EC320
Writing Guidelines
Individual Coursework
Overview
1. Start your report with the main point. Why is this report important? Why was it requested?
What has it found?
2. Organise your content. Divide your information to blocks of topics.
3. Give each block a title/heading.
4. Begin each block with the main point. If your heading is a question, your first sentence should
be the answer.
5. Use detail, examples, data. Back up each main point with specific information and/or numbers
from your research.
6. Give a recommendation. Call for action and point the way ahead. What should your client do
next?
Structure
1. Title Page: Title of your report, your name, student number and your course.
2. Table of Contents: include headings, subheadings and page numbers
3. Executive summary: Summarises your whole report, and gives your reader a clear idea of
what your report says, without needing to read it. Start with the report’s purpose, then give your
scope, main points, and a summary of your findings and recommendations.
4. Introduction: summarises the issue or problem, its background and context, why it matters,
why you’re looking into it and the scope of the task. You can also introduce your approach and
explain your methodology in finding and sorting data.
5. Main Body
6. Recommendations: explains the strategies you suggest to deal with the conclusion from your
findings, or to solve the original problem. Indicate the benefits of each solution, e.g. return on
investment or increase in sales. Recommendations are not your personal opinion. Your findings,
your research and your data are the reasons (or evidence) behind your recommendations.
7. Conclusion: Wrap it all up and tell us what will happen next. Where should your client go
from here? What’s the next step for them?
8. References: a list of sources you cited in your report, such as a book with data you used, or an
article from an expert you quoted. As long as you read a piece of information somewhere and
used it in your report, you should include it in the References section
Headings and Subheadings
A heading should tell your reader what they’re about to learn, and advertise your section. It keeps
your structure clear and helps your reader find information quickly, without having to read the
wholereport. Your headings and subheadings will appear in your Table of Contents. Keep them
short and simple, like a newspaper heading. Resist using one-word headings like ‘Methodology’;
instead, tell us (very briefly) what the methodology is. For example, ‘Measuring Customer
Satisfaction by Surveys.’
● Heading Tips
a. Noun phrases in your headings, e.g. ‘Competitive Features of BMW’
b. Questions, e.g. ‘What Makes BMW Special?
c. Answers, e.g. ‘BMW’s Luxury is a Competitive Feature’
d. Lists, e.g. ‘Three Competitive Features of BMW’
e. Whichever of the above you use, make sure you’re using it for every section. Stay consistent
to
keep your reader’s attention.
f. Use a subheading for each block of information, or each BMW feature, e.g.
❖ Three Competitive Features of BMW
1. Timeless Luxury
2. Quality Manufacturing
3. Targeted Marketing
Language Tips
- Each sentence should only give us one new piece of information. If one sentence has twopieces
of information, break it into two sentences.
- Each paragraph should only discuss one main point. If you find yourself starting to go into
something else, start a new paragraph.
- Never use a long word where you can use a short word.
- If you are using a word that isn’t adding any new meaning in a sentence you wrote, then you
don’t need to use that word at all and you can delete it
References
Taking information, ideas, sentences or images from another source without referencing the
author is considered plagiarism. Plagiarism could affect your course grade heavily, and you may
be required to write the assignment again.
It's necessary to acknowledge the original source to avoid plagiarism. Include a reference list at
the end of your report listing all the sources you have referred to in your assignment. You will
need to know the book/article’s title, its author, publisher, etc. of each source you use.