Typical Report Structure | Section Description |
Abstract/ Summary | - Identifies the problem/questions that the project addresses
- States the objectives of the project
- Describes the general procedures
- Includes key results (quantitative results and key trends)
- Evaluates results in light of the problem/ questions
- Lists the main conclusions
- Suggests future work or implementation
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Introduction (and Theoretical Background) | - Identifies the problem/ questions that the project addresses
- Describes related work done on the topic (previous work, theoretical background, key parameters, equations, etc.)
- States the (specific and measurable) objectives of the current project
- Lists the general procedures (including the measurements and calculations) that will be used to achieve the objectives
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Methods/ Procedures | - Describes the scientific method/ approach used to collect data
- Describes the materials and equipment used to collect data
- Describes the detailed procedures followed to collect data in a way that would allow someone else to reproduce such procedures
- Describes the process by which measurements were recorded, preserved, and analyzed
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Results/ Data/ Findings (and Analysis) | - Reports key results and explains their meaning
- Explains data derivations and transformations obtained from the measured data
- Presents key results visually (tables, figures, graphs)
- Reports discrepancies and anomalies in the results
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Discussion | - Compares measured results to predicted values
- Explains the discrepancies and anomalies in the results
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Conclusions and Recommendations | - Summarizes the most important results reported in the report
- Assesses the success of the project
- Suggests possible future improvements (e.g. address error sources, safety issues, alternative approaches)
- Ends with a bottom line statement (why should the reader care about the results?)
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Additional sections | - References (lists the external sources cited in the report)
- Appendices (includes raw data, sample calculations, error analysis, etc.)
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