T215 b session 8-spring2015
46
Click here to load reader
-
Upload
hassan-badawy -
Category
Technology
-
view
26 -
download
0
Transcript of T215 b session 8-spring2015
T215BCommunication andinformation technologies (II)
Session 8
Block 4
Protecting and prying
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
-Sp
rin
g 2
01
3
1
Session Outline
• Part 8: Writing longer reports
• Introduction
• The executive summary
• The appendices
• The bibliography
• Issues of complexity
• A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
2
1. Introduction [1/4]
• Remember: you were introduced to many of the important principles of writing reports in T215A.
• You looked at why reports are written.
• You learned about:
• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion
• Supplementary material structure
• Section numbering
• style of reports is usually formal
• use of tables and diagrams in reports.3
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
1. Introduction [2/4]
• Longer reports (which may be anything from a couple of thousand words to several tens of thousands of words) differ from shorter ones in several ways:
• Longer reports need more ‘navigation aids’, among which a list of contents is important.
• Some potential readers simply do not have time to read the whole report, and so it is customary to provide a summary, usually called an ‘executive summary’, right at the start of the report.
• There will almost always be several items of supplementary material in a long report.
• These will comprise some or all of: a glossary; one or more appendices; some acknowledgements; a reference list; a bibliography.
• Longer reports usually deal with more sub-topics than shorter ones, and this increased complexity brings issues relating to structuring for the author to deal with.
4
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
1. Introduction [3/4]
• In outline, the structure of a longer report is normally:
• Title page – with a title that unambiguously states what the report is about
• Executive summary – giving the essential facts about what was done plus the conclusion(s)
• Contents list (sometimes this comes before the executive summary)
• Introduction – similar to the one in a short report, but rather longer as the ‘scene’ to be ‘set’ is bigger
• Body – the major portion of the report, divided into several sections and subsections as needed in order to chart a clear path through the topics being discussed
5
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
1. Introduction [4/4]
• In outline, the structure of a longer report is normally (Cont.):
• Conclusion – similar to the one in a short report, but rather longer as there is more to draw together
• Glossary –need for clear definitions of terms and for an alphabetical order, if required
• Appendices – as necessary
• Acknowledgements – as necessary
• Reference list
• Bibliography
6
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
Session Outline
• Part 8: Writing longer reports
• Introduction
• The executive summary
• The appendices
• The bibliography
• Issues of complexity
• A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
7
2. The executive summary [1/3]
• Executive Summary:
• “A non-technical summary statement designed to provide a quick overview of the full-length report on which it is based.”
United States Environmental Protection Agency (2007)
• “A brief synopsis at the beginning of a business plan or business document that highlights key facts, issues, and conclusions.”
The Small Business Town Network (2007)
• It is a synopsis – that is, a summary – of the key facts, issues and conclusions of a report that gives a quick overview in a non-technical way.
• It is normally written after the report is otherwise complete.
8
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
2. The executive summary [2/3]
• When you write your executive summary, you’ll need to identify the major features and how they fit into the overall shape of your report.
• The process of filtering out detail and moving to a higher level of generality is sometimes known as ‘abstraction’.
• If you have laboured long over your report you will be steeped in the details and you may find it very hard to let go of them in order to obtain the big picture. 9
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
2. The executive summary [3/3]
• Some ideas to help:
• It’s often easier to start with a bulleted list of the points you want to include in your executive summary. (If you have chosen your section titles well you may find that simply listing them gives you most of the items you want in your bulleted list.)
• you could try to draw a diagram of the major points in your report and how they fit together.
• Give yourself half sometime to tell an imaginary acquaintance what your report says. Go on trying until you feel you have shared the key points. Then write them down as your bulleted list, and go on from there.
10
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
3. The appendices [1/5]
• The appendices: “An extra section of a book or document usually found at the end of the main text. Appendices (plural of appendix) often contain more in depth explanations of the topic than the main text, and often contain tables, graphs, statistics etc.”
Chisholm Institute of Technical and Further Education (2008)
• So appendices are for more in-depth explanations, tables, graphs and so on.
• Mathematics or scientific or technological principles might appear in appendices in technological reports; detailed costings and how they were derived might appear in appendices in business reports, and so on.
11
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
3. The appendices [2/5]
• The appendices depends on the intended audience.• If all of the intended readers are technologists then
the report itself might carry a great deal of technological detail.
• But if only some of the intended readers are technologists then the technological details would very probably be moved into an appendix so that those who are interested in.
• And if none of the intended readers is a technologist then the technological details might not appear, even in an appendix. 12
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
3. The appendices [3/5]
• When just one appendix appears in a report, it is usually simply called ‘Appendix’, but when two or more appear they are usually either given numbers or letters.
• Thus there might be Appendix 1, Appendix 2, Appendix 3, etc. or Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C, etc.
• If you find that you need to include one or more appendices in a report you write, then it’s very important that you cross-refer to each appendix at an appropriate point (or at appropriate points) in the main part of your report.
13
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
3. The appendices [4/5]
• For example, suppose that you are writing a report about a security issue and you need to compare two different encryption methods.• Given your audience, you might decide simply to outline the
benefits and drawbacks of the two methods in the main part of your report and to refer the readers to appendices for details of the methods themselves.
• The following sketches out how this cross-referencing could be handled:
14
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
3. The appendices [5/5]
• “In order to address this issue, the data should be encrypted. Two encryption schemes are possible: public key and symmetric key. (Details of these schemes are in Appendix 1 and Appendix 2 respectively.) The public key scheme offers the benefits of ... but has the drawback that it .... The symmetric key scheme has the benefit that it ... but the drawback that it .... Thus it can be seen that overall ....”
15
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
4. The bibliography [1/2]
• A bibliography is simply an alphabetical list of all the published material – whether in print or on the Web –that you have used to help you to prepare your report.
• It has much in common with a reference list.
• A bibliography takes exactly the same format as a reference list, except in one small detail.
• This small detail relates to books that are not compilations of chapters by various authors and is that in a bibliography you would not include a page number at the end.
16
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
4. The bibliography [2/2]
• The main difference between a reference list and a bibliography is in what items they include.
• The reference list includes only documents and web pages which you have explicitly cited or from which you have explicitly quoted.
• A complete bibliography includes all of these plus all of the other documents and web pages from which you took information (however little) that helped you to prepare your report.
• You are strongly urged to keep complete records as you go along, and to do so in a systematic way in a single, safe place.
• You should also note whether you quote from or cite the resource, and if it’s a book, the relevant page number, as this will help you to compile your reference list.
17
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
5. Issues of complexity [1/3]
• This section turns to the report as a whole, and in particular to the issue of the sheer complexity of having so much potential content to deal with.
• One technique that can help with handling complexity is the identification and separation of concerns.
• Dividing up the subject matter of the report.
• The value of having the concerns well identified and separated is that you can usually find out what you need to know about each of them separately.
18
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
5. Issues of complexity [2/3]
• Another technique that can help with handling complexity is by dividing up the tackling of the task as a whole.
• If you can take your viewpoint up to the high-level one and think of the report as a whole, you can abstract away from the detail and look first for the big picture.
• You may capture this as a diagram or as a bulleted list.
• Just as important as being able to identify major features at the high level is being able to identify interactions, or possible interactions, between them.
19
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
5. Issues of complexity [3/3]
• A third technique for handling complexity is being very organised.
• you should have a set of paper and/or electronic files, one for each of the major concerns you will have identified for your report, and you should name these in an unambiguous way.
• Dividing up the material you find along the way to writing your report.
20
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
Session Outline
• Part 8: Writing longer reports
• Introduction
• The executive summary
• The appendices
• The bibliography
• Issues of complexity
• A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
21
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [1/24]
• Stage 1: high-level planning
• Write down the topics your brief tells you that you must include.
• Add in any other topics your own experience or knowledge tells you that you are likely to need to include.
• You might want to do some reading at this stage, but don’t let yourself get drawn into the detail yet.
22
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [2/24]
• Stage 1: high-level planning (Cont.)
• You now have your preliminary list of major concerns.
• Arrange these concerns into what looks to be a suitable order by looking for what seems to you to be a logical order for the concerns, and/or using any requirements for order that your brief imposes.
• You now have your preliminary order for your report
23
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [3/24]
• Stage 2: mid-level planning
• This next stage in writing a report is yet more planning, but this time in more detail.
• Take each of the concerns in turn and find out a little more about it.
• Then list each of the sub-concerns you will need to address under that concern.
• Examine your lists for overlap.
24
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [4/24]
• Stage 2: mid-level planning (Cont.)
• If the overlap indicates that concerns interact then decide how you will deal with this (maybe the interaction is a concern in its own right).
• If the overlap is simply because you haven’t chosen your list of concerns as well as you might have done, go back up to the top level (Stage 1) and re-think your concerns and the order in which you plan to present them.
