Report Writing in MS Word 2007

Introduction

Technical report writing is an important skill.  It's much more precise than many other forms of writing.  A project report is not quite the same as a technical report, however it should show the same level of care and attention to detail.

This document was written to provide a few pointers about what I look for in a project report, and some tips for writing these documents using Microsoft Word.  It is written in the form it recommends, and contains examples of both good and bad styles.  It is intended for undergraduate project students, and post-graduate students in their first year.  It assumes a reasonable familiarity with Microsoft Word (although not at the level of an expert user), and a reasonable grasp of English grammar.

1.1    Background to the Report

Please note that there is no accepted standard for project reports.  Different supervisors will have different opinions and preferences about style; in some cases this document merely describes my preferences and opinions.  Any student reading this document would be well advised to talk to his or her other supervisor as well, and attempt to write a document to satisfy us both.

Distributing this report written in Word has two additional benefits: it allows me to give examples of what I regard as good (and occasionally bad) styles, and it gives me the chance to distribute a sample style gallery that might be of some use.  (If you don't know what a style gallery is, look it up under Microsoft Word help.)

1.2    Writing Reports for Me

This is important, I want everyone to read this, so I’ll put it here.  Strictly speaking you could argue that this section should be placed in the body of the report since it is not an introduction to anything that is discussed in more detail later, but since it’s short I can get away with it.

I am happy to read draft copies of a report before submission.  However, I am not happy to read slightly different versions of the same chapter over and over again, and I won’t have time to read anything if I am presented with a large document only a few days before the deadline.

I have come up with a few rules for how this can best work for both of us:

1. Run all chapters through a spelling and grammar checker before they get to me, and take note of the advice provided.  This is particularly important if English is not your first language.  If the grammar and spelling are so poor that I have difficulty in understanding what you are trying to say, then be prepared to have the document returned.  I’m afraid I don’t have the time, experience or qualifications to teach English as a foreign language. 
2. Send me individual chapters one at a time, as soon as they are complete (or as soon as you want some comments on them).  This minimises the amount of reading I have to do at the end of the projects, and I hope will encourage you to write as you go along, always a good idea.
3. If you are sending me a chapter for the second time, then please clearly mark where the changes have been made, so I don’t have to read through the whole thing again.
4. If English is not your native language, it is almost certain that there will remain a lot of grammatical and usage points which the computer’s grammar checker will not pick up.  Experience has suggested that the best thing is to leave these until the end, and then for a native English speaker to go through the document once, to correct the grammar.  It is better if this person has not been involved with the project, so they don’t get too bored.

   The Basics of Project Report Writing

Some basic techniques and considerations about writing project reports: when to write; the structure of the project report; what sections should be included; what order they should be placed in; and what kind of information I am looking for when I read a project report.

There are a lot of good introductions to report writing out there already (see for example, the information at http://www.amp.york.ac.uk/internal/ugrad/gen/tskills/t_skills.htm), and I won't try and repeat all that information here.  I will assume the reader is familiar with this material already (if you're not, do look up and read these pages).  Instead, I will concentrate on the particular nature of the project report and highlight what I have found to be the most common problems.