important diagrams NEVER go in an appendix Refer to diagrams in the text using a figure number.
This tells the reader where to look.
The diagram should be clear, well-labelled and annotated
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Report preparation cont:
Diagrams (2): preparation of diagrams The diagram shown is acceptable Do not over-complicate the data Label the axes clearly
Use legends when multiple sets of data are being presented
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Report preparation cont:
Diagrams (3): clear labelling is essential
The figure title provides key technical information regarding the diagram In the report refer to the figure by its number, in this case figure 1. Never put a figure in the report and not refer to it in the text
Here the diagram has been annotated to indicate significant features.
120
110
100
90 80 70 60 50
primary vortex
secondary vortex Wing surface
Primary vortex
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 x/ mm
Figure 1 Velocity vector map of delta wing vortex flow field at 12 degrees: 80% root chord location. Re=150000. Leading edge at bottom right of map. Circular symbol indicates maximum velocity of 6ms-1. The wing surface is indicated.
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y/ mm

Report preparation cont: Diagrams (4): be careful with use of colour..
Very pretty, but is the colour essential? Reports get photocopied, and colour information gets lost
Colour printing is not cheap
Same data, contour plotted with labels
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Report preparation cont:
Diagrams (5): what not to do..
Many students take figures off the internet or scan from books You should not do it
You may breach copyright (its not your data)
Too many will look like the diagram shown
Students have presented data looking like this It is useless
Get used to preparing your own diagrams
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Report preparation cont:
References (1): when to use them
In any technical investigation you must make use of earlier work by other investigators or even yourself
If you make use of or make reference to any data from another investigation, this must be made clear
Refer to the work by either:
Author and year, e.g. as described by Green (1998) 1
Sequential numbering, e.g. as observed by Green .
Which method you use is a personal preference, but be consistent throughout your document
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Report preparation cont:
References (2): how to list them
References are placed in a separate section at the back of the report For author-year system list references alphabetically
For sequential numbering system list references sequentially Journals require authors, title of paper, volume and edition number (if applicable) and page range
Books require author, name of text, edition number and publisher
Hence for author-year system
Green, R.B. & Gerrard, J.H. (1993) Vorticity measurements in the near wake of a bluff body at low
Reynolds numbers Journal of Fluid Mechanics, vol. 246, pp 675-691
Zdravkovich, M.M. (1997) Flow around circular cylinders. Volume1: Fundamentals 1st edition, Oxford University Press
and for number system
1. Zdravkovich, M.M. (1997) Flow around circular cylinders. Volume1: Fundamentals 1st edition,
Oxford University Press
2. Green, R.B. & Gerrard, J.H. (1993) Vorticity measurements in the near wake of a bluff body at low Reynolds numbers Journal of Fluid Mechanics, vol. 246, pp 675-691
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Report preparation cont:
Appendices
Appendices contain useful additional information Anything in an appendix is not of crucial importance
report should not suffer if appendix is removed! typically contains tabulated data, computer codes etc
Contents page
Contents page clearly indicates section & sub-section headings Always provide page numbers
1. Introduction 2. Method
3. Results
4. Discussion 5. Conclusions
References Figures Appendix 1
1 11 14 21 25
26 28 30
Contents
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Report Marking
How is this done?
Reports are marked according to a scheme based on the universitys code of assessment
See the Appendix A of the student handbook for this
So an A grade means excellent, for example
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