These standards are typical of standards which an employer might require you to use. They are presented here as standards which a lecturer might specify that you must use. An outline report 'template' document is available at http://swift.mis.coventry.ac.uk/~csx067/rept_wrt/
1 Typing and Presentation Standards
1.1
Reports should be always be wordprocessed. Usually they will be printed with portrait orientation; but individual pages can be printed in landscape if required. Printouts should be produced on a laser or inkjet printer. Dot matrix or lineprinter output is not normally suitable. Assignment reports can be presented in a thin plastic folder.
Reports should be printed in 10, 11 or 12 point Arial font. The text should be aligned to the left with a ragged right edge.
The report title should be centred and emboldened and can be in a very large font.
1.2 Margins
A 2.5cm (or 1") margin should be used on the left- and right-hand sides of the paper. Margins of at least these dimensions should also be used at the top and bottom, although headers and footers will intrude into this space.
1.3 Paragraph, line and sentence spacing
- Single line spacing must be used within paragraphs.
- One blank line should be left between paragraphs.
- Widows and orphans should not occur - that is that a page must not contain only a single line of any paragraph. Many wordprocessing programs will do this automatically.
- Headings must occur on the same page as the start of their first paragraph.
- Each full stop, question or exclamation mark should be followed by 2 spaces.
- Each comma, and other punctuation within a sentence, should be followed by 1 space.
- Never put space characters before punctuation marks.
- Tab stops should be set to 1cm unless a wider spacing is essential.
1.4 Section numbering
A decimal system should be used to identify sections in the main report. Numbering should not extend to the appendices or abstract.
Main sections 1, 2, 3, .... in bold, capitals, 14 point font.
Sub-headings 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, .... in ordinary 12 point font.
Paragraph headings 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, ....
It is not essential for every section to have a heading. It is not essential for every paragraph to be numbered. Only number paragraphs concerning a new sub-topic.
These section numbers should be used in cross references such as
"... This is expanded upon later see para 3.1.1. "
Technical note: Many wordprocessors provide facilities to automatically generate such numbering schemes and automatically keep the numbering correct after amendments.
1.5 Insetting
Each level of heading shall be inset by 1cm from the previous level. However it may be necessary to indent by 1.5cm (or more) where the paragraph numbers become rather long.
Paragraphs must not be inset from their paragraph heading. Also the first line of a paragraph should not be indented.
1.6 Lists
Items in a list should not be indented. Items should be indicated with bullet markers. However where there is some ordering to the items, or a specific number of them, they should be numbered.
Technical note: Most wordprocessors support lists using at least one level of bullet markers or numbering.
1.7 Illustrations
Illustrations should, wherever possible, be included in the text below the paragraph that refers to them. The use of an appropriate illustration or graph is often very helpful to the reader and may avoid the need to try to describe something complex with words alone. For instance in a document describing computer software a carefully composed screen dump can be invaluable. However illustrations, charts, tables or other graphics images should never, ever be used solely for decorative purposes.
Technical note: In Windows, screens can be captured using the 'Printscreen' key. This places the image on the Clipboard. Windows' paste facilities, such as Ctrl+v, can be used to paste this screen into the document as needed.
Illustrations may be drawn in pencil or black ink but whenever possible they should be produced by computer. Colour, if available, should only be used if it helps communication and should not be used merely for decoration.
Illustrations should normally be numbered so that figure 6.3 is the third illustration in Chapter 6 or simply numbered through the report as, for instance, figure 13.
1.7 New Pages
A new page should be started for each new main section unless it is possible to combine two very short complete sections onto a single page.
Pages must be numbered at the bottom right, within the footer. The footer may also contain the organisation name, if required. The header should contain the author's name and report title.
1.8 Capital letters
The following should be typed in capital letters:
- Main headings
- First letter of first word of sub-headings
- First letter of first word of sentences
- First letter of proper names
- First letter of each item in a list
- Abbreviations (usually) eg UK, ISO, HCI
so it's 'Word for Windows version 6' and not 'word for windows Version 6'.
1.9 Brackets and quotes
Spaces must be included outside the brackets or quotation marks - not inside. For example
... takes place in the central processing unit (C.P.U.).
According to Gower (1998) this means that "the situation is at danger levels".
1.10 Underlining
Underlining may be used to give emphasis to words or phrases in the text but, since underlining disrupts the flow of the word-shape, emboldening is usually better.
1.11 Bold text
Bold text should be used for major headings and, in moderation, for emphasising individual words in the text.
1.12 Italics text
Italics can be used to indicate foreign words or some different form of text, maybe a quotation. It gives a less bold impression than even normal text.
2 Writing standards
You should write in a style to suit your audience. For most purposes you should aim to write for a reading age of 12 or under. This is equivalent of a Flesch fog index score of at least 70.
Whilst a report should not have any spelling or grammar mistakes, a low rate of errors (say about 1 per page) will usually be overlooked by the reader.
References must be given to all information sources used and listed at the end of the report, adhering rigidly to the following format:
Yeates, D. (1994), Systems Analysis and Design, London, Pitman Publishing
Rodgers, Simon, and Roethlisberger, David (1952), Barriers and Gateways to Communication, Harvard Business Review, July 1952, 10(4), pp 46-50
Within the report these must be referred to as (Yeates 1994) and (Rodgers and Roethlisberger 1952).
For more guidance on how to write references correctly, see Appendix C.
