10
Table of contents
1 Introduction 3
2 Academic writing 4
3 Report structure 7
3.1 Front matter 8
3.2 Body of the report 10
3.3 End matter 11
4 Report layout 13
4.1 Formatting of text and page layout 13
4.2 Typographic visualisation 13
4.3 Illustrations 14
4.3.1 Tables 15
4.3.2 Figures and images 16
4.3.3 Formulas and equations 18
5 Compiling the lists of source material and persons 20
6 References 22
6.1 In-text citations 22
6.2 List of references 25
7 Finalising the report 32
REFERENCES 34
APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1 Document layout according to SFS standard
APPENDIX 2 Project report structure
APPENDIX 3 Internship report
APPENDIX 4 Travel report
1 Introduction
These instructions have been developed for thesis writing and reporting at Savonia University of Applied Sciences. They are applicable to all written assignments, theses and reports in all degree programs and study fields at Savonia UAS. The instructions were originally developed by lecturers Pirjo Suhonen and Pirkko Tenkama in connection with their development work of the thesis process in 2009 – 2010.
At Savonia UAS all reports are written in compliance with the requirements of SFS standards (Finnish Standards Association SFS; SFS 2487, SFS 5342 and SFS 5831). Moreover, the principles of academic writing and the copyright law are followed. The reports consist of the following parts: a cover page drafted in accordance with Savonia’s graphic guidelines, an abstract if necessary (in theses and extensive reports), a table of contents, the main content in accordance with the assignment, in-text citations and references to the source material in compliance with the copyright regulations, as well as a list of appendices.
Study assignments and especially thesis commissions can involve trade secrets, business innovations or other confidential information depending on the commissioning organisation’s interests. All confidential information is excluded from the report published to the general public. If required, the commissioning organisation or company can be provided with a separate, additional summary which is only mentioned in the report.
These instructions provide a model suitable for reports written in compliance with SFS standards. The document layout in accordance with SFS standards is attached in Appendix 1. In addition, some examples of more special report structures are enclosed: a project report (Appendix 2), an internship report (Appendix 3) and a travel report (Appendix 4).
2 Academic writing
At Savonia UAS, reports are written according to the principles of academic writing and scientific practice. Simple clarity and coherence are characteristics of good text. The text in reports is compact and follows the grammatical rules. The ideas and the statements are presented in logical order.
The text in reports follows specific linguistic and structural principles, which facilitates both the writing process and the reading and understanding of the text. In reports, subject matters are introduced in a certain order. The general way of structuring the text is presented in Chapter 3. The logical structuring of the subject matter is reflected in the table of contents as well as in the structure of the chapters and the paragraphs.
The sequence of sentences in a paragraph should convey ideas closely connected to each other. The sentences, in turn, should consist of grammatically correct clauses and phrases. In general, long and complicated sentences should be avoided.
The scientific writing process necessitates the use of prior work of other researchers, but it should follow copyright regulations. In addition, accurate scientific analysis requires supportive data such as examples and specimen. The content of a report is considered to be the product of the writer mentioned on the cover page unless indicated otherwise by the use of references.
A report conveys an informative message to the reader. The reader should understand the message in such a way as originally disclosed by the writer. Therefore, it is of essential importance that the writer’s conclusions and arguments can be verified by the reader going through the same thought processes and repeating the same measures as well as checking the references given by the writer.
The facts and arguments presented in a report must be substantiated; the mere presenting and stating of prior existing knowledge is not sufficient. This calls for a critical and transparent approach to the subject matter. The writer’s own views should be combined with the prior knowledge of the specific subