Lectures Notes : Reports
Slide 1 : 1/13: Report writing
COMP1710 Web Development and Design
Report writing
then 'n'ext or 'b'ack
Slide 2 : ToC : Reports
Table of Contents (13 slides) for the presentation :
Reports
Slide 3 : 3/13: Report Writing in COMP1710
In this lecture:
Why is there a Report Writing component?
Components / Organisation of a technical report
Graphical communication
'Multimedia' for paper :-)
Mistakes to avoid
Referencing and plagiarism
Report assessment in this course
Slide 4 : 4/13: Tech Report Components
Components of a Technical Report
TR Overview
A TR should explain what was done, why it was done, what was
discovered, and what is significant about the findings. The report
should identify clearly what is novel about the work, and how it
relates to prior knowledge. There should be a focused topic, and an
attitude about this topic. The topic should be developed according to
the attitude in a thorough, logical, and orderly fashion. Throughout,
the author should be helpful to the reader.
TR sections
descriptive title, author name and affiliation, date, informative
abstract, list of keywords, body, acknowledgments, and list of references
TR body
motivation, methods, results, and discussion
Reference: http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~sherman/Courses/documents/TR_how_to.html
Slide 5 : 5/13: Tech Report bits 2
Components of a Technical Report 2
- A meaningful, descriptive and grammatically correct title.
("COMP1710 Report" is not meaningful and not very descriptive.)
- Author name, affiliation (eg 'COMP1710 course Research School of
Computer Science')
- An informative abstract of about 200 words, which can be an
'executive
summary' of the report. "An abstract may act as a stand-alone
entity instead of a full paper."
- A list of appropriate keywords. These keywords should identify the
field of your report and its major topics.
- Body of technical report. (More later.)
- Acknowledgments. Acknowledge any help you received.
- Complete and accurate list of references cited in the technical
report. (Cite for: credit, identify related work, set context.)
Slide 6 : 6/13: TR body
Components of a Technical Report - Body
Write a clear, informative, and thoughtful description and critique of
what was done.
Where appropriate, include carefully drawn graphs and diagrams.
Be sure to motivate, present, and interpret the findings.
Focus on the scientific content of the project - your questions and answers.
Identify and explain interesting and important phenomena.
Emphasize what is new about the project.
In addition, briefly comment on the engineering aspects of the work:
-
what problems were faced,
-
what decisions were made,
-
and what were the consequences of these decisions?
-
Although it is crucial to explain experimental procedures,
be concise and do not bore your reader with lengthy descriptions of
routine implementation concerns.
Slide 7 : 7/13: TR body 2
Components of a Technical Report - Body continued
Pay attention to important transitional sentences,
especially the first and last sentences of the report.
There are three standard ways to begin the introduction:
-
startling statement,
-
dramatic incident,
-
and quotation.
It is useful to end each report with a powerful sentence that concisely
summarizes the significance of the entire project.
Reasons in the report
Stick to project (scientific etc) reasons, do not include course
specific reasons such as report deadline etc.
Remember:
motivation,
methods,
results,
discussion.
Slide 8 : 8/13: Graphical communication
Meaningful "pictures are worth a 1,000 words"
Tables & figures
Everything that is not a table is a figure
Can carry more information per space than the same amount of text
Only if clearly explained in the text
Types of graphics:
Graphic placement and labelling
As near as possible to the text referring to it
Always label Figures with simple explanation of its contents
Reference: http://ebookbrowse.com/lecture-report-writing-ppt-d112902735>/a>
Slide 9 : 9/13: Mistakes
Mistakes to avoid
Report structure
Focus: answer a well defined question
Analyse data and interpret findings, do not simply report the data
Completeness: TR has all normal components
Writing
Draft: first draft - only you need to understand it
Spelling: Dobn't just ignor wiggley red liunes, they are there for a reason
Readability: Sentence length, Word length, Sentence structure
Grammar, readability ...
Not referencing = plagiarism? (Don't just cut and paste!)
