Title Page Full title of the report. Your name.
Acknowledgements A thank you to the people who helped you.
Contents or Table of Contents
Headings and subheadings used in the report with their page numbers. Remember that each new chapter should begin on a new page.
Use a consistent system in dividing the report into parts. The simplest may be to use chapters for each major part and subdivide these into sections and subsections. 1, 2, 3, etc, can be used as the numbers for each chapter. The sections for chapter 3 (for example) would be 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and so on. For a further subdivision of a subsection you can use 3.2.1, 3.2.2, and so on.
There are no hard and fast rules about the structure. Compare what follows with his example of a "standard format", and see if you can understand the principals.
1. Theoretical overview (incorporating any necessary literature review)
2. Outline of your methodology
3. Analysis and presentation of your findings
4. Discussion (or summary) and conclusions
Abstract or Summary or Executive Summary or Introduction
This is the overview of the whole report. It should let the reader see, in advance, what is in it. This includes what you set out to do, how reviewing literature focused and narrowed your research, the relation of the methodology you chose to your aims, a summary of your findings and of your analysis of the findings.
BODY
Aims and Purpose or Aims and Objectives
Why did you do the work? What was the problem you were investigating? If you are not including a literature review, mention here the other research which is relevant to your work.
Literature Review: This should help to put your research into a background context and to explain its importance. Include only the books and articles which relate directly to your topic. Remember that you need to be analytical and critical and not just describe the works that you have read.
Methodology
Methodology deals with the methods and principles used in an activity, in this case research. In the methodology chapter you explain the method/s you used for the research and why you thought they were the appropriate ones. You may, for example, be doing mostly documentary research or you may have collected you own data. You should explain the methods of data collection, materials used, subjects interviewed, or places you visited. Give a detailed account of how and when you carried out your research and explain why you used the particular methods which you did use, rather than other methods. Included in this discussion should be an examination of ethical issues.
Results or Findings
What did you find out? Give a clear presentation of your results. Show the essential data and calculations here. You may want to use tables, graphs and figures.
Analysis and Discussion
Interpret your results. What do you make of them? How do they compare with those of others who have done research in this area? The accuracy of your measurements/results should be discussed and any deficiencies in the research design should be mentioned.
Conclusions What do you conclude? You should summarize briefly the main conclusions which you discussed under "Results." Were you able to answer some or all of the questions which you raised in your aims? Do not be tempted to draw conclusions which are not backed up by your evidence. Note any deviation from expected results and any failure to achieve all that you had hoped.
Recommendations Make your recommendations, if required. Positive or negative suggestions for either action or further research.
Appendix You may not need an appendix, or you may need several. If you have used questionnaires, it is usual to include a blank copy in the appendix. You could include data or calculations, not used in the body, that are necessary, or useful, to get the full benefit from your report. There may be maps, drawings, photographs or plans that you want to include. If you have used special equipment, you may want to include information about it.
The plural of an appendix is two or more appendices or appendixes. If an appendix or appendices are needed, design them thoughtfully in a way that your readers will find convenient to use.
Bibliography List all the sources to which you refer in the body of the report. These will be referenced in the body of the text using the Harvard method.
You may also list all the relevant sources you consulted even if you did not quote them.
A more confusing method is sometimes asked for in which you provide two lists of sources, one labelled "References" and the other "Bibliography". If you can avoid doing this, do so.
A fax
A fax
A fax (short for facsimile and sometimes called telecopying) is the telephonic transmission of scanned-in printed material (text or images), usually to a telephone number associated with a printer or other output device. The original document is scanned with a fax machine, which treats the contents (text or images) as a single fixed graphic image, converting it into a bitmap. In this digital form, the information is transmitted as electrical signals through the telephone system. The receiving fax machine reconverts the coded image and prints a paper copy of the document.
E-mail, short for electronic mail and often abbreviated to e-mail, email or simply mail, is a store and forward method of composing, sending, receiving and storing messages over electronic communication systems. The term "e-mail" (as a noun or verb) applies both to the Internet e-mail system based on the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and to X.400 systems, and to intranet systems allowing users within one organization to e-mail each other. Intranets may use the Internet protocols or X.400 protocols for internal e-mail service supporting workgroup collaboration. E-mail is often used to deliver bulk unsolicited messages, or "spam", but filter programs exist which can automatically delete some or most of these, depending on the situation.
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