Report Writing Guidelines

1. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING Report Writing Guidelines Undergraduate Final Year Projects

2. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • Outline • Who is the report written for? • Structure • Referencing • Only the written work is graded so make sure you get individual advice at your progress meeting about how to evidence any other deliverables. • Format guidelines etc. on website. • http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/fyproj/

3. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • Who is the report written for? • Three markers • Supervisor • Assessor • External Examiner • The Computing audience • Future SoC students • Students at other HEIs • Researchers

4. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • Report Structure • Understand the Problem (20) • Produce a Solution (40) • Preparation of Solution (20) • Delivery of Solution (20) • Evaluate the Solution (20) • Reflect upon the Project Experience (5) [Appendix A] • [Remaining 15 marks for write-up]

5. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • Understand the Problem

6. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • Produce a Solution - Preparation

7. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • Produce a Solution – Delivery [min reqs do not need reproducing]

8. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • Evaluate the Solution

9. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • Appendix A

10. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • Pieces of codes from a research group/company or from the internet • Datasets prepared by external users • Any preliminary materials/drafts/notes provided by a supervisor. • It should be clear what was used as ready-made components and what was developed as part of the project. • You should include Appendix B even if no external materials were used. • Appendix B • A brief record of materials used in the solution Appendix C How ethical issues were addressed

11. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • Write-Up

12. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • Report Structure • CLEAR through clarity of thought • SIMPLE so your ideas can be grasped at first reading • SINCERE: if you don’t believe what you write, how can you convince your reader? • CONCISE: avoid waffling [page limit is a maximum not a target!] • UNAMBIGUOUS: beware of potential misinterpretation

13. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • Report Structure • Professional and generally technical. Format and content are important. Avoid colloquialisms, slang, chatty style. • Do not compare to previous reports. Even if a report got over 70, that’s up to 30 marks they didn’t get and you don’t know the marks breakdown. • Discusses full problem, focuses onsolution and relates back again to problem. Sell your achievements! • Flows appropriately [reproduction of aim, min req etc were project issues not problem issues so can be left out as long as planning is still clear] • Be very careful how background material is referenced. Avoid too many verbatim quotes as this does not show engagement or relevance of literature. OK for definitions or if you need to critically evaluate.

14. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • Referencing • It ensures that the reader can check the facts • It acknowledges the contribution of others • It helps others wishing to undertake similar projects or to pursue associated lines of enquiry • Is a good thing! You are not expected to know everything and should build on sources • Referencing refereed sources is vitally important.

15. School of ComputingFACULTY OF ENGINEERING • Plagiarism “ Plagiarism is defined as presenting someone else’s work as your own. Work means any intellectual output, and typically includes text, data, images, sound or performance.” Taken from http://www.leeds.ac.uk/aaandr/cpff.htm • Guidelines and resources on plagiarism can be found at http://www.ldu.leeds.ac.uk/plagiarism

16. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • Suppose you’ve read the following during your research: • “The scope of the relaxation scheme used involves employing both the Gauss-Seidel and the Jacobi line relaxation schemes on the same grid, but without any overlap, depending on the position of the grid point (i; j) on the computational domain.” • From: • Goodyer CE and Berzins M, “Parallelisation and scalability issues in a multilevel EHL Solver”, School of Computing Research Report Series, 2005.05, 2005

17. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • The supervisor sees • The scope of the relaxation scheme used involves employing both the Gauss-Seidel and the Jacobi line relaxation schemes on the same grid, but without any overlap, depending on the position of the grid point (i; j) on the computational domain. • References: • <None> • Action:

18. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • The supervisor sees • The scope of the relaxation scheme used involves employing both the Gauss-Seidel and the Jacobi line relaxation schemes on the same grid, but without any overlap, depending on the position of the grid point (i; j) on the computational domain. • References: • <None> • Action: • Reported for plagiarism. No acknowledgement of source.

19. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • The supervisor sees • The scope of the relaxation scheme used involves employing both the Gauss-Seidel and the Jacobi line relaxation schemes on the same grid, but without any overlap, depending on the position of the grid point (i; j) on the computational domain. • References: • [1] Goodyer CE and Berzins M, “Parallelisation and scalability issues in a multilevel EHL Solver”, School of Computing Research Report Series, 2005.05, 2005 • Action:

20. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • The supervisor sees • The scope of the relaxation scheme used involves employing both the Gauss-Seidel and the Jacobi line relaxation schemes on the same grid, but without any overlap, depending on the position of the grid point (i; j) on the computational domain. • References: • [1] Goodyer CE and Berzins M, “Parallelisation and scalability issues in a multilevel EHL Solver”, School of Computing Research Report Series, 2005.05, 2005 • Action: • Reported for plagiarism. No clear acknowledgment of source in text.

21. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • The supervisor sees • Goodyer and Berzins [1] discuss this issue. The scope of the relaxation scheme used involves employing both the Gauss-Seidel and the Jacobi line relaxation schemes on the same grid, but without any overlap, depending on the position of the grid point (i; j) on the computational domain. • References: • [1] Goodyer CE and Berzins M, “Parallelisation and scalability issues in a multilevel EHL Solver”, School of Computing Research Report Series, 2005.05, 2005 • Action:

22. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • The supervisor sees • Goodyer and Berzins [1] discuss this issue. The scope of the relaxation scheme used involves employing both the Gauss-Seidel and the Jacobi line relaxation schemes on the same grid, but without any overlap, depending on the position of the grid point (i; j) on the computational domain. • References: • [1] Goodyer CE and Berzins M, “Parallelisation and scalability issues in a multilevel EHL Solver”, School of Computing Research Report Series, 2005.05, 2005 • Action: • Investigated and probably reported for plagiarism. No quotation marks.

23. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • The supervisor sees • Goodyer and Berzins [1] discuss this issue: “The scope of the relaxation scheme used involves employing both the Gauss-Seidel and the Jacobi line relaxation schemes on the same grid, but without any overlap, depending on the position of the grid point (i; j) on the computational domain.” • References: • [1] Goodyer CE and Berzins M, “Parallelisation and scalability issues in a multilevel EHL Solver”, School of Computing Research Report Series, 2005.05, 2005 • Action: • None but no engagement with source.

24. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • The supervisor sees • Goodyer and Berzins [1] discuss the issue of relaxation schemes and for the problem discussed here it is appropriate to apply both the Gauss-Seidel and the Jacobi line relaxation schemes on the identified domain. • References: • [1] Goodyer CE and Berzins M, “Parallelisation and scalability issues in a multilevel EHL Solver”, School of Computing Research Report Series, 2005.05, 2005 • Action: • None. Excellent student. Paraphrased and engaged to show an understanding.

25. School of Computing FACULTY OF ENGINEERING • Referencing • Make the extent of the source clear. • Use quotation marks where material is verbatim copied. • Identify original and refereed sources. • Do NOT use Wikipedia for definitions. Anyone could write this. It may be helpful as a signpost. • Refer to the location of published articles even if they are reproduced on the Web. Web sources are generally frowned upon but some are more trustworthy than others and may be necessary with newer research. • Use lots – but engage with the sources and put them in context.