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Basic Report (1)

 
 
Providing a Report to the Class.
 
 
We have 7 groups of students doing this assignment.
 
Each group has 4 sets of questions.
 
Each Group is required to 'Report to the Class', the information that was discovered in their research.
 
We do not want all the information at once.
 
We want just the basic information that immediately answers the question.
 
However:  As we have discovered, from this basic information comes other questions.
 
We must also be able to answer those questions and provide that information.
 
So:
 
We need a basic report in which basic information is provided
 
&
 
We need ready access to additional information or more detailed information relating to other matters associated with the question. This information is provided in the appendix.
 
 
Within the body of the report, we may also need to provide a small amount of additional information that would only 'clog up' the basic report.  This information we put in the footnotes. 
 
 

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Class Reporting
 
 
In Class each group is required to report to the class their results for particular questions.
 
What we want is the basic information: The Bottom Line. So as example of what your written report should look like, let's take a look at One Group and One Question.
 
Note:  The small numbers in Red - and the Footnote section at the bottom of the page.
 
Group 5
 
Question 3: Overseas Travel
 
 
A.  Economy Class Return Airfare
Shanghai to New York.
 
    

 
A. i) 
 
Return Airfare Economy Class Shanghai to New York
(Stop Over in London)
 
 
 
Minimum: $1514  British Airways (1)
Maximum: $4502   Japan Airlines
 
 
(Appendix 1 : Full Details)

 
Flight Details (2) in Brief:
 
Depart December 4th 2008 
Pudong Airport 10:55am
Arrive JFK 9:50pm 5th December 2008
 
Return January 6th 2009 
Depart JFK 8:40am 6th 2009
Arrive Pudong Airport 7th January 9:25am
 
 
 
A.ii) 
 
Additional costs: (3)
 

 
Travel Expenses Yanchang - Shanghai
 
140rmb Approx Return
 
Meal Expenses during Travel
 
100 rmb Approx
 
Overnight Hotel Stay required Shanghai

 Hotel December 3rd : Undetermined.
 
Note: (4)
There may be a need for an overnight stay near JFK in New York.
 
  [The footnotes go under a line at the bottom of the page.]
1. Photoshot of Flight itinerary: Appendix 3
2. Flight 168 British Airways: Appendix 3.
4. It is unknown at this point where in New York the manager will stay and whether or not it will be convenient to stay the first night in a hotel near to JFK airport.
 
 
 
 Introduction & Conclusion
 
As we progress with this work, we will look more closely at how it must be done.  Until all students have the same information, we shall just concentrate on the Body of the Report that each group uses to teach the rest of the class.
 
At a later time, I will also teach you about citations and references.
 
For the time being however, the two things you need to bring with you when you come to the front of the class to provide your results are:
 
1.  The  'Body of your Report' for that Question.
 
2.  The appendicies for that Body of the Report.
 
 

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A Basic Report
 
Groups who teach other groups
 
about Research Results.
 
 
 
Reports:
 
In teaching about report writing - Our focus is on the body of the report.  A report has more than the body of course.  It has a formal structure. For Example:
  1. Title
  2. Executive Summary
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Introduction
  5. Body
  6. Conclusion.
  7. Reference List
  8. Appendix
Go HERE to see how the report or thesis would look
 
Technical information which would clutter the body of the report is placed in the appendix.
 
 
THE BODY
 
What is in the Body of the Report?
  1. What were the most significant findings or factors involved in the topic/ problem?
  2. Did the findings support the theory?
  3. Have you found some disagreement with the theory?
  4. Did you uncover any unexpected or new issues that need to be considered?
 
Your report would generally contain a method section in the body of the report briefly describing how the data was collected:
  • literature search,
  • web pages,
  • interviews (details of the questions and the subject pool),
  • financial and other business reports, etc.
  • Details of types of calculations or analysis undertaken
  • The body also contains supporting evidence.
Only include those that are essential for reader understanding, the rest can be placed in an appendix.
 
 

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Footnotes
 
&
 
Bibliography
 
Footnotes:
 
When providing information that comes from an internet site, it is easy just to insert the link for example: www.kayak.com.
 
However not all information comes from the internet.  So what if the information came from a travel agent?  We need to put the details into the report, but those details may be a little too much information in the body of the report.  We can put it in the footnotes.
 
Minimum $xxxx  This airline  (1)
Maximum $xxxx That Airline
 
1.  Airfares as per:
     Yancheng Travel Agency
     1234 Kaifang Dadao
     Yancheng.  XXXXXXXX
      Tel: 123456
      Fax 12345890
      Rates apply up to February 1st 2009
      Consultant:  Haokan Laowai
       Tel: 123456 Extension 487.
 
Bibliography
 
 
A Bibliography is a page which lists all the books refered to in an article.  Today we use the internet a lot, but still need to provide a bibliography.
 
A Standard Bibliography would look like this:
  • Ackroyd. P.R. (1968) Exile and Restoration;a study of Hebrew Thought of the Sixth Century B.C. SCM Press.
  • Aharoni.Y. (1966) The Land of the Bible (2nd Edn) London. Burns and Oates.
  • Aharoni. Y. (1978) The Archaeology of the Land of Israel. Philadelphia. Westminster Press.
  • Ahlstrom.G.W. (1993) The History of Ancient Palestine. USA Minneapolis. Fortress Press.
  • Aldred, C. (1988) Akhenaton king of Egypt. London. Thames and Hudson.
 It must be pointed out however, that even this way of presenting the details will vary depending on the field of study in which a person is writing.
 
The Bibliography lists all the details of all the sources of information, and it does so alphabetically.
 
A problem with internet referencing.
 
It is sometimes difficult to provide the exact page http address for a page on a site, because that http address is very long.  If the address goes beyond the width of the page, then use the short version - the main page.
 
Additionally, when looking for airfares for instance, even if you record the http page address of the page which is providing you with specific flight information - like in Appendix 3 - , if you later try to click onto a link for that page, it won't be there.  That is because that page is has been generated for that specific enquiry.
 
The best you can do is list the name of the basic page.  So when you are looking for flights on a certain day, the link you quote is the page which has the box where you put the details and from which it searches for your flights.
 
NEVERTHELESS:
 
You must have a Bibliography for your Report.
It must list all sources for the information that you provided.
That page will be listed at the end of the Report and before the Appendix. [When you do your thesis, put it wherever the teacher tells you to.]
 
 
Subpages (1): Appendix 3