FINAL-YEAR PROJECT REPORT WRITING
GUIDELINES
Expected Content
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Content summary
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Example Layout
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Report Format
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Stylistic And Grammar
Advice...........................................................................................
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Useful Web Based Resources
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FINAL-YEAR PROJECT REPORT WRITING
GUIDELINES
The final year report is an important undertaking
and should use the structural
guidelines outlined below. Examiners are very
interested in the process that was
used during the final year project . The mechanism
for detailing the process is
the final year project report.
EXPECTED CONTENT
Title Page
This should contain the following information:
o Title,
o Full name of author,
o Degree that it contributes towards,
o Industrial or other collaboration if appropriate,
o Month and year of submission.
Note that the title page should not show a page
number.
Abstract
This should be not more than one page
in length. The abstract should allow the reader
who is unfamiliar with the work to gain
a swift and accurate impression of what the
project is about, how it arose and what has been achieved.
Contents List
This should give a complete list of what the report
contains starting with the
abstract (the title page is not included in the
contents list).
List of Tables/Figures
If the report contains figures or
tables a list of these should be provided. The listshould
give the table or figure number, the
title of the table or figure and the page number. If
only a few tables and figures are
present, they may be treated on onepage. Remember that
all figures and tables used must be
referred to in the text. For example “The class diagram
shown in Figure 2.1 ....”
Acknowledgements
It is normal to thank those who have given help and
support (typically your
supervisor). Keep acknowledgements short and
business-like.
Introduction/Background
This section introduces the reader to the subject
area in the project. It may
include such things as:
o how the need for the system etc was identified,
o the nature of the
o application area, he relationship with any industrial partner and
so on.
A brief outline of the project work should also be
included. Some evidence of
reading around the area is expected. This reading
could be outlined in either a
References Section or a Bibliography Section. A
plan of organization for the
project should be stated in the introduction
section.
Methodology (Main Body of the Report)
This section should/could be divided into a number
of chapters and sub-chapters.
Each of these should contain a reasonably separate
topic of discussion and be
arranged in a logical sequence. The linkage between
chapters should be stated
clearly at the beginning and/or the end of each
chapter to show the relationships
between chapters.
Conclusion
The conclusion chapter should state briefly the
achievements of the project, the
conclusions and suggestions for further work.
Appendices
These should be used for reference material, such
as selected pieces of
research data and other information which is too
bulky, or would detract from the
flow of the text, if included in the main body of
the document. Try to make
reference material that will be consulted from many
different places in the
document and appendix. Otherwise, put the
information into a figure or table and
keep it close to the text that refers to it.
References1 and Bibliography2
There should always be a list of all books,
articles and technical resources
consulted. The use of all source material should be
explicit in the report. This
means that normally ever item in the reference list
will be referred to in the report
and every item mentioned in the report will have an
entry in the reference list.
1 The reference in the text could appear as “.. the best
system [23]..” and the Reference Section would have:
[23] “ Is Linux the best “ , Linux
World, John Waters, Dec 02 , pp 23 –45.
2 The Bibliography contains details of books,
articles etc that are not referenced directly in the text but were
read by the author and were used during
the project as significant information sources.
CONTENT SUMMARY
Content Advice
Abstract
The whole project in miniature.
♦ State main objectives – What did you
investigate and why?
♦ Describe methods – What did you do?
♦ Summarize important results – What did
you find out?
♦ State main conclusions – what do your
results mean?
.
Do not include, references to
figures, etc., information in the
report, background information.
Extract key points and condense
material
Introduction
♦ Describe the problem investigated.
♦ Summarize relevant research to provide
context, key terms, and concept so the
reader can understand the experiment.
♦ Review relevant past research to
provide
rational for your work.
♦ Briefly describe your research –
design,
research, hypothesis, etc.
Move from general to specific –
relate problems in the real world
to your research. Make clear links
between the problem and the
solution. Be selective in choosing
studies to cite.
Methodology
♦ How you studied the problem and what
you used – materials, subjects and
equipment.
♦ How you performed the research –
methods and procedure.
Provide enough detail for
replication of your work. Order
procedures chronologically.
Use past tense to describe what
you did. Don’t mix results with
procedure.
Conclusions
Outline the success of your project when
compared to the objectives that were set.
♦ Suggest further work for your research
area.
♦ Summarise the most important findings.
Make explanations complete.
Avoid speculation that cannot be
tested in the foreseeable future.
Discuss possible reasons for
expected or unexpected findings.
