Report Design Print Communications 25S

The Basics It’s all about formatting…

This Unit  In this unit, we will learn all the basics of formatting a report. Most of your marks will be on formatting.  We will start with a simple, one-page report.  Fonts, spacing, indents, margins, spellcheck  We will then format a multi-page report that is prewritten for you.  Page numbers, references, footnotes, endnotes  Last, we will learn how to make a cover page and bibliography to finish off your reports  Then, the final report project!

Report Basics  Reports INFORM  PERSUADE  Are OBJECTIVE  They use facts  Written in the THIRD PERSON  DO NOT use the word “I” (“I think…”)  Reference good quality sources  Internet, books, newspapers, magazines

Difference Between Reports & Essays  Different formatting (page setup)  Reports use paragraph headings  Paragraphs in essays flow one after the other  Reports are often less wordy and more technical  More likely to use graphs, illustrations  Reports include footnotes/endnotes on each page

Key Points  READABILITY is KEY  It’s all about proper FORMATTING  Fonts  Spacing  Indents  Margins  NO spelling or grammar mistakes

Title Heading Beginning your report

Title Heading  The title heading is the title of your report  Any title in a report is a heading.  The title heading goes 2 inches from the top of the paper  Use the rulers (View menu > Ruler)  Press Enter until you get to the 1” mark on the vertical ruler

2” from the top of the paper

Title Heading  DO NOT change the top margin to set the title at 2” from the top of the page  This would cause every page to have a 2” top margin

Title Headings should be: CENTERED ALL UPPERCASE LARGER FONT BOLD

 Triple space after the title  Gives it some breathing room  Click on the title and set spacing to 3.0 Spacing the Title Heading

Fonts Serif and sans serif

Fonts  Different fonts for the title and body make them stand out  Headings are always SANS SERIF  Leave it set to Calibri  Body is always SERIF  Use Times New Roman

Spacing Single, double, triple

Body Spacing  The body is DOUBLE SPACED  Set spacing to 2.0  Press Enter ONCE to start a new paragraph

Spacing Shortcut Keys CTRL + 1 for single CTRL + 2 for double

Indents & Margins

Indenting Paragraphs  We have to indent each paragraph.  How?  Press Tab

Bound Reports  A BOUND REPORT could be put in a coil binding or into a binder  UNBOUND means stapled or loose  Binding can be topbound or leftbound  Binding crowds out your text so you have to add a.5” gutter in the margin

Setting Margins for Bound Reports

An added reminder:

The Cheat Sheet  Title Heading:  2” from the top  Sans serif (e.g. Calibri )  ALL UPPERCASE  Centered  Bold  Can be a larger font  Triple space (3.0)  Title Heading:  2” from the top  Sans serif (e.g. Calibri )  ALL UPPERCASE  Centered  Bold  Can be a larger font  Triple space (3.0)  Body (paragraphs):  Double spaced (2.0)  Serif (e.g. Times New Roman )  Indent each paragraph by pressing Tab  Bound reports need a.5” gutter (Page Layout > Page Setup)  Spellcheck!!  Body (paragraphs):  Double spaced (2.0)  Serif (e.g. Times New Roman )  Indent each paragraph by pressing Tab  Bound reports need a.5” gutter (Page Layout > Page Setup)  Spellcheck!!

Homework Assignment  Download the questions from the wiki.