Report Writing Guidelines

• Universal Report Advice

  "Tell the readers what you are going to tell them.
  Tell them it.
  Tell them what you've told them."

  This says that every report must have a beginning (an introduction), a middle (main section containing detailed information) and an end (a conclusion). The two short sections (the introduction and the conclusion) are essential in order to understand the main section. You should pay particular attention to these sections to ensure that they are well written and easy to understand (some readers, pushed for time, will read the introduction and the conclusion and will skim through the main body).

• Report Covers:

  Report covers are printed via the coversheet printing system. They are white with a coloured stripe to indicate your course (MSc - Green / PtIV - Orange / PhD - Grey). The cover will include the following information (which should also be included on the first page of any PDF document submitted):

  Course Name: ELEC6010 Digital IC Design
  Assignment Name: .............. (e.g. Cell Library Design)
  Course Tutor Name: Iain McNally
  Your Name:..............
  Your ECSID:.............. (e.g. fb106)
  Team Name:.............. (for team exercises)
  

• Binding

  Short reports, up to about 15 pages, can be bound using three staples along the left hand side of the report (one at the top, one in the middle and one at the bottom). If you print double-sided, this system can cope with a report of up to about 30 sides.

  For longer reports, plastic ring binding is recommended. Binding machines are provided next to the school office. Ring bindings are available in several sizes from ECS School Office.

• Contents Page

  All but the shortest of reports will have a contents page to help the reader to find quickly information that they are looking for.

• Shared Authorship

  If you are working in a team and your report has more than one author, you should:

  1. integrate all contributions into your report (same font heading style etc) so that the report reads as a single document.
  2. clearly identify the author(s) of each section so that the reader knows who wrote what.

• Format/Font etc:

  Those who have never written a report of this form may need some guidance. I've chosen to reproduce some of the ECS project report guidelines, since a report in this form would be fine (these are not hard and fast rules for this report but give you some idea of what is normal):

  Reports should be clearly typed on A4 portrait pages, single-sided or double-sided, normal spacing. Lines must either be ragged right or fully justified.

  Text should be in a proportionally-spaced, 12pt serif font such as Palatino, Times or Computer Modern (computer listings should use a fixed width font such as Courier).

  The left hand, binding margin should not be less than 35mm. The top, right and bottom margins should not be less than 24mm. Page numbers, headers and footers may lie outside the top and bottom margins.

  Use of paragraphs helps readability. Each paragraph should be non-indented and be separated by an empty line.

  The style should be reasonably formal and not be conversational or a narrative.

  All words must be correctly spelled.

  Any landscape format material must have their bottom and legend on the right of the portrait page.

  All pages should be serially numbered, including the main body and appendices. Chapter and section numbers should be done in 'legal' style (e.g. 2.3.1 represents chapter 2, section 3, sub-section 1).

  Please note that two column layout such as used in conference and jounal papers is not suitable for ELEC6010 reports.