Writing your Report

Relevant chapters in ‘Awesome Projects’ book: 2, 3, 4 and 5.

The Report will be read by at least two members of staff, and marks are awarded for the Report
independently of any other work that you submit, whether that is software, data, or proofs.

Structure of the Report

The appropriate structure of the Report varies according to the scientific, engineering, or business
research method that you have used, the features you have chosen to emphasise, and the degree
title you are pursuing. It is your responsibility to make sure that you are clear about where your
project's contribution (‘novel contribution to knowledge’) lies and that all work is explained clearly
and in the correct format.

The following Report structure should therefore be seen as a guide only. It is probably the case that
few Reports will stick to it rigidly. It is your responsibility to consult with your Supervisor and adapt
to suit your particular project. Types of problem solving project other than software development
projects are likely to need a different structure.

1. Title page (Mandatory), including title, author, student ID, degree title, name of Supervisor,
name of institution ('Department of Computing, Coventry University’) Date of submission.

2. Statement of Originality. (Mandatory) – This is a one page, signed statement. A pro-forma

3. Preamble, including (a) Table of Contents; (b) Abstract (suggested length: half a page); (c)
Acknowledgements.

Abstract should be a succinct and self-standing summary of the basis, context and
achievements of the project. Minimally an abstract does three things: (1) It states
the problem that you set out to solve, (2) It describes your solution and method, (3)
It states a conclusion about the success of the solution. Be straightforward and
factual and avoid vague statements, confusing details and "hype". Do not be
tempted to use acronyms or jargon to keep within the half-page limit. Consider that
search engines, librarians and non-computer scientists wishing to classify your
Report rely on the abstract. You may if you wish provide a short list of keywords (2-6
is reasonable) at the end of the abstract.

4. Introduction. In this section, you should describe the problem that you set out to solve with
the project. An introduction might, for example, begin by stating, "The aim of the work
described in this Report was to provide a software tool with which people can arrange
meetings." Avoid starting a Report with an irrelevant history of information technology. For
example, the following would not be a good introductory sentence, "Since Bill Gates
launched Outlook people have been using technology to arrange meetings."
 Explain whatever background the reader will need in order to understand the problem. The
background might refer to previous work in the academic literature that provides evidence
that the problem is a real and significant problem worth solving. The background may
identify a community, organisation or set of users that will benefit from your research.
Include a clear and detailed statement of the project aims and provide an overview of the
structure of the solution.

CRITICAL! Use the introduction to define any terms or jargon that you will be using
throughout the rest of the report. Why? Because people define and understand terms
differently from one another. Your definition of ‘cloud computing’ may be different to your
supervisor’s definition of ‘cloud computing’. By stating your definition clearly you can avoid
misunderstandings of your work.

Conventionally, the last part of the introduction outlines the remainder of the Report,
explaining what comes in each section – keep this brief.

5. Literature Review (Mandatory). Please read Chapter 4 of ‘Awesome Projects’. A lecture will
be given on literature reviews.

6. Method: This chapter should describe what you did to answer your research question (or to
support your thesis, if you think of it that way), and how you went about it (essentially your
research design). You should describe your research design in sufficient detail that another
researcher could recreate your work to check your results.

7. Evaluation / Results: In this chapter, you should evaluate what you have done, and say what
answer (to your research question) you have arrived at. It may be that in your method you
describe some experiments, and this section records your results and analysis of those
results. This is an important section -- most students gain or lose marks in either their
literature review or evaluation. The key to producing a convincing evaluation is to plan very
early in the project what information or results you will need to write this section.

8. Discussion. Here you will summarise your achievements and also the deficiencies of your
project. You can also say what you would or could have done, if you had had more time or if
things had worked out differently. It is important to be completely honest about the
deficiencies and inadequacies of your work, such as they are. Part of your aim is to
demonstrate your ability to recognise problems that remain.

9. A reflection on the management of your project and the social, legal or ethical issues that
you needed to consider, including your response to feedback from your presentation
(Mandatory). Your first supervisor may have a very good idea of how well you tackled your
project - however second supervisors may not have any idea. For this reason you need to
include an account of the conduct of the project. What problems you encountered, how you
overcame them, how diligently you worked, how you sought advice, how you responded to
feedback. This chapter will be evidence driven – which is why you need to keep a log or diary
of your project, maybe a project management timeline with milestones, keep evidence of
each supervision meeting (signed off by your supervisor), Keep notes of supervisor feedback
to your presentation and reflect on them in this chapter.

10. Conclusion. Give a brief statement of how the solution that you have provided addresses
the problem stated in the introduction. Provide an evaluative statement based on the
 results. You should not introduce new material.

11. References For your Final Year project it is required that you cite and reference work to
which you owe an intellectual debt. It is required that you cite and reference work that
provides supporting evidence. It is required that you cite and reference work so that the
reader can find the sources that have been quoted. (remember that we use the Harvard
system of ‘in text citations’ and a list of references at the back of the report. There will be a
lecture on this)

12. Appendices. (More on these later)

A List of mandatory elements to be included with your report

 Statement of Originality
 Certificate of Ethical Approval
 A copy of your original ‘detailed project proposal’ (appendix)
 Signed supervisor meeting records (appendix)
 Feedback notes from your presentation (appendix)