How to Write a Good Report

Alan Lee

Contents
What makes a good report? Clarity and Structure Figures and Tables (floats) Technical Issues Further reading Conclusions

The purpose....
The report exists to provide the reader with useful information
Should this drug be licensed? How do we fit non-linear regressions?

It succeeds if it effectively communicates the information to the intended audience It fails otherwise!!

To succeed...
The report must be
Clear
Well structured, clear, concise, suitable for the intended audience

Professional
statistically correct, correctly spelled, produced with a decent word processor

Well illustrated
illustrations that aid understanding, integrated with text

The audience
Often 3 different audiences
The casual reader/big boss who wants the main message as painlessly as possible The interested reader who wants more detail but doesnt want to grapple with all the gory technical details The guru who wants the whole story

What to do?
To address all 3 audiences effectively,
Include an abstract for the big boss A main body for the interested non-specialist A technical appendix for the guru

Thus, a structure emerges!

Structure
Good structure enhances and encourages clarity Gives signposts implements the vital principle
tell them what you are going to say Say it! tell them what you have said

Structure: details
A good report has the following parts
Title Table of Contents Abstract/executive summary Introduction Main sections Conclusions References Technical appendix

Title
Should be informative, punchy, can include puns, humour Good
The perfidious polynomial (punchy, alliterative) Diagnosing diabetes mellitus: how to test, who to test, when to test (dramatic, informative)

Bad
Some bounds on the distribution of certain quadratic forms in normal random variables (boring,
vague)

Performing roundoff analyses of statistical algorithms (boring, vague)

Table of Contents
Shows the structure of the document and lets the reader navigate through the sections
Include for documents more than a few pages long.

Abstract/executive summary
Describes the problem and the solution in a few sentences. It will be all the big boss reads!
Remember the 2 rules
Keep it short State problem and solution

The Introduction
State the question, background the problem Describe similar work Outline the approach Describe the contents of the rest of the paper
in Section 2 we ... in Section 3 we ...

Further sections
Describe
Data Methods Analyses Findings

Dont include too much technical detail Divide up into sections, subsections

Conclusions/summary
Summarize what has been discovered
Repeat the question Give the answer

Appendix
This is where the technical details go Be as technical as you like Document your analysis so it can be reproduced by others Include the data set if feasible

References
Always cite (i.e. give a reference) to other related work or facts/opinions that you quote Never pass off the work of others as your own this is plagiarism and is a very big academic crime!!

How to cite
In the text Seber and Wild (1989) state that.. In the references Seber, G.A.F and C.J. Wild. (1989). Nonlinear Regression. New York: Wiley.

Writing clearly
Structure alone is not enough for clarity you must also write clear sentences. Rules:
Write complete short sentences Avoid jargon and clich, strive for simplicity One theme per paragraph If a sentence contains maths, it still must make sense!

AGHHHH!
He wrote
Although solitary under normal prevailing circumstances, raccoons may congregate simultaneously in certain situations of artificially enhanced resource availability.

He meant..
Raccoons live alone but come together to eat bait.

Maths
Good

From the equation y ax b it follows that x ( y b) / a.

Bad

y ax b

x ( y b) / a

Figures and Tables (Floats)

Golden rules for Figures and Tables:
Describe float in text (integration), make sure it matches description Place after the first mention in the text Make sure float conveys the desired message clearly: keep it simple! Provide informative captions

Figures
Always label and give a caption under the figure Be aware of good graphics principles: avoid
chart junk low data/ink ratio unlabelled axes broken axes Misleading scales

See Cleveland, The Elements of Graphing Data, Visualising Data Using a good graphics package (R!) helps enforce good practice

African elephant Asian elephant

8

Human Giraffe Horse Chimpanzee Donkey Cow Gorilla Pig Rhesus monkey Sheep Jaguar Grey wolf Potar monkey Goat Kangaroo Cat Rabbit Mountain beaver Guinea pig Mole Rat Golden hamster Mouse 0 5 log(Animals$body) 10
0 4

log(Animals$brain)

Bad!

Brachiosaurus Triceratops Dipliodocus

African elephant Asian elephant

Human Chimpanzee Rhesus monkey Potar monkey Giraffe Donkey Horse Cow

Log Brain weight (gm)

Better!

Gorilla Sheep Pig Jaguar Brachiosaurus Grey wolf Goat Triceratops Kangaroo Dipliodocus

Cat Rabbit Mountain beaver Guinea pig Mole Rat

Golden hamster Mouse 0 5 Log Body weight (kg) 10

Figure 1. Plot of log Brain weights (gm) versus log body weights (kg) for 28 species

Tables
Always label and give a caption over the table Be aware of rules for good tables:
avoid vertical lines dont have too many decimal places compare columns not rows

Multiple 1012 109 106 103 10-1 Multiple 1012 109 106 103 10-1

Prefix tera giga mega kilo deci Prefix tera giga mega kilo deci

Symbol T G M K d Symbol T G M K d

Too busy

Better

Multiple 1012 109 Prefix tera giga Symbol T G

106 mega M

103 kilo K

10-1 deci d

Horizontal hard to read

Multiple 1012 109 106 103 10-1

Prefix tera giga mega kilo deci

Symbol T G M K d

Vertical easier to read

Number of Processors

Time (secs)

1 4 8 16 Number of Processors 1 4 8 16

28.35221 7.218812 3.634951 1.929347 Time (secs)

28.35 7.21 3.63 1.92

Busy too many DPs

Better

Technical Issues
Sectioning Table of Contents Spelling and Grammar Choice of word processor

Sectioning
Proper division of your work into sections and subsections makes the structure clear and the document easy to follow Use styles in word/ sectioning commands in Latex \begin{section}.\end{section}

Table of contents
Provides navigation aid
Make sure TOC agrees with main body of text If you use styles (Word) and sectioning commands (Latex) this will happen automatically

Spelling and Grammar

Use a style manual/dictionary if in doubt Spell check!!!! Proofread!!!! He meant
This technique can also be applied to the analysis of golf balls

He typed.
This technique cam also by applies to the analysis or gold bills

Choice of word processor

Word or Latex? My spin..
Use Word for a short document with few figures and tables and little mathematics Use Latex for a longer document with many figures and tables and lots of complicated maths.

Further reading
There are many excellent books giving good advice on technical writing. Two I like are
Higham, Nicholas (1993) Handbook of writing for the Mathematical Sciences, Philadelphia, SIAM. Silyn-Roberts, Heather (2000). Writing for Science and Engineering: Papers Presentations and Reports. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinmann.

Both discuss writing reports and giving verbal presentations.

Conclusions
Structure is vital Write clearly Good clear simple illustrations Spellcheck and proofread Reference all material used or quoted