how to write a good report
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How to Write a Good Report
Alan Lee
Contents
• What makes a good report?• Clarity and Structure• Figures and Tables (floats)• Technical Issues• Further reading• Conclusions
The purpose....
• The report exists to provide the reader with useful information– Should this drug be licensed?– How do we fit non-linear regressions?
• It succeeds if it effectively communicates the information to the intended audience
• It fails otherwise!!
To succeed...The report must be
– Clear • Well structured, clear, concise, suitable for
the intended audience
– Professional• statistically correct, correctly spelled,
produced with a decent word processor
– Well illustrated• illustrations that aid understanding,
integrated with text
The audienceOften 3 different audiences
– The casual reader/big boss who wants the main message as painlessly as possible
– The interested reader who wants more detail but doesn’t want to grapple with all the gory technical details
– The guru who wants the whole story
What to do?
To address all 3 audiences effectively,
– Include an abstract for the big boss
– A main body for the interested non-specialist
– A technical appendix for the guru
Thus, a structure emerges!
Structure
• Good structure enhances and encourages clarity
• Gives signposts• implements the vital principle
– tell them what you are going to say– Say it!– tell them what you have said
Structure: details
A good report has the following parts– Title– Table of Contents– Abstract/executive summary– Introduction– Main sections– Conclusions– References– Technical appendix
TitleShould be informative, “punchy”, can
include puns, humourGood
– The perfidious polynomial (punchy, alliterative)
– Diagnosing diabetes mellitus: how to test, who to test, when to test (dramatic, informative)
Bad– Some bounds on the distribution of certain quadratic
forms in normal random variables (boring, vague)
– Performing roundoff analyses of statistical algorithms (boring, vague)
Table of Contents
• Shows the structure of the document and lets the reader navigate through the sections
• Include for documents more than a few pages long.
Abstract/executive summary
Describes the problem and the solution in a few sentences. It will be all the big boss reads!
Remember the 2 rules– Keep it short– State problem and solution
The Introduction
• State the question, background the problem
• Describe similar work• Outline the approach• Describe the contents of the rest of
the paper– in Section 2 we ...– in Section 3 we ...
Further sections
• Describe – Data– Methods– Analyses– Findings
• Don’t include too much technical detail
• Divide up into sections, subsections
Conclusions/summary
• Summarize what has been discovered
• Repeat the question
• Give the answer
Appendix
• This is where the technical details go
• Be as technical as you like• Document your analysis so it can
be reproduced by others• Include the data set if feasible
References
• Always cite (i.e. give a reference) to other related work or facts/opinions that you quote
• Never pass off the work of others as your own – this is plagiarism and is a very big academic crime!!
How to cite
• In the textSeber and Wild (1989) state that…..
• In the referencesSeber, G.A.F and C.J. Wild. (1989). Nonlinear Regression. New York: Wiley.
Writing clearly
• Structure alone is not enough for clarity – you must also write clear sentences.
• Rules:– Write complete short sentences– Avoid jargon and cliché, strive for simplicity– One theme per paragraph– If a sentence contains maths, it still must
make sense!
AGHHHH!
• He wroteAlthough solitary under normal prevailing circumstances, raccoons may congregate simultaneously in certain situations of artificially enhanced resource availability.
• He meant..Raccoons live alone but come together to eat bait.
Maths
• Good
• Bad
abyxbaxy /)(
./)(
thatfollowsit equation theFrom
abyx
baxy
Figures and Tables (Floats)
Golden rules for Figures and Tables:
• Describe float in text (integration), make sure it matches description
• Place after the first mention in the text• Make sure float conveys the desired
message clearly: keep it simple!• Provide informative captions
Figures
• Always label and give a caption under the figure
• Be aware of good graphics principles: avoid– chart junk– low data/ink ratio– unlabelled axes– broken axes– Misleading scales
• See Cleveland, “The Elements of Graphing Data”, “Visualising Data”
• Using a good graphics package (R!) helps enforce good practice
0 5 10
02
46
8
log(Animals$body)
log
(An
ima
ls$
bra
in)
Mountain beaver
Cow
Grey wolfGoat
Guinea pig
Dipliodocus
Asian elephant
DonkeyHorse
Potar monkey
Cat
Giraffe
Gorilla
Human
African elephant
Triceratops
Rhesus monkey
Kangaroo
Golden hamster
Mouse
Rabbit
SheepJaguar
Chimpanzee
Rat
Brachiosaurus
Mole
Pig
Bad!
Figure 1. Plot of log Brain weights (gm) versus log body weights (kg) for 28 species
0 5 10
02
46
8
Log Body weight (kg)
Lo
g B
rain
we
igh
t (g
m)
Mountain beaver
Cow
Grey wolfGoat
Guinea pig
Dipliodocus
Asian elephant
Donkey Horse
Potar monkey
Cat
Giraffe
Gorilla
Human
African elephant
Triceratops
Rhesus monkey
Kangaroo
Golden hamster
Mouse
Rabbit
SheepJaguar
Chimpanzee
Rat
Brachiosaurus
Mole
Pig
Better!
Tables• Always label and give a caption over the table
• Be aware of rules for good tables:
– avoid vertical lines– don’t have too many decimal places– compare columns not rows
Multiple Prefix Symbol
1012 tera T
109 giga G
106 mega M
103 kilo K
10-1 deci d
Multiple Prefix Symbol
1012 tera T
109 giga G
106 mega M
103 kilo K
10-1 deci d
Too busy
Better
Multiple Prefix Symbol
1012 tera T
109 giga G
106 mega M
103 kilo K
10-1 deci d
Horizontal hard to read
Vertical easier to read
Multiple 1012 109 106 103 10-1
Prefix tera giga mega kilo deci
Symbol T G M K d
Busy – too many DP’s
Better
Number ofProcessors
Time (secs)
1 28.35221
4 7.218812
8 3.634951
16 1.929347
Number of Processors
Time (secs)
1 28.35
4 7.21
8 3.63
16 1.92
Technical Issues
• Sectioning• Table of Contents• Spelling and Grammar• Choice of word processor
Sectioning
• Proper division of your work into sections and subsections makes the structure clear and the document easy to follow
• Use styles in word/ sectioning commands in Latex\begin{section}….\end{section}
Table of contents
• Provides “navigation aid”
• Make sure TOC agrees with main body of text
• If you use styles (Word) and sectioning commands (Latex) this will happen automatically
Spelling and Grammar• Use a style manual/dictionary if in
doubt• Spell check!!!!• Proofread!!!!
He meant…– This technique can also be applied to the
analysis of golf balls
He typed….– This technique cam also by applies to the
analysis or gold bills
Choice of word processor
• Word or Latex?• My spin…..
– Use Word for a short document with few figures and tables and little mathematics
– Use Latex for a longer document with many figures and tables and lots of complicated maths.
Further reading
• There are many excellent books giving good advice on technical writing.
• Two I like are Higham, Nicholas (1993) Handbook of writing for
the Mathematical Sciences, Philadelphia, SIAM.Silyn-Roberts, Heather (2000). Writing for
Science and Engineering: Papers Presentations and Reports. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinmann.
Both discuss writing reports and giving verbal presentations.
Conclusions
• Structure is vital• Write clearly• Good clear simple illustrations• Spellcheck and proofread• Reference all material used or
quoted
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