How to write your final report.
Thomas Astebro
How to write your final report.
MSci 311
A. Preliminaries
Cover page
Title, including name of company
Course Title
Name of authors
Address to University of Waterloo
Date
Acknowledgments (here you thank people who have helped you)
Table of Contents (list of sections and page location, list of
appendices and page location)
B. Text
Headings for text:
1. Introduction
Background (what company you selected, why, your role as student, etc.)
Outline of report (describe what the sections will contain)
2. History of XX
Take from chapter 11.
3. A brief description of XX
Describe briefly its products, markets, and major stakeholders. Draw
from chapter 1 and 9.
4. The environment of XX
Draw from ch. 1 and 6.
5. The structure of XX.
Draw from ch. 2, 3 and 4.
6. The culture in XX
Draw from ch. 5.
7. XX' strategy
Draw from ch. 7.
8. The technology in XX
Describe the technology and its match with structure. Draw from ch. 9
and 10.
9. The match between environment, strategy, structure, culture and
technology
This is the most challenging chapter. You might want to split up
comparisons in subsection, e.g.:
9.1 Environment - structure, culture
9.2 Environment - strategy
9.3 Structure - strategy
9.4 Structure - culture
9.5 Strategy, structure - technology
Do you find a good match? What are some challenges for the organization?
What are some strengths? What are some weaknesses? What are some
threats? What are some opportunities? Draw from ch. 1 q. 7, ch. 2 q. 5,
ch. 4 q. 3, ch. 6 q. 6, ch. 7 q. 4, ch. 10 q. 7, ch. 11 q. 4 and 7.
10. Conclusions
Here you should summarize your evaluation of company XX. Be critical of
its past and current behavior, analyze future problems or challenges and
suggest what you think are suitable future actions.
C. References
a) Appendices
Type out on top of each Appendix its name. Number them consecutively
with Arabic numerals.
b) Bibliography
References are made in text as follows:
Large firms are earlier to use new technology (Mansfield, 1968;
Globerman, 1975). Globerman (1975) found that the percentage of total
sales revenue derived from precision machining determined the time to
adoption. Our company claim to be early in using new technology (Xerox,
1995a). Xerox has many products (Xerox, 1995b).
If the information comes from an interview you may write the name of the
interviewed in the text:
Xerox has a tall organizational structure (Yates, 1995).
If there is no author to a journal article write out the name of the
journal:
Modern Machine Shop (1984) recommends potential adopters to analyze
their part families in order to concentrate the initial investment to a
common set of parts/products with a large machining output.
Write the bibliography as follows. The title of books are underlined,
the title of a journal, newspaper, annual report, brochure or magazine
is underlined, nothing is underlined if the citation is an interview,.
Globerman, (1975): Technological Diffusion in the Canadian Tool and Die
Industry, Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 57, pp. 428-434.
Mansfield, E. (1968): Industrial Research and Technological Innovation -
An Econometric Analysis, New York: Norton.
Modern Machine Shop (1984): 1984 NC/CAM Guidebook, Vol. 56, No. 8A,
January 1984, Cincinnati: Gardner Publications Inc.
Xerox (1995a): Annual report, 1995, Rochester: Xerox Corp.
Xerox (1995b): Our products, Rochester: Xerox Corp.
Yates, P. (1995): Interview with Peter Yates, Managing Director, Xerox,
Nov. 12, 1995.
Format
Text: 8.5 * 11 inches, single sided print. Type with 12 point Times
font. Line spacing is double-spaced. Margins should be 1 inch on the
left and right, 1.5 inches on top and bottom.
Page numbering: Number pages starting from the page after the cover
page. For the preliminaries use small Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv,
etc.). The numbering begins with ii. The cover page counts as page i,
but the number does not appear. For the remainder - including text,
illustrations, appendices and bibliography - use Arabic numeral. Number
each page consecutively.
Footnotes: Footnotes should be placed at the bottom of the page below a
15-space underscore. Footnotes should be numbered consecutively.
Tables, figures: Number each Table with Arabic numerals starting with 1.
Number tables consecutively. Number each Figure with Arabic numerals
starting with 1. Number figures consecutively. each Table or Figure
should have a title and be referred to in the text. For example:
Figure 7. The Organizational Structure of Xerox.
Numbers: Numbers less than fourteen are normally written out in letters
except the number of Table or a Figure. Numbers of tens (e.g., twenty)
up to 100 are normally written out in letters.