To be more specific, a professional report can be described with the following issues:
- The way it looks:
- When somebody takes your report and looks at it, he/she should understand
that you spent a lot of time and effort on it.
- It must be easy-to-read.
- Appropriate font size and type should be chosen so that it looks nice.
(For the text parts; Times New Roman with 12 font size is acceptable.
You should avoid using fancy fonts. Titles should be written with a larger
size and bold. )
- Figures and tables should include the figure/table numbers and figure/table
captions just below the figure/table.
- Cover page should look nice and include group number, names of the group members,
project title, submitted to… and submission date.
- Page numbers and table of contents at the beginning of the report (right after
the executive summary) must be included.
- References must be cited inside the text wherever you've used them.
- Recommended organization:
- Executive Summary
- Introduction
- Methodology
- Results & Discussions
- Conclusions
This is a recommended organization. Feel free to modify it based on the nature of the technical report. The "must have" sections are Executive Summary and Conclusions.
Executive summary includes a brief summary of what you did exactly in this project. It can be
accomplished by writing the most important few sentences from each part in your report.
Table of contents, list of figures and list of tables should be included right after the executive
summary. At the end of the report, references in the main text should be cited numerically in the
order of their use in the text. They also should be mentioned with the numbers in the main text
wherever they are used.
- The way it is submitted:
It should be submitted in a nice folder (plastic cover is an example). Avoid putting the pages
together and stapling them and handing them in.
All reports MUST include an electronic copy. You can burn it on a CD.
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