Structure and Content of the Final Report

Expectations: Structure and Content of the Draft Report and Final Reports in CHE 451

S.W. Peretti and L.G. Bullard

Introduction

After reading the reports written for CHE 450, it is clear that there are some serious misunderstandings regarding the content and the structure of a technical report. This document was created to convey the basic expectations that accompany any project report. First, the large-scale structure of the report will be discussed, as motivated by the functionality of the document. That will be followed by a discussion regarding the organization of specific sections within the report. Finally, this document will conclude with a clarification of the expectations for project reports for the rest of the semester. Since all of you are interested in your final grade, and since we ultimately assign those grades, you should find what follows to be very instructive.

Overall report structure

The overall structure of any report is derived in large part from the functions the report is expected to function, and the audience for whom it is written. Your reports have several functions. The most significant is as a yardstick to measure your team’s accomplishments against the project task plan. The second is to give your advisors and mentors an opportunity to provide additional guidance to your efforts. The final function is to convince your project advisors that your team is making an appropriate (excellent, average, mediocre?) effort to complete the project.

The report can be divided into three major sections, the introduction, the main body, and the summary. The introduction informs everyone inside and outside the project team of the project definition and its significance. It will often contain historical, technical, and financial information that provides a context for the efforts associated with the project. It should “set the stage” for the main body of the report.

The main body of the report presents the technical progress achieved by the team. The nature of the accomplishments disclosed will be determined by the nature of the project. Since this is a technical project, the majority of the accomplishments will be technical in nature, but any developments that will significantly affect the direction or outcome of the project are reported in this section.

The summary section provides the reader with a listing of the major accomplishments and the conclusions that the team believes should be drawn from the report. Even though it sounds redundant, since you have already made these points in the main body of the report, it is important to restate things that were presented. It is your final opportunity to remind the reader of all of the team’s accomplishments and to put them in their proper perspective.

Detailed Structure

The introductory section described previously will often have two distinct sections, an executive summary and a formal project introduction. These sections have distinctly different functions, and therefore different structures. An executive summary acts as the functional equivalent of a cover letter that you send with a resume to a potential employer. It generates interest on the part of the reader and is hopefully creates a favorable impression. It is read by administrators who are several levels above your boss, one of whom might have the ability to approve or reject the continuation of your project. The executive summary must summarize the scope of the project and convey the high points of the accomplishments that have occurred during the entire project

The one page executive summary should be followed by a formal project introduction that accomplishes the following:

Full explanation of the project, particularly defining the scope of the effort.It is in this section that the rationale for the main project effort is presented so that the reader may be persuaded that the overall approach is solid and that the task sequence will be fruitful and efficient.
Description of the efforts made during the past reporting period, with an emphasis on the information that is contained in the report.Think of this as a written table of contents. This is your first opportunity to describe how your accomplishments fit into the overall scheme of the project and particularly how it enables the next work to be done.

It might seem that the formal project introduction is somehow preventing the reader from getting on with the most important task, which is learning about the accomplishments. Not so. The introduction prepares the audience to more fully appreciate the significance of the results, thereby enhancing their estimation of your team’s level of accomplishment. Think of it as good public relations.

The main body of the report contains the sections that describe the technical progress achieved for the entire project. Each section begins with an introductory paragraph that tells the reader what you will be telling them about, why it is significant, and how it relates to the overall project. If this section is missing or inadequate, then information is presented without any context, and the reader is left to figure out for themselves why they are reading about it. After describing the relevant accomplishments, the section is concluded by a paragraph that ties those accomplishments to the overall project and describes what additional work relative to this section will be undertaken during the next phase. The main body will differ for each project, but typically contains components (in no particular order) such as:

Technical background (you have already written this in CHE 450, but you may choose to enhance it further this semester)
Process description
Equipment list
Process flow diagram, process & instrumentation diagram
Process economics
Relevant environmental regulations
Process control
Relevant safety concerns and design issues
Site selection
Simulation results
Experimental design
Experimental results
Product design details

You should include the components that are appropriate for your project, and arrange them in a logical order.

The summary section first presents the significant accomplishments of the project team and sets forth appropriate conclusions from that information. Reports that end without this section are the functional equivalent of a bridge that simply ends half of the way across the water without a warning or fence of any kind. This is often the most difficult section to write because it forces the writer to select the most important results, present them in a sequence that is compelling, and draw clear conclusions from them.

All reports also have forward-looking statements. These sometimes take the form of recommendations for future directions. In this instance, the draft report due in February should conclude with a section that describes the most important efforts to be made during the next reporting period. In this fashion, you are receiving “buy-in” from upper management for your intended efforts.

We are asking you to submit a draft report on February 16, which counts 25% of your final grade. The draft report should include all of the sections that will be contained in the final report, in the anticipated sequence of presentation. It may be that progress will not be reported for some sections prior to the final phase. That is perfectly acceptable. It is important that your group develops an effective report structure for your particular project, and that we have the opportunity to provide ample feedback regarding that structure. This also provides us with an opportunity to determine whether you have adequately interpreted and acted upon our feedback from previous submissions. It is better you should learn this before the final report than after.

This review of progress report structure should assist your group in developing an effective report structure that accommodates the unique content and nature of each design project. We recommend that you refer to it often as you write and edit your documents this semester.

Grading Rubric for Draft Report and Final Report

	Possible Points
Technical Content (60%)
Topic mastery, including technical correctness	20
All requested deliverables included	15
Appropriate level of detail and thoroughness of documentation	15
Completeness of analysis and interpretation of data	10

Organization (15%)	15
Clearly identified purpose and approach
Content is clearly organized and supports the objective
Transitions between topics

Presentation (15%)	15
Easy to read
Grammatically and stylistically correct
Uniform writing style

Layout/Visuals (10%)	10
Consistent presentation of graphics
Uniform document design and layout