Guidelines for Writing the Final Report
ELE 401 Design Project I, 2007
Adapted from “Guidelines for Writing the Final Report for the ASME Solar Splash Project”, 1997
See also Iowa State Guidelines
The Basics
The four most important objectives that the report must accomplish are (1) to describe the problem, (2) to describe the design alternatives, (3) to describe the chosen concept, and (4) to describe the detailed design. Organize the report so that these four concepts appear in order.
The Audience
The audience is a knowledgeable customer, one who understands diagrams and technical terms. Assume that the customer will be choosing one of the competing designs, so you need to convince the customer that yours is a superior design. This is done not only by having a good design but also by having a high quality presentation, one that is clear, concise, and complete, and attractively presented.
Summary Report Organization
Cover Page
Executive Summary
Table of Contents
Problem Definition
What is the problem?
What is to be accomplished?
What are necessary and desirable features?
What must it do?
What are the design specifications?
How well must it perform?
What restrictions are there?
Design Alternatives
What alternatives were considered?
What is the rationale for the choice made?
Design Description
Detailed description of chosen design
Supporting analysis that shows:
- That the design solves the problem
- That it works
- That it meets or exceeds objectives, requirements and specifications
- Results of any calculations and/or testing
- Cost of components and total cost
- Models, prototypes, or working devices are a plus.
Summing Up
Concisely summarize the report to ensure that the reader remembers the important points and so that the customer will be inclined to choose your design.
References
Appendices
Details of the Report
Cover Page
The cover page should contain:
Project title
Date of submission
Name of company
Names of team members
You can be somewhat inventive with the cover page. Consider including an illustration or a graphic that best defines the project. Experiment with size and style of title. Use your graphic design abilities to create a cover page that is both professional and makes the reader want to turn the page. Be careful, though. Going overboard with graphic design can make your report look silly and amateurish.
Executive Summary
This should be no more than two pages and written for the busy executive who will read no further. Your job is to condense all of the design into two pages. Make sure the most important parts of the problem statement, your design, and your recommendations are here. Imagine that your report goes to the CEO along with 20 other reports. She has no time to read 21 reports and will make a decision to fund one of them based on what she sees in the Executive Summary. This is probably the most important part of the report you will write. Do it last, but leave plenty of time to do it right.
Main Body / Project Sections
The specifics here will depend on your particular report. Take care in organization and always keep the reader aware of the big picture. Convince the reader that a design process was followed. Include at least:
- A diagram showing the overall layout
- A description of how it works
- Specifications on capabilities of components and on the overall system; actual specification sheets in an appendix
Visuals, Plots, and Tables
Annotated line drawings that describe the problem statement, design concepts, and the device itself can replace many words. Take care in the design of the drawings. Make sure they are not cluttered. Add a descriptive caption below each figure. A good caption is not merely a figure title, but explains the figure.
Plots are a good way to present test data. Take care in formatting a plot and/or table so it is readable and informative. Use clear labels and add a descriptive caption with the figure or table number.
Source Information
If you have identified specific components such as motors, bearings, or materials, include complete information about the components in an appendix. This means listing the part name, part number, company name and company address.
References
Reference citations should have a standard format that engineers can understand. Citations should be in the text, and references listed in “References” that appears at the end of the report but before the appendices. Do not use footnotes for citations.
Here is one citation style. Immediately at the end of your report text that contains material was obtained from the source, cite by author and year, e.g. (Durfee, 1997; Mantell, 2000) for multiple references for that particular text. If citing a vendor product sheet or a data book, use the vendor’s name in the citation (PMI, 2001). In the reference section, list the citations alphabetically by author’s last name. Here are three fanciful examples, one for a journal article, one for a book and one for a vendor data sheet. Journal and magazine names and book titles should be italicized or underlined.
Durfee, W., How to design well. Journal of Good Engineering Design, vol. 15, pp. 30-40, 1997.
Mantell, S., How to Design Better, ABC Publishers, Minneapolis, MN, pp. 234-237, 2000.
PMI Electric Motors. Motor Data Sheet 26-01, 2001.
Appendices
The appendices should include any supporting documentation related to the design that would interrupt the flow of information if included in the main body of the report. Material that appears in appendices may include: parts drawings, assembly drawings, vendor data sheets, calculation results, long equation derivations, software source code, and test results.
Each appendix is numbered and is listed in the Table of Contents. Each appendix should start with a few sentences describing what the appendix contains, unless it is obvious; for example, a vendor data sheet. Avoid appendix inflation. For example, when including data sheets include only those portions that are relevant to your project. If a data sheet lists many part numbers or part options, be sure to circle or otherwise emphasize the one you selected for your design.
Appendices that list components selected for the design should include at least the following for each part: (1) component name, (2) complete model or part number, (3) price, (4) manufacturer who makes the part, including name, address and telephone number and web address, if any. Similar information should be documented for services you used (e.g. a professional machine shop) or purchased (e.g. a software package). All appendices should be referred to in the body of the report. If something isn’t worth referencing in the report, it probably is not worth including as an appendix.