• Then come back to this second stage and repeat it.
25
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [5/24]
• Stage 2: mid-level planning (Cont.)
• Even with a well-chosen list of concerns, and with interactions accounted for, it may not be possible to remove all overlap.
• If this is the case you might need to use a little signposting in your final report
• At this stage, you should have a list of concerns in the order you plan to present them, and also a list of sub-concerns for each concern, again in what you hope will be a suitable order.
26
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [6/24]
• Stage 2: mid-level planning (Cont.)• This forms a preliminary list of sections and
subsections for your report, and you may find it helpful to give them numbers and/or titles at this stage.
• If you are working to a stipulated word limit, this is the time to begin to allocate very approximate word counts to each of your sections and subsections.
• You can always alter the balance between the sections later, but unless you have formed some idea of how many words you can give to each concern and sub-concern you will not know how much detail you need to research.
27
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [7/24]
• Stage 3: investigation for the contents of the report
• With Stage 2 complete, you are ready to move into the detail.
• Now, you have almost reached the point where you can move on from the planning to the implementation stage.
But there is one final piece of planning to do.
• How are you going to store and organise the material you find for your report?
28
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [8/24]
• Stage 3: investigation for the contents of the report (Cont.)
• One suggestion would be to create separate files(whether paper or electronic or both) for each of the top-level concerns you identified in Stage 1 (possibly as modified in Stage 2), and distribute your resources into them as appropriate.
• Keep complete details of all the sources you use (even if you don’t quote from them or cite them).
• You’ll need them for your bibliography.
29
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [9/24]
• Stage 3: investigation for the contents of the report (Cont.)• An alternative suggestion, if you anticipate that most of
your resources will be from the Web, is to use one of the social bookmarking tools ‘Finding information online’.
• This will enable you to store the URLs of all the useful resources you find and tag them with which of your concerns they relate to.
• Once you have decided how you will keep records of what you discover, you can move on to finding out about, and making notes on, the concerns and sub-concerns (topics)you plan to cover in the sections in the body of your report. 30
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [10/24]
• Stage 3: investigation for the contents of the report (Cont.)
• Don’t allow yourself to spend so much time on some topics that you have little or no time left for others, nor, if you have been given a word limit, to spend time digging for detail which you cannot possibly use within the limit.
• Be flexible enough to step aside from your planned work on one concern if a promising lead comes up relating to a different concern.
31
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [11/24]
• Stage 3: investigation for the contents of the report (Cont.)• You will need to keep your purpose clearly in mind:
• What is it your brief asks you to find out and why does it ask you to find out?
• This will help you to determine not just what but also how much you need to find out.
• Indeed, a key point here is knowing when to stop.
• There is always more you could find out about any topic, so keep asking yourself:• do I yet know enough about this topic that I can write the relevant
section or subsection of the report?
• If your answer is ‘yes’, or even ‘yes, probably’, then stop your investigation for that topic and move on to writing it up.
• You can usually go back to do more investigation later if you find you need to do so.
32
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [12/24]
• Stage 3: investigation for the contents of the report (Cont.)
• This stage of your preparation is a good place to identify any figures – diagrams or photographs – that you will probably want to use, and also any data that you will probably want to present in tables.
33
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [13/24]
• Stage 4: write the first draft of the body and the conclusion
• You now have an outline structure for the body of the report from Stage 2 and the information you need for the content from Stage 3.
• You are almost ready to write the body.
• But before you do so, clarify for yourself where your report is heading. What will your conclusion(s) be?
• As you write the body of your report, keep an eye on the structure you identified in Stages 1 and 2.
34
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [14/24]
• Stage 4: write the first draft of the body and the conclusion (Cont.)
• Remember not to separate the concerns to the extent that you neglect important interactions between them.
• Also keep your conclusion(s) in mind, and match them to your brief.
• For example, if you are asked for a recommendation then ensure that what you say in the body of the report will support the one you plan to make.
• And finally, keep your planned word counts in mind. 35
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [15/24]
• Stage 4: write the first draft of the body and the conclusion (Cont.)• Don’t worry if you find gaps in the information you collected
during this writing stage.
• It’s quite usual to need to return to the Stage 3 processes at more than one point during Stage 4.
• For short reports, it is advised to put your recommendation, if one is required, in the conclusion.
• Sometimes this advice also applies to longer reports, but sometimes in a long report the recommendation and its justification are sufficiently lengthy that they are better placed in a separate section, entitled ‘Recommendation’ and placed immediately before the conclusion.
