Writing a Professional Report: A Guide for Students

Purpose: To complete a major, professional-looking report based on a topic from your field. Students are to research the topic in-depth and apply lessons taught throughout the course in writing this report. Students by this point in the course should demonstrate lessons learned through writing, and should be able to follow the format introduced throughout their classes. Students should also be able to convey concepts using these formats in a clear, cohesive and coherent manner. Students must appropriately reference their research throughout report. LACK OF REFERENCING OR NO REFERENCES PAGE RESULTS IN AN AUTOMATIC ZERO ON THIS ASSIGNMENT. This assignment covers Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) 1 and 8 and Essential Employability Skills (EES) 1, 2, 6, 7, 10 & 11. Topics: Choose your own topic from your field of study, but it must be approved by your instructor beforehand. Topic approval takes place via Assignment 5: Proposal. Contents: Reports must contain the following sections. Consider headers where appropriate: Title Page Must include student name, date, title of report and to whom you are submitting this assignment. Table of Contents Must be correctly numbered Introduction Must contain background, purpose and scope of topic. Minimum three factors of which you will evaluate this topic. Discussion Student should be able to explain, elaborate or give context on technical aspects of report. Referenced material must be referenced using in-text citations. MLA format is preferred; APA is allowed. LACK OF REFERENCING OR NO REFERENCES PAGE RESULTS IN AN AUTOMATIC ZERO ON THIS ASSIGNMENT. Student should be able to explain, elaborate or give context on referenced material. Material should not be inserted into report without a thorough understanding of material or concepts. Discussion should be focused on scope/factors of evaluation. Graphic illustrations can be included within body of discussion, where appropriate. Should not be more than a half-page in size. (If more than a half page in size, graphic illustrations belong in appendix). Headers can be used to separate concepts/ideas, where appropriate. Appropriate paragraph spacing/formatting should be used. May be single or double-spaced, but paragraphs must be neatly separated by spacing. Use either 10 or 12 font. Fonts should be simple, legible, professional looking (i.e. Garamond, Courier, Times New Roman, etc.) Statements need to be backed up by empirical evidence or data. i.e. If statement is made to the effect that, “pharmaceutical companies have done plenty to combat opiod abuse,” then back it up with evidence detailing exactly what has been done; counter any arguments with research. Conclusion Student should be able to sum up report material in one paragraph. Not the time to introduce new content. Recommendations Written in third person; student should be able to make recommendations based off of report content and gleaned through research. Appendix Report must contain appendix. Appendix content must be referenced if not original or obtained from a source. Appendix material must be discussed in report content. References Minimum five references required. Of those five references, at least one must be from a scholarly source. References must be formatted properly in MLA (APA is allowed). References must be legitimate sources (no Wikipedia, Reddit). Content must be directly sourced to reference using in-text citations. Draft Details: Draft and final are to be written on only pre-approved topics. If a student has not had his or her topic pre-approved by instructor via proposal assignment, student cannot submit draft or final! Draft must be one-third to one-half of the length of the final. Subsidiary parts are not required for the draft (no appendix, title page or table of contents required for draft). Three references must be used. Spelling, grammar, punctuation does not need to be perfect, but must still be understandable and adhere to lessons being taught in class. Clear content plan should be reflected in draft.