BASICS OF REPORT WRITING

K.S. Gandhi

Department of Chemical Engineering

Indian Institute of Science

Bangalore

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TWO ASPECTS OF REPORT

LANGUAGE: Basic rules of writing.

STRUCTURE OR ORGANIZATION OF THE REPORT

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BASIC RULES OF WRITING

SIMPLE SENTENCES

COMPOUND SENTENCES

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SIMPLE SENTENCES

Sentences describe who (Subject) did what (verb) on whom(Object).

SUBJECT is followed by VERB is followed by OBJECT

Yuvraj caught the ball.

Structure in Indian languages is different: Subject, Object andVerb.

Yuvraj ball ko pakada

Formulate sentences directly in English. Don’t translate frommother tongue.

It is best to use simple sentences. But Properties of subject orverb or object may have to mentioned. May need many simplesentences. Use COMPOUND SENTENCES.

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COMPOUND SENTENCES

Properties of parts of sentence are mentioned: qualifying clauses .

Though tired, Yuvraj could catch a fast moving ball, but after afew fumbles.

Yuvraj, usually a reliable fielder, dropped the ball, though it wastraveling slowly.

If glucose is added, the medium supports growth.

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BEWARE OF POSITION of CLAUSES

Main problem in writing compound sentences is properpositioning of the qualifying clauses.

I knew a man with a dog named George.

I almost wrote a cheque for $ 1000. I wrote a cheque for almost$ 1000.

A large number of papers have been written on the cell walls ofStaphylococci.

Lying on top of the intestine, you can perhaps make out a thintransparent thread.

On analyzing the data statistically, the Salmonella infectionswere indeed rare.

I went to a town that was 20 miles away on Tuesday.

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AVOID AWKWARD CONSTRUCTION

Awkward construction often arises while aiming at beingbombastic or flowery or poetic. One should avoid decorativelanguage.

Chemical engineering is what he took his degree in. “He tookhis degree in chemical engineering.”

The paper concludes with a summary of the evidence indicatingthat A may be, under carefully limited circumstances, aneffective agent against infections caused by gram-negativeorganisms. Nothing is said about “the carefully limitedcircumstances”! “The trend suggests that A is effective againstinfections caused by gram-negative organisms.”

Rare diseases are not commonly encountered. Of course!Delete the sentence.

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DON’T BE AMBIGUOUS IN CONSTRUCTION

Things are not spelt out clearly and lead to confusion. Often,used to create jokes.

This is from the cartoon strip "Tiger". The following conversationtakes place between Tiger and Pumkin. T: It takes three sheepto make a sweater. P: Gee! I didn’t know that sheep can knit!

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses.He doesn’t seem to be breathing, and his eyes are glazed. Theother guy whips out his phone and calls the emergencyservices. He gasps “My friend is dead! What can I do?”. Theoperator says, “Calm down, I can help. First, let’s make sure heis dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on thephone, the guy says, “Okay, now what?” (Taken from ScientificAmerican India, Dec 2007)

Ravi went to lunch. While having lunch, the reaction mixtureexploded.

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SHORT IS BETTER, GENERALLY

Keep the length of sentences small. At the same time, oneshould avoid writing too many sentences! There is an optimum.

As is well known, the tennis ball is made of rubber. The tennisball is round in shape. More over it is yellow in color. “The tennisball is a yellow, and round object made of rubber”.

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MATCH TENSE AND PERSON

Tense and person in the sentence much be matched.

Data are .... and not “Data is ...”

Table 4 shows ... and not “Table 4 show ...”

Tables 4 and 5 show ... and not “Tables 4 and 5 shows ..”

In the previous paper, we treated ... and not “In the previouspaper, we treat ...”

Which is correct? A bunch of grapes (is, are) on the table.

Which is correct? A series (number) of experiments (was, were)performed.

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PUNCTUATION

Punctuation helps a lot in delineating clauses if placed at thecorrect places.

The system consists of an engine, tubing to bring fuel tocylinders and associated mounting bolts. Is fuel being brought tothe mounting bolts also? If not, we need a comma aftercylinders. A better way is: “The system consists of an engine,associated mounting bolts, and tubing to bring fuel to tocylinders.”

He had a large head, a thick chest holding a large heart and bigfeet. Should we not get feet off the chest?

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Punctuation continued

A beautiful illustration of the importance of punctuation forms thetitle of a book " Eats bamboo, shoots and leaves". A giant Pandavisited a restaurant. He ordered tender bamboo shoots. After hefinished eating, the bill was brought to him by a bearer. ThePanda got up, shot from a pistol and left. The bearer wasshocked and to learn more about pandas, he looked up adictionary. It said: Giant Panda: Eats bamboo, shoots andleaves.

Rules of placement of punctuation marks: (1) no blank spacebetween the punctuation mark and the word preceding it, (2)Single blank space between the punctuation mark and the wordfollowing it.

Use upper case letter for the first word of sentence.

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ORGANIZATION OF A REPORT

Aims of a report are

(1) Communicate the objectives of the work done,

(2) give the procedures used,

(3) Discussion of results, and

(4) Conclusions.

A report should also give a list of symbols used, and referencesthat have been cited. Appendices are used to give the details ofdata, and an example of calculation of quantities calculated fromobservations.

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INTRODUCTION OF A REPORT

State clearly the “why” of the work, and its objective. May needgiving motivation.

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THEORY AND BACKGROUND

Some theory and background is needed

(1) to understand some sections of the report

(2) to interpret results or to obtain relevant quantities fromobservations

(3) to motivate the particular measurements to be made

(4) to show how an improvement over other measurements canbe made.

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EXPERIMENTAL METHODS

Give sufficient details of the experiment to permit a repetition ofthe experiment by someone else.

Apparatus: A description and a diagram of apparatus (if notbought). If items are bought, give model number, name, andaddress of the manufacturer.

Materials: Give a list of chemicals used along with the grade(LR, AR etc.) and manufacturer.

Methods: A description of the protocol or the procedure used toconduct the experiments.

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RESULTS & DISCUSSION

Most important part of the report. Trends in the results obtainedare discussed, and interpreted to reach conclusions.

Results are in tables or graphs or both.

Describe trends that are important in the items reported in eachtable or graph.compare the trend in the context of errors.Compare with previously reported results.

Tally trends qualitatively against what is expected. If agreementis there, a conclusion that can be drawn.

Real fun could start if there is disagreement. The disagreementmust be discussed, and justified to be real. Never throw awaydisagreements observed. Such quirky observations lie at th e root ofmany significant discoveries. In fact, one should be very ale rt to suchtrends.

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CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS

Summarize conclusions from the work. They should be brief andto the point.

Give suggestions for follow-up work in the next part.

(1) Better ways of making the measurement,

(2) improvements in apparatus, methods, theory, . . .

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LITERATURE CITED: In the body

Papers are referred to in the body of the text by citing the lastnames of authors and the year in brackets. et al is used if morethan two authors are there.

Van Pelt (1985) and not Linus Van Pelt (1985) and not L. VanPelt (1956),

Laurel and Hardy (1973) in case of two authors,

Snoopy et al. (1956) and not Snoopy, Brown, and Schroeder(1956)

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LITERATURE CITED: List

References are listed in alphabetical order, with the last namesof all authors in the order in which they appear in the original.

R.B. Bird, W.E. Stewart, and E.N. Lightfoot “TransportPhenomena”, John Wiley, (2002)

S. Kumar, V. Ganvir, C. Satyanand, R. Kumar, K.S. Gandhi“Alternative mechanisms of drop breakup in stirred vessels”,Chem. Engg. Sci., 53(18), 3269-3280, (1998)

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NOMENCLATURE

Symbols used, their meaning, and units are given in alphabeticalorder. Can define a symbol in the main body when it appearsfirst.Cf Concentration of the solute in the micelle- free layer, Kg/m3

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APPENDICES

Appendices can be ordered by labeling them as A, B etc.

One appendix should contain tables of all the observations, anda sample calculation of various quantities.

Other appendices can contain any other details you might wantto report.

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