Slide 10 : 10/13: Report assessment
Report assessment in COMP1710
The report specifications will be released in May
The report will be due about 2 weeks later
Report topic will be Human Computer Interaction (HCI) - design
This is cognate (related in nature) to web design
Won't be on web design to make sure you 'think outside
the box'
Process: you will be given some information, and an academic
paper in the area of HCI, and will write a report about
what it means to you.
Marking: will be on structure of the report and
your ability to write a logically presented, coherent document
- not on the scientific quality of your conclusions.
The idea is to show that you can think about a topic, and write
something meaningful in a structured form we specify (a
technical report).
Slide 11 : 11/13: Experiment introduction
Experiment introduction
Some slides are here
The conference paper is here
Participation in
Nandita's experiment
If you wish to participate, use the 'sign-up' facility in
streams
You can select checkboxes for all the times you
can make, and we will allocate you one of them.
Slide 12 : 12/13: Report specifications
Report specifications
Objective
To demonstrate you can think and write coherently on a topic
cognate (related in nature) to the content of the course. Please
re-read the slides on
report writing
to help you in writing your report.
Specifications
- Title, Your name, Abstract etc, 1/2 page max
- Section on the objectives of Nandita's experiment as you can
understand from the related
paper. Or a section on
the objectives of the experiment in the paper if you do not
participate in the experiment.
- Either
- Describe your experience in the experiment: for example,
describe whether you thought you read differently on each
type of text, did the measurement instruments disturb your reading
etc. 1/2 - 1 page.
The experiment takes under 1/2 hr, and nvolves the reading of
various kinds paragraphs of text while your eye gaze and other
data is recorded. You can sign up using
streams. If its
not updating properly, send me an email with the times you
can attend - please try to select two or three times as a
minimum.)
- Or
- Contrast another paper's results on a similar topic with
with the paper's results. A similar topic could be: use of
eye gaze to control a game, or different techniques
to determine reading style. Try to find a paper online,
but if you have trouble send me an email suggesting what
kind of similarity or difference you have in mind and I will
help to find a specific paper for you).
1/2 - 1 page.
- Section on the relationship between human computer interaction
(HCI) and Web design. E.g.
did you learn anything useful from the experiment in this
regard? If so what? If not, please explain why HCI is too
different from web design to be useful. (There is no right
answer, the idea is to use your own thinking and brief reading
on this topic to coherently write something.) A web document
worth reading on this topic is here. 1/2 - 1 page.
- If you add up the pages its 2 to 3.5 pages so one of the three
later sections can be a bit longer if you use the full 4 pages.
Most important: don't get stressed, its not too hard, we won't
mark too hard. But do try and think and write clearly.
Length
Your document should normally be 2 to 4 pages in length, formatted
mostly as 12 point Times font (or similar), with about 2 cm margins on
A4 paper. All the 'normally', 'mostly', 'similar' and 'about' words
are meant to indicate that you can chose differently if you have a
reason to do so, but please try to stick to my length specification
(e.g. whatever your reason a two page document with the words "Hello
world" in 300 point font is not a valid report - to start with it
doesn't include your name, doesn't have the right kinds of sections
and so on). Please note you may create your document in any way
you like including Word, Latex, Open Office etc etc, but the document
in meant to be an old fashioned paper format document for printing.
(But you can still use HTML if you want, but it should print to a pdf
which should match my specifications.)
Submission
Please submit by placing a pdf file called "u1234567-report.pdf"
(use your own u number please)
into your public_html folder (make sure the permissions are right,
so you can see it). If you used Xanga, then you can do
the same still or send me an email with the pdf attached on the
day the assignment is due.
Marking
The course assessment page says this is worth 20 marks.
Please see the report assessment page. The structure of the report (e.g. such things as the right kinds of sections, referencing sources etc) will be worth 6, your reflections on the experiment (or similar) also 6, with the coherence of your writing worth 8.
Due date
11.59 pm on Saturday 4th June Sunday 29th May
Slide 13 : ToC : Reports
Table of Contents (13 slides) for the presentation :
Reports