Some guidelines for writing a report

The purpose of a report is to inform the reader (usually the ``problem owner'') about conclusions or recommendation resulting from a thorough analysis of the problem. The content of a report may consist of:

• Problem description;
• Modeling and analysis;
• Presentation of results;
• Conclusions and recommendations.

The structure of a report should clearly reflect the process of problem solving; one usually uses the principle: introduction, core, end.

Introduction:

An introduction to the subject and a description of the organization of the report; it possibly contains:

• Short description of the problem;
• Goals;
• Report organization.

Core:

This possibly includes:

• Description of the problem;
• Goals;
• Modeling the problem;
• Model analysis;
• Presentation and discussion of results.

These topics should be treated in sections. Obviously, titles of sections should be clear and cover the contents.

End:

This may include:

• Conclusions;
• Recommendations.

Finally, one may want to add:

• List of references;
• Appendices (e.g., details of the analysis, source text of programs, tables, etc.).