Checking Your Formal Report

Checking Your Formal Report

These items target the most common problem points in formal reports.

Content

1.  Examine the requirements stated on the evaluation sheet. Be sure that you have documented all sources you use in compiling your report. Choose a documentation style and use it consistently. Be sure that your citations MATCH what you include in your References! NO padding! If you don’t cite a reference, then do not list it in References.

2.  Examine the Report as a Whole

3.  Do you have all segments?

4.  Do all headings/subheadings appear in the table of contents?

5.  If you use visuals, do you have a list of figures? Have you integrated your visuals with the text?

√Summary and Introduction

6.  Do you have all elements of both? Does your summary accurately reflect the report content?

7.  Does your introduction have a purpose statement?

Quality of Your Report Content

1.  Have someone read your report. Ask them if the content supports the purpose you state in your summary and in your introduction.

2.  If this person makes suggestions, LISTEN.

3.  If this person does not understand a sentence, for example, note that sentence and then work on it.

Style

Check Your Style—Read Your “Final” Draft Several Times and Emphasize the Following Points Each Time Your Read Your Draft

√Paragraphs

Do all paragraphs have topic sentences?

Have you covered only one topic in each paragraph? If your paragraphs look bulky, you may have covered too much information.

√Spelling

Use spell/grammar checker and then read your project slowly, after you have allowed your writing to “cool.” Read your work aloud: you will catch many errors you may have missed.

√Sentence Structure

1.  Use the search/find feature in Word to find all “be” verbs. Remove as many as possible.

2.  Eliminate all “there is, there are, there were” phrases, unless you have no alternative in stating the content of the sentence. The search/find feature can help you with this chore.

3.  Eliminate “junk” phrases: “it is clear that, in order, for the purpose of” for example.

4.  Avoid beginning any sentence with “It is, that is,” unless the noun to which “it” and “that” refer can be seen immediately.

5.  Review the Chapter 4 in your text, particularly the pages on Word Choice.

Paragraphs Vs. Sentences

Be sure your “paragraphs” begin with topic sentences that explain what the paragraph will cover. Avoid long paragraphs. Hint; Bad sentences make bad paragraphs.

IMPORTANT: Do not prepare your assignments “at the last minute,” either

in school or in the workplace.