Report Structure (student example)

The Structure of the Report

A typical project report should consist of the following parts:

Title:

The title, in a few words, summarizes the most important information on the experiment that you are reporting.

Abstract:

The abstract should contain a short summary, about 200 to 400 words, of the work done in the project.

Acknowledgements:

This is where you should acknowledge the various parties who initiated, supervised or made contributions to the project.

Table of Contents:

This is a list of the contents of the project report.

List of Symbols:

The list of symbols is not always necessary, but for reports in which many mathematical symbols are used, it is preferable to include such a list in the report.

Introduction:

For most reports the first chapter, as an introduction to the project, is necessary to introduce the reader to the background of the project. The motivation behind the project and a brief outline of the project work should be included in this introductory chapter.

Background:

This part is an up-to-date summary of relevant and related research in your area. Basically this contains a little theory and all the previous work in the area, every statement must be supported by a reference.

Experimental Procedures:

In this part, descript about the theory of the approach/methodology used and the steps taken when conducting the experiment.

Results:

The function of the results section is to display the full data obtained from the experiments, whether in tabular, graphic, or other form.

Conclusion:

This chapter should state briefly the achievement of the project, the conclusions from the work and suggestions for further work. This section is meant to convey to the reader your opinion as to the nature and the significance of the results obtained.

Appendixes:

Materials which are closely related to the contents of the report, and which are self-contained, may be included in the report as appendixes. While data sheets should normally not be included, detailed references to data sheets should be included to enable the reader to find them.

References:

This is a list of the references referred to in the report. There is a particular format that the reference list should follow.