Report Writing

Tim Bodisco
Science and Engineering Faculty
Queensland University of Technology

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General Formatting

Experimental Reports

Experimental Reports
Background Information
There is no one correct way to write a report
A good report flows and naturally leads the
reader without unnecessary jumps and pauses
It all comes back to the concept of a logical
structure
will be discussed later in more depth

Most importantly, a good report is written in well

structured, concise, fluent and appropriate
language!
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General Formatting

Experimental Reports

Experimental Reports
Possible Section Headings
Table of Contents
Aim
Introduction or Background
Experimental Method
Experimental Data
Data Analysis
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
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General Formatting

Experimental Reports

Experimental Reports
Aim
Should concisely tell the reader what
experiment you have done, and why it was done
Very short, 2-4 sentences is a good length
Care should be taken when writing, this will be
the first thing read!
a negative impression at the beginning of a report
can be detrimental to how the rest of a report is seen

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General Formatting

Experimental Reports

Experimental Reports
Introduction or Background
Informs the reader about the important theory
behind the experimental work
Discusses work that other researchers have
done in this area
Gives an impression of the importance of this
work
justifying why it is was worth doing

These things all require good references

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General Formatting

Experimental Reports

Experimental Reports
Experimental Method
Explains how the experiment was conducted
Bullet points should be avoided
it is much more professional to write a method
section in clear and concise paragraphs

Should be easy to follow and therefore easy to

repeat

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Experimental Reports

Experimental Reports
Experimental Data
Must have text before showing any figures or
tables
It is important to explain figures and tables
before showing them
this gives them context to the reader; and,
allows you to direct the reader to the features you
want them to focus on

Discuss any issues that are immediately

obvious with the data
leave features that are not immediately obvious to
discuss later in the results section
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Experimental Reports

Experimental Reports
Data Analysis
Much like the previous section, Experimental
Data, this section must also begin with text
You should explain and justify your method of
analysis
Discuss other possible methods of analysis
if there are any; and,
if there are, you should justify why the one you have
used is the most appropriate

Explain steps if you are showing mathematical

calculations
pages of mathematics with no explanations are
cumbersome to read, it also makes your report not
written as a correct scientific report
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Experimental Reports

Experimental Reports
Results
A place to show the outcomes of the data
analysis
Can be incorporated in the data analysis section
if it is appropriate
Discuss whether the result obtained met your
expectation
if it didnt, why do you think it didnt; and,
if it did, what made this experiment so successful

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Experimental Reports

Experimental Reports
Discussion
An extended summary of the entire report from
start to finish
A good discussion should not introduce any new
information
it can, however, elaborate on information previously
available in the report
for example, if your results didnt meet your expectation
the discussion is a place where you can go into more
depth about what was expected, what you got and where
it went wrong

If only your discussion was read, the reader

should know all the most important information
about what you have done
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General Formatting

Experimental Reports

Experimental Reports
Conclusion
A very concise summary of the most important
information
Only 1 or 2 paragraphs long
Should mention the most important results and
outcomes of the work
even if they were just mentioned in the discussion

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Figures and Tables

Figures and Tables

Figures and Tables
Must always be referred to in-text before they
are seen
when referring to a figure or table in-text a capital
letter is required. i.e. as shown in Figure 6...

Tables should never be more than a page

and only that big out of necessity
if they must be there, and are bigger than 1 page,
put them in an appendix

Ensure that you figures and tables look very

good
this not only makes them easier to read, but also
gives an impression that you put effort into your work
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Figures and Tables

Figures and Tables

Figures and Tables
Must have a caption (a title)
This caption must be informative
your caption cannot be y vs x
it must inform the reader about what is in the figure
or table and either (or both) of where it came from or
what it is being used for

The caption of a figure goes below the figure,

the caption of a table goes above it

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General Formatting

Figures and Tables

Figures and Tables

Figures and Tables
Axes must be labeled with a name and with units
When your report is in printed form the size of
the axes labels should be similar (often a
fraction smaller is normal) to the size of the text
in the report
Ensure that they are of an appropriate size in
the reportpresentation is very important

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Figures and Tables

Figures and Tables

A Bad Figure

Figure 1Pressure vs Crank angle

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Figures and Tables

Figures and Tables

Filtered In-Cylinder Pressure (Volts)

