eScience Lectures Notes : Reports

Slide 1 : 1/11: Report writing

COMP1710 Tools for New Media and Web

 

Report writing

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Slide 2 : ToC : Reports

Table of Contents (11 slides) for the presentation :

Reports

Slide 3 : 3/11: Report Writing in COMP1710

In this lecture:

Why is there a Report Writing component?

Components / Organisation of a technical report

Graphical communication

'Multimedia' for paper :-)

Mistakes to avoid

Referencing and plagiarism

Report assessment in this course

 

Slide 4 : 4/11: Tech Report Components

Components of a Technical Report

TR Overview

A TR should explain what was done, why it was done, what was discovered, and what is significant about the findings. The report should identify clearly what is novel about the work, and how it relates to prior knowledge. There should be a focused topic, and an attitude about this topic. The topic should be developed according to the attitude in a thorough, logical, and orderly fashion. Throughout, the author should be helpful to the reader.

TR sections

descriptive title, author name and affiliation, date, informative abstract, list of keywords, body, acknowledgments, and list of references

TR body

motivation, methods, results, and discussion

Reference: http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~sherman/Courses/documents/TR_how_to.html

 

 

Slide 5 : 5/11: Tech Report bits 2

Components of a Technical Report 2

  1. A meaningful, descriptive and grammatically correct title. ("COMP1710 Report" is not meaningful and not very descriptive.)
  2. Author name, affiliation (eg 'COMP1710 course School of Computer Science')
  3. An informative abstract of about 200 words, which is really an 'executive summary' of the report. "An abstract may act as a stand-alone entity instead of a full paper."
  4. A list of appropriate keywords. These keywords should identify the field of your report and its major topics.
  5. Body of technical report. (More later.)
  6. Acknowledgments. Acknowledge any help you received.
  7. Complete and accurate list of references cited in the technical report. (Cite for: credit, identify related work, set context.)

 

 

Slide 6 : 6/11: TR body

Components of a Technical Report - Body

Write a clear, informative, and thoughtful description and critique of what was done.

Where appropriate, include carefully drawn graphs and diagrams.

Be sure to motivate, present, and interpret the findings.

Focus on the scientific content of the project - your questions and answers.

Identify and explain interesting and important phenomena.

Emphasize what is new about the project.

In addition, briefly comment on the engineering aspects of the work:

 

 

Slide 7 : 7/11: TR body 2

Components of a Technical Report - Body continued

Pay attention to important transitional sentences,

especially the first and last sentences of the report.

There are three standard ways to begin the introduction:

It is useful to end each report with a powerful sentence that concisely summarizes the significance of the entire project.

Reasons in the report

Stick to project (scientific etc) reasons, do not include course specific reasons such as report deadline etc.

Remember: motivation, methods, results, discussion.

 

 

Slide 8 : 8/11: Graphical communication

Meaningful "pictures are worth a 1,000 words"

Tables & figures

Everything that is not a table is a figure

Can carry more information per space than the same amount of text

Only if clearly explained in the text

Types of graphics:

Data displayed in table form

Graphs: line, bar, pie, etc

Drawings

Diagrams

Photographs

Graphic placement and labelling

As near as possible to the text referring to it

Always label Figures with simple explanation of its contents

Reference: http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:9x6eRqg2-2AJ:ain.knu.ac.kr/RelatedLinks/data/lecture_report_writing.ppt

 

 

Slide 9 : 9/11: Mistakes

Mistakes to avoid

Report structure

Focus: answer a well defined question

Analyse data and interpret findings, do not simply report the data

Completeness: TR has all normal components

Writing

Draft: first draft - only you need understand it

Spelling: Dobn't just ignor wiggley red liunes, they are there for a reason

Readability: Sentence length, Word length, Sentence structure

Grammar, readability ...

Not referencing = plagiarism? (Don't just cut and paste!)

 

 

Slide 10 : 10/11: Report assessment

Report assessment in COMP1710

The report specifications will be released Sunday 3rd May

The report will be due 4 weeks later

Report topic will be Human Computer Interaction (HCI) - design

This is cognate (related in nature) to web design

Process: you will be given some information, and an academic paper in the area of HCI, and will write a report about what it means to you.

Marking: will be on structure of the report, on the ability to write a coherent document, and not on the scientific quality of your conclusions.

The idea is to show that you can think about a topic, and write something meaningful in a structured form we specify (a technical report).

 

 

Slide 11 : ToC : Reports

Table of Contents (11 slides) for the presentation :

Reports