Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Report Structure.
Must be formal and impersonal
Use the third person e.g. 2 grams of the
chemicals were weighed and put in a flask.
AVOID writing in the first person e.g. I or we,
weighed 2 grams ....
AVOID instructions e.g. weigh 2 grams of..
AVOID slang terms and contractions (didnt,
wont etc)
Purpose of Report
Structure of Report
Heading
Aim
Introduction
Materials, reagents and equipment
Method/s
Results
Discussion
Conclusion/Recommendation
References
Appendices (if applicable)
Introduction ..
theoretical background to present study /
experiment
Start with general principles to place
current study into perspective
relevance theoretical principles must clearly
come out
Cite appropriate references
Materials
Reagents & Equipment
What materials were used in the
experiment/investigation?
List of reagents and equipment used
If list given the cite where and mention only
any special equipment or modifications
Methods / procedures
If procedures provided in handbook, simply
cite the work. e.g., Basic Microbiology for
Biomedical Science Module Handbook,
BIOM1005/1095, page 1-3
If there were any modifications during the
practical session then these must be stated.
Results
Figure caption
Discussion
Conclusions/Recommendations
could be part of discussion or separate
Summarised discussion and provide
comments on success, significance, and any
implications of the experiment.
Suggestion of any further investigations
leading on fro this one..
References
separate sheet listing all the articles and
books cited in report
entries must conform to the conventions of
the referencing system used, example, the
Harvard system.
arranged in alphabetical order
Bibliography is a list of all reference material
consulted such as articles, books, journals
etc, include all references cited in report .
Appendices
Figures, tables, graphs, charts, photographs
that are supportive rather than essential to
explanation of the report placed in this section
to avoid breaking up continuity of the writing
(Weaver and Weaver, 1977).
Each separate appendix should be lettered, e.g.
Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C etc.
NB: The order they are presented in is
dictated by the order they are referred in the
report (ie Discussion).
Citation
Reference- Books
e.g. SAX, N.I. (1974) Industrial pollution, 2nd Ed, London,
Van Nostrand. pp. 46-50 Hilton and Robinson (1995)
Name of author/s (surname in capitals, followed by initials)
Date of publication (in bracket)
Title of publication (underlined if writing by hand or in
italics or emboldened)
Edition (if not first edition)
Place of publication
Publisher
Page number/s (abbreviated to pp.)
Reference:-
Parts of a book
e.g. JONES, J.L (1982) Acid rain in Sweden. In: TOCKWITH, A. ed.
Acid rain review, 3rd ed. London, Butterworths. Pp. 4-7
Reference:-Journal articles
E.g. TURNER, A.C. (1983) Airborne mercury
concentration. Air pollution, vol. 12 (pt. 4), pp. 13-17
Hilton and Robinson (1995)
Name of author/s (surname in capitals, followed by
forename)
Year of publication (in brackets)
Title of article
Title of periodical or journal (underlined, in italics or
emboldened)
Volume number (underlined; may be abbreviated to
vol.)
Part number (in brackets; may be abbreviated to pt.)
Page number/s (abbreviated to pp)
Reference:-Internet sources
E.g. SPURGEON, D. (2001) Canada legalises the
medical use of cannabis, [www] Available from:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/323/7304/68.h
tml
[Accessed 23rd November, 2001]
Name of author/s (surname in capitals, followed by
forename)
Date of publication/updated date indicated on site
Title of article (underlined or italics or emboldened)
Give full details of the URL address/information of
the article, beginning with [www] Available from:
Provide date by which the article was accessed (in
square bracket)