A Good Figure
4.0 10

D100E000

3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0

-1.0
-2.0
-3.0
-4.0

358

360

362

364

Crank Angle (degrees)

366

368

Figure 2Band-pass filtered pressure signal

at 2000 rpm, full load on neat diesel fuel
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Uncertainty Analysis

Uncertainty Analysis
Some discussion of error should be in a report
Do not make up values
have a logical explanation for the level of uncertainty
given to a recorded value
show, or at least explain well, how the level of
uncertainty for calculated values was obtained
reference any method you use!
there is a great book called Experimental Methods by
Les Kirkup
there are plenty of other good books aside from this one
no need to be overly fancy, anything justifiable is fine

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Uncertainty Analysis

Uncertainty Analysis
Uncertainty is only quoted to one significant
figure
The quoted value should only show the number
of significant figures to line up at the same
decimal position as the uncertainty value
Incorrect
33.47 0.41905
33.47 0.4
Correct
33.5 0.4
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Writing

Logical Structure

Logical Structure
What is logical structure?
Logical structure is one of the most important
criteria in written work
Impacts all the criteria around it
Essentially it refers to how well you kept
everything in your work in context at the time it
is being read
If you have achieved this perfectly, the reader
should be able to read from start to finish
without having an original thought
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Logical Structure

Logical Structure
Logical Structure
When your work is written in context at all times
with very clear and fluent English it allows you to
direct and guide the reader well
This is much harder to do than it sounds
Anything that makes the reader pause and think
can break this
so it is very important that your work is well written
and free from basic errors

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Common Errors

Common Errors
General Report Writing
Ensure that all of your pages are numbered
Write your report as though it is addressed to
your peers
you should be able to give it to someone with a
similar level of background to you, and they should
be able to understand and follow the content

Never break from the structure

Use simple and clear language

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Common Errors

Common Errors
How can I improve my written English?
Write fluently
avoid starting sentences with words that create a
natural pause before them
the, this, there, then, when, a and an

avoid continually starting sentences with the same

word
both of these create the feel of a listlists are not very
nice to read

Very carefully proof read your work

get someone to read it out loud to you

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Common Errors

Common Errors
How can I improve my written English?
Becareful about what happens when you use a
thesaurus (or the synonyms package in
Microsoft Word)
It is not uncommon to pick a word that is out of
context
this makes the reader pause and wonder why you
used that word

It is also possible to pick a word the reader does

not know
unfortunately, this also breaks the fluency whilst the
reader stops to ponder what the word you used
means
23 / 28 do is use, simple, clear
The best thing you can

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Writing

Common Errors

Common Errors
How can I improve my written English?
Numbers and units are separate words and
therefore need a space between them
the only exception to this is the percentage sign %
and the degree sign

Be very careful about automatic spell check

it makes your work look unprofessional if you have
words that are wrong
a common one Ive seen is: ...bellow this...

your work needs to be written in Australian

English, not American English

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Common Errors

Common Errors
How can I improve my written English?
Do no cast blame in your work
Phrases such as, A possible source of error in
this work was human error, give the reader the
impression that you lack confidence
you do not want the reader to doubt the quality of
your work, or the effort you put in

Do not cast blame on othersno matter how

much you feel it is appropriate
when you discuss anything that went wrong keep all
emotion out of it

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References

References
References
For your work to be a scientific report, it must
contain references
References must come from a credible source
as a rule-of-thumb websites are not credible sources
yes, this includes government and organisation websites
these types of websites likely have an agenda and are
therefore inheritantly bias and therefore not a credible
source
the easiest thing to do is simply not reference any
website

when you reference a book always check who wrote

it
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References

References
References
The easiest way to ensure that you have good
information is to source it from peer-reviewed
journal articles and quality text books
QUT has access to most major journals
The library website has a journal article search
engine
Google Scholar is excellent
It is all on the internet anyway!

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Conclusion

Conclusion

Good Luck
I hope you found this presentation useful
Good writing begins with having confidence and
a willingness to practice and to be self-critical of
your work
Start writing well at all times, even when you talk
to friends online and via text messages
eventually, you will write well without thinking about it

Cheers, and have a good day!

Tim Bodisco
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