Jamie Pearce | Candidate No.4096 | Centre No.

48317
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Evaluation
Contents
I. Problems with the first draft..........................................................................................................2
II. Improvements to the document....................................................................................................2
III. Time management.....................................................................................................................3
IV. Strengths and weaknesses.........................................................................................................4
V. Copyright.......................................................................................................................................4
VI. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................4
VII. Amendments.............................................................................................................................4

1 Contents| Evaluation
 Jamie Pearce | Candidate No.4096 | Centre No.48317
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I. Problems with the first draft

When creating the first draft of the report, I found that the inconsistent formatting and layout
produced a somewhat amateurish finish. An example of this would be the fact that all of the
headings where formatted in different ways, some where bold and left aligned and some where
centre aligned.

Also, the title of the document was visually disappointing as it was simply large bold font and gave
the impression that the whole document would be of a substandard. Similarly, the table of contents
was formatted in a way that looked extremely tasteless, whilst not even comprehensively
referencing the headings themselves.

The document was littered with spelling mistakes (marked with ‘SP’) and grammatical errors where
frequent (marked by ‘G’). On page 2, the organisation structure diagram, yet again, came across as
particularly amateurish as it had been drawn using Word’s ‘AutoShapes’, and wasn’t labelled as a
figure. Finally, some of the abbreviations such as ‘YJFL’ hadn’t been labelled meaning that the reader
had to guess that it stood for ‘York Junior Football League’.

Overall, the first draft was a dismal attempt, and improvements where needed in virtually every
aspect.

II. Improvements to the document

First things first, I went through and formatted all headings in a consistent and highly structured
manor using Microsoft Office Word 2007’s ‘Styles’. The reason for this was that once the styles
where marked, for example heading 1, the software recognises them as separate to the body text of
the document and lead the way to create an automated table of contents which would firstly pull
through the exact heading names and update page numbers where necessary, secondly order them
in a structured way and finally, provide a professional finish.

Next, I used the spell checker to flick from mistake to mistake and correct spelling and grammatical
errors. In addition, I added a header and footer to the pages using Microsoft Word 2007’s ‘ header
and footer styles’, the header consisting of my name, candidate number and centre number, and the
footer contained the page number, section and report title. The reason I used the ‘styles’ feature
was so that the software would automatically pull the page header, and similarly the page number.

Using Microsoft Office Word 2007’s ‘multi level list’ feature, I gave the previously marked headers an
automatically generating number to make each section clear. As a result, I decided not to apply a
header style to the table of contents as this would mean that the ‘Introduction and background
information’ heading would be labelled ‘II’ and the table of contents ‘I’, but also the table of
contents would appear in the table of contents. The problem with this was that the footer couldn’t
find the heading as it wasn’t marked, so remained blank. In order to fix this, I opened the footer and
selected ‘different first page’ in the options tab, then just typed the word ‘Contents’. This meant that
the other of the document’s footers still retained the automation code and therefore continued to
automatically update.

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 Jamie Pearce | Candidate No.4096 | Centre No.48317
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Finally, I added an index for keywords through the report. In order to complete this, I decided to use
the ‘AutoMark’ function. In order to apply an AutoMark, I opened a new document and created a 2-
column table. In the left hand column, I typed the words as they appeared in the document. In the
right hand column, I typed the words as I wanted them to appear in the index (although I decided
not to, I could have changed it so that Mail Merge to appear as Merge. Mail for example).

Next, I saved the document and flicked back to report. I clicked ‘insert index’ under the ‘references’
tab. Then, I clicked the AutoMark button and selected the word document with the table within. The
software applied the appropriate referenced to words to the index, so all I had to do was select a
layout for a professional finish.

The final amendment made was the addition of paragraph numbers to make it easy for the reader to
quickly find specific information in the report. I decided to simply type these as when attempting to
render a new multilevel list, I found the automated process was difficult to manage as it would label
all body text with a number, for example it would label the header text, page number and so on.
Also, the automated function automatically indented all body text so large areas where wasted to
the left of each paragraph, whereas when I manually applied the numbers, I indented the first line
only.

III. Time management

Personally, I find it if I simply begin a task without having carefully thought through the strategy, I
run out of time. In order to ensure that this wasn’t the case, I produced a Gantt chart, using
Microsoft Office Excel 2007, as a method to help me visualise the time in hand.

The chart (Figure 1, below) is not only helpful when trying to visualise tasks but is also provides a
much more realistic sequence of tasks than a table for example. This is because tasks can overlap
where needed, for example I may complete research into the organisations at the same time as
compiling the first draft, or may write the evaluation as problems occur rather than attempting to
recall them weeks or months later. This sort of versatility makes the Gantt chart of great importance
to me.

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 Jamie Pearce | Candidate No.4096 | Centre No.48317
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Figure 1

IV. Strengths and weaknesses

The final draft of the report is of a marginal improvement to the original draft as it is free of both
obvious mistakes, for example spelling errors, but also has superior layout and formatting that
delivers a professional and structured document.

I think that the document could be improved by rewording some sentences as at some points it
breaks into a less formal style, of which an example may include the sentence ‘2.7 When the
CMDB is opened, the user will see a series of tabs along the top of the database window’.

V. Copyright
In order to ensure that I didn’t break copyright law, I listed the sources of research in the
bibliography. An example of this could be the fact that I interview the ‘head of IT’, and he spoke
about some of the databases functions and so on.

VI. Conclusion

VII. Amendments

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