EXAMPLE LAYOUT
The previous pages could be interpreted and a
report laid out in the
following fashion
♦ Abstract
♦ Chapter 1: Introduction
- Motivation
- Problem description
- Objectives of the work
- Organisation of the report
♦ Chapter 2: Background
- Details of relevant theory
- Review of past/reported work
- Brief introduction of the proposed work/solution
♦ Chapter 3: (Appropriate title related to research)
- Main work, e.g., solution approach, theory,
simulation software, circuit design, etc.
♦ Chapter 4: (Appropriate title related to research)
- Results and findings based on the method
described in Chapter 3
♦ Chapter 5: Evaluation
- This could be optional, depending on the content
of the research. This chapter
provides an objective evaluation/comparison of the
student's work with others.
♦ Chapter 6: Conclusion
- Review of the project and reiteration of
important findings
- Suggestion for future work
♦ Appendices
♦ References
♦ Bibliography
Introduction
Methodology
Conclusions
REPORT FORMAT
The information in this section explains how the
report should look. Set them up
on a word processor and use them throughout the
preparation of the document
than to attempt a major rearrangement of material
at the last minute.
Length
There is no hard rule about overall length because
this will vary with each project
depending on the nature of the work. For a B.Eng.
report, approximately 120
pages, including tables and appendices is an
acceptable upper limit. Ask advice
from your supervisor and remember, quantity is no
substitute for quality.
Paper
The entire report must be submitted on A4 size
paper.
Printing
The report should be printed on one side of each
page only. The print quality
should be dark and clear.
Margins
Left margin 25mm. Top, bottom and right margins
20mm.
Justification
Right and left margins should be justified (giving
a straight edge to the text on
both sides).
Font size
Use a Times New Roman or similar style font, point
size 12 for most of the
document.
Pagination
The report must carry sequential pagination
throughout, including appendices.
The page number should be on the top right margin
of each page. The title page
is counted in the numbering, but bears no page
number.
Page Breaks
Try to ensure that these occur in sensible places.
There is no need to take a new
page for each main section heading but you should
do so for new chapters.
Never let a page break separate the last line of a
paragraph. Try to ensure that,
if possible, enumerated lists (a, b, c, etc) are
not split across pages.
Header
A header should be placed at the top of each page
apart from the title page. In
addition to the page number, the document header
should include the
candidate’s name, qualification sought and calendar
year.
Paragraphs
These should be blocked (no indentation on the
first line) and separated by a
single blank line ( this blank line is
double-spaced).
Citations
Where a sizeable chunk (around 30 words or more) is
quoted from the work of
another author, the quotation should be blocked and
indented 0.5” from the left
and right margin. It should also be separated from
the preceding and following
text by a blank line. There is no need to use
quotation marks.
If this was an extract from a publication about
report writing that I
wanted to include, it would be set in this way to
distinguish it from
my own words. When quoting direct from a source it
is essential
to provide a full reference, including page number,
so that readers
can locate the passage if they so desire. (Author,
date, page
number or a unique number)
This authors name would appear in the references.
If the quotation omits some
material between the source’s start and end points,
this is indicated by dots as
follows:
If this was an extract from a … it would be set
this way. (Author,
date, pg.)
When quoting small amounts, the quotation can be
incorporated in the text,
without the need to offset it. In this case
quotation marks are used to delineate
the words copied. For example, according to Chan
(1999) “it is of paramount
importance to acknowledge the work of others”.
A further way to cite from another author’s work is
to refer to it, but not quote
from it. The next sentence gives an example.
According to Chan (1999) the use
of formal methods has little to offer.
Care to acknowledge the work of others is of
paramount importance. Use of work
of others without attribution is tantamount to
stealing.
Line Spacing
The text of the document should be double-spaced.
Headings and Legends
Section and subsection headings should be
emboldened. Major Headings should
be printed in point size 14. Legends (these are the
figure and table
identifications) should be emboldened and centred,
but not enlarged.
Sectioning
Sections and subsections are used to organise the
document into cohesive
chunks for the reader. Give them meaningful
headings. Never subdivide beyond
three levels e.g. 3.1.1.2 is too much.
Below is an example of the numbering system:
1 Chapter 1
1.1 Section 1 of Chapter 1
1.1.1 Sub-Section 1 of Section 1
A Division A of Sub-section 1
i.) Sub-Division i.) of Division A
ii.) Sub-Division ii.) of Division A
B Division B of Sub-Section 1
1.1.2 Sub-section 2 of Section 1
1.2 Section 2 of Chapter 1
2 Chapter 2
Tables and figures
These should each be sequentially (and separately)
numbered throughout the
document. They should be centred and labelled with
identification number and
title. What the table and figure is intended to
show should be clear. If a graphical
representation is used, axes must be clearly
labelled. It is common to include a
line or two under the table identifier to clarify
contents. If necessary to fit the
contents of a table on one page, 10-point font size
may be used; alternatively the
page may be printed in landscape mode.
Appendices
These should be sequentially numbered starting with
Appendix 1. Pagination
continues form the main body of the document
through the appendices.
References
There are a variety of ways to reference material
used in a report. Below is just
one example. If there is a lengthy list (several
pages), use 10-point font size,
otherwise use 12 point. References can be given in
the following format. (
Books (notice that it is the book title that
is italicised).
Bloggs, J. 1981. Advances in Computing. London: Academic Press.
Book Chapters (this is to cite a chapter in an edited
book)
Bloggs, J. 1981. The intelligent machine. In
B.F.Black (Ed), The
Future of
Computing. Edinburgh: Napier university Press.
Journal Article (notice, in the first example, the
journal article title is italicised,
the figure following is the volume number (normally
emboldened), with the
issue number after the oblique and then the page
numbers)
Bloggs, J. 1981. The evaluation of the interface
design, Journal
of man-
Machine Studies, 4/1, 99-150
STYLISTIC AND GRAMMAR ADVICE
Apostrophes
One of the most common mistakes in student writing
is incorrect use of the
apostrophe (‘), as in PC’s to mean a number of PCs.
It is used in English to form
contractions such as didn’t (did not), can’t
(cannot) and it’s (it is). These uses
should be avoided in academic writing and the words
written out in full. The
apostrophe is also used to denote possessive case,
as in the
dog’s bone or the
student’s assignment. The rule here is that of the
intended noun is singular (one
dog) the apostrophe is placed before the s. The
examples above refer to a single
dog and a single student respectively. If the
intended noun is plural and regularly
formed, theapostrophe is placed before the s as in dogs’ (of the dogs). However
if the noun has an irregular plural, e.g. child –
children, the apostrophe is placed
before the s as inchildren’s.
Acronyms
Computing/engineering are fields in which acronyms
are heavily used to avoid
repetition of long technical terms, e.g. RAM, LAN,
VDU. Terms like VDU are now
so commonly used by the population at large that it
is rapidly becoming
admissible to use them without explanation.
However, most acronyms are
familiar only to specialists within sub-fields of
computing/engineering. When
using an acronym for the first time, always precede
it with the expanded version.
Colloquialisms
These are chatty, idiomatic or slang expressions
that are appropriate in informal
conversion but have no place in your report. For
example;
Once Pat pulled his finger out, the
team started to come together better and
eventually we managed to hand something
in that is pretty reasonable
considering we didn’t know each other
much before this report.
A related point is that in academic and technical
writing the use of the first person
‘I’ is avoided as much as possible. In similar way,
avoid referring to the reader
as ‘you’.
Grammar
Do be careful to write in full sentences and to
proof read the document to ensure
not only that the text is grammatically sound, but
also that it means exactly what
was intended.
Jargon
Try to strike a good balance between use of jargon
and appropriate use of
technical terms. There is no merit in using so much
obscure terminology that the
document is virtually unreadable, but on the other
hand, failure to use key words
properly can lead to unnecessary wordiness and
tends to give an
unprofessional impression. It is important to be
consistent in the use of terms, to
define them if necessary and to use the same term
for the same concept
throughout.
Spelling
There should be no excuse for spelling mistakes in
a word processed document.
Spelling errors create a bad impression. Always use
a spell checker, they are
invaluable for picking up typographical errors as
well as genuine spelling
mistakes. Note, however, that spelling checkers
cannot detect cases where the
wrong word happens to be a real word e.g. from – form. So a careful proof read
is necessary.
USEFUL WEB BASED RESOURCES
o Electrical Engineering Final-Year Project Report Guidelines:
o http://www.engl.polyu.edu.hk/EECTR/eehandbook/home.htm
o Final Year Projects
o http://final-year-projects.com/index.htm
o Final year Project report sample
o http://www.comp.brad.ac.uk/intranet/modules/PROJ/proj%20info/sampleo
ne.doc
o Guidlines for the Projects Reports
o http://igor.gold.ac.uk/~mas01fl/teaching/projects/projectsreports.
html#section1