36
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [16/24]
• Stage 4: write the first draft of the body and the conclusion (Cont.)• After writing the body, go straight on to write the conclusion.
• If you chose to place your recommendation in a separate section then ensure that the conclusion briefly repeats the recommendation and summarises the major arguments underlying it.
• Otherwise, place the recommendation and its justification here.
• Alternatively, if you were asked to supply the facts on which others will make a decision, then ensure all the facts you have amassed in the report are summarised in the conclusion.
• If you were asked to lay out some options, without recommending any of them, then make sure the conclusion mentions them clearly and unambiguously, and that any relevant data pertaining to them is summarised as well.
37
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [17/24]
• Stage 4: write the first draft of the body and the conclusion (Cont.)• If you did not give your proposed sections and subsections
numbers and titles while you were carrying out Stage 2, do so now.
• If you did, check that they are still appropriate and amend them as necessary.
• You now have a first draft of the most important parts of your report: the body and the conclusion.
• They should conform approximately to your estimated word counts for these parts of the report.
• The major part of your work is complete, but you haven’t yet finished.
• Your next stage is critical evaluation and improvement. 38
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [18/24]
• Stage 5: critical evaluation and improvement of the body and conclusion• You should use the list of questions you met in T215A for critically
evaluating :• Does the report meet the brief – exactly?
• Is the content factually accurate?
• Is the structure appropriate for the audience, purpose and medium?
• Is the style appropriate for the audience, purpose and medium?
• Is the technical level appropriate for the audience, purpose and medium?
• Is the English correct?
• At this point you should also bring in any deficiencies in the body you noted while you were writing the conclusion and any necessary changes you noted.
• When you have critically evaluated both the body and the conclusion, go on to improve them This will produce a second draft.
39
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [19/24]
• Stage 6: the other components of the report• Now is the time to write:
• the introduction
• any acknowledgements
• any glossary, appendices, etc.
• the reference list and bibliography.
• If some of your appendices are long, then you may well need to critically evaluate and polish them.
• You also need to check the overall word count if you have been given a limit.
• This may cause you to do some pruning – or perhaps to add some additional material. 40
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [20/24]
• Stage 7: polishing, appearance and executive summary• At last you can move to a final polishing of your report.
• Does it read well as a whole?
• Is it coherent?
• Does it still meet its brief, including any length stipulation?
• Make any changes necessary until you are satisfied with your answers to the foregoing questions.
• Next you should turn your attention to the appearance of the report.
• If you are working to a house style, have you adhered to it in every detail?
41
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [21/24]
• Stage 7: polishing, appearance and executive summary (Cont.)
• If you aren’t, then use the following checklist to help you to arrive at a pleasing appearance:
• Have you chosen a clear typeface?
• Have you placed the report title right at the front, preferably on a separate page?
• Have you made the section headings stand out by putting them in bold or a larger font size or both?
42
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [22/24]
• Stage 7: polishing, appearance and executive summary (Cont.)
• Have you indicated where each paragraph starts and ends, ideally by leaving a space between paragraphs?
• Have you left at least 2.5 cm margins all round your pages?
• Have you numbered the pages?
• Are any tables and diagrams you have used well placed on the page, or do you need to rearrange some page layouts slightly?
43
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [23/24]
• Stage 7: polishing, appearance and executive summary (Cont.)
• Now write, critically evaluate and polish your executive summary.
• Place it on a separate page right at the start.
• Finally, write the contents list and check carefully that it is complete and accurate.
• Place it after the executive summary, unless you are working to a house style that asks for the contents page before the executive summary.
44
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
6. A multi-stage approach to planning and writing a report [24/24]
• Numbered paragraphs in a report• In some lengthy reports every paragraph in the report is
numbered.
• Usually these paragraph numbers reflect the section number.
• Thus the first paragraph in Section 1 would be numbered 1.1, the next would be numbered 1.2; the first paragraph in Section 2 would be numbered 2.1, the next 2.2; and so on.
• Occasionally the paragraphs are numbered consecutively right through the report.
• When paragraphs are numbered, the number is placed at the start of the paragraph, sometimes out in the left-hand margin but sometimes simply as part of the paragraph.
• If you are asked to write a report for an organisation where the house style is to number the paragraphs then you should do so, following their style for how to number and where to place the numbers.
45
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
Making your report look smart is time well spent!
46
Ara
b O
pen
Un
iver
sity
