Idiot’s Guide to Report Writing

Abstract Introduction
• Background (present tense) • Why do I need this?
• Purpose (past/ present tense) • Establish topic and significance
• Method (past tense) o Background/ Introduce present
• Results (past tense) research
• Conclusion/ recommendation (present o Brief Literature Review
tense/ modal) • Establish need for present research
o Research gap
• Introduce present research
o Purpose
o Value of research
Literature Review
• Put in as much as you want (with
relevance)
• What is the research gap?
• How will you fill it?
• Comment on authors
• Define (eg. circuit)
• Suggestions for research gap
Methods
• State
o steps
o materials
• Overview
• Physical description
• Functional description
Results
• State trends
• Put in the
Tables/Chairs/Graphs/Charts
• State ‘Fig.1 shows… … …’
• Interpret
• Comment
Discussion

Conclusion
• Reference to study
• Review/ Summary of most important
finding
• Explanation
• Recommendation

© Yitch, NTU TUM 2010