How to write a good report Examiner’s hints – part I

Think 30 years ahead This is a scientific work to be read by other scientists and students A bad report may become a major embarrassment in your future career Scientific jargon of today will become obscure in 30 years Even MATLAB will disappear! URL links “rot”: average life span of a Web page is few months And Wikipedia can be plain wrong, especially non- English

Interact with the supervisor often Define a very specific goal, make sure you can explain it Come up with a very realistic time plan (next slides) Regularly ask the supervisor to check your results Make them read and correct your report

Be a collector Keep the bibliography list: have a file where every article and book you read is noted down Keep an archive of figures: save every (good) figure you produce, and if possible, script the steps to reproduce it Keep the record of the work in a logbook, with time stamps

Time matters Unit Time Comment 1 day 4 hours Report writing only (the rest is other work) 1 week 4 days Optimistic estimate in case of holidays, sick leave etc 1 month 4 weeks   1 page 1 hour Typing only (assuming all the images and references are ready) takes much longer when you have no idea what to type… 64 pages 40-50 pages are usually enough for a Master’s thesis (25 for a Bachelor’s)

Plan backwards Event Date Time to previous event Report sent to the examiners, start making slides May 7 - 2 weeks Report ready for internal proof-reading April 23 - 1 month Start writing March 26 Table of contents ready and discussed with the supervisor March 12 - Bottom line: start working on the report 2 MONTHS BEFORE THE SUBMISSION DEADLINE!

Report contents Focus on YOUR work, not others’! Introduction: explain what was done, start from the big picture Clearly describe the goal of the project Do not use undefined acronyms or unusual terms Overview of the field Introduction Description of the problem/goal Description of the methodology description of the experimental setup (if applicable) description of software and algorithms (if applicable) description of the theoretical approach/framework for literature overview – description of the approach Methods Quantitative results and interpretation Discussion of the results and conclusion Results

Report layout Title page: use the recommended layout (see the Web page) Recommended font: 12pt Line spacing: at least single, better 1.5; margins: 25mm Examiners will correct the report, need space for corrections Use annexes for computer codes and complementary material (protocols etc) Project Nr of pages Bachelor’s Max 25 Master’s 30pt Max 40 Master’s 60pt Max 50