How to write a good report

How to write a good report Examiner’s hints – part I

Think 30 years ahead • This is a scientific work to be read by other scientists and students • A bad report may become a major embarrassment in your future career • Scientific jargon of today will become obscure in 30 years • URL links “rot”: average life span of a Web page is few months

Interact with the supervisor • Define a very specific goal • Come up with a very realistic time plan (next slides) • Regularlyask them to check your results • Make them read and correct your report

Be a collector • Keep the bibliography list: have a file where every article and book you read is noted down • Keep an archive of figures: save every (good) figure you produce, and if possible, script the steps to reproduce it • Keep the record of the results, e.g. in a logbook with a time stamp

Time matters

Plan backwards Bottom line: start working on the report 10 WEEKS BEFORE THE EXAM!

Report contents • Introductionand conclusion, explaining what was done in a manner understandable to non-experts • no funny acronyms or jargon • Overview of the field • Description of the problem/goal • Description of the methodology • for experimental work – description of the experimental setup • for computer-based analysis – description of algorithms • for theoretical work – description of the approach/framework • for literature overview – description of the approach • Results • Discussion of the results

How to write a good report