Report Guidelines

See the Deskins Writing Tips, Deskins Tips on Tables and Charts, and other Writing resources. I also highly recommend you visit the WPI Writing Center which offers tutoring/help sessions.

IQP/MQP Report

Goal

The goal of the IQP/MQP report is to present your analysis and results on how you solved the problem you worked on. Your report should be understandable by a typical engineering/science student. Keep this in mind.

Style

Avoid informal or colloquial language. Use proper grammar and spelling. Make your arguments clear. Don't assume that just because you understand something that your reader will. Ask someone else to read your writing if necessary.

Software

The easiest software to use is probably Microsoft Office, although other software is possible and preferred (OpenOffice or LibreOffice). Learn how to do citations.

Format

The report will typically be 50-150 pages. The best way is to break up the report into sections (like chapters in a book). These should include the following.

1. Cover page, Table of Contents 
2. Introduction (1-2 pages describing the problem and your solution)
3. Background (A summary of previous research that others have performed related to your topic. Be thorough, but don't include every single detail, only the information necessary to understand your work)
4. Methodology (description of the techniques you used, such as software, modeling methods, theories, etc.)
5. Results and Discussion (what you did and what it means)
6. Recommendations and Conclusions (how/what did you answer and what are the repercussions of your work)
7. References (what you cited)
8. Appendix (extra stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else, like computer files, extra images or data, etc.

See previous reports (search the library's websites) for examples, although don't always rely on other reports to be good examples.

Tables/Figures

Learn the Deskins Tips on Tables and Charts. The heart of your report will be your tables and figures which will explain your results to the reader in a quick, nice format. All your important data should be displayed in a table or figure. Usually charts are preferred to tables, but this is not always possible depending on the data. A nice way to write your results and discussion section is to make your tables/figures, then focus your writing on explaining the tables/figures. Think of the tables/figures as the frame of a house. Never put in a table/figure without discussing and explaining it!

How to Write

I suggest you first make an outline (see Format above), then start on the Introduction, Background, and Methodology your first term. Your second term you can continue working on these sections, but also start on the Results and Discussion. The final term will be finishing it up. Realize that your first draft will be not so good. This is normal, even for me. You will likely need several revisions to get the report in its final format. Don't be discouraged, but keep writing and start early.

Thesis/Dissertation

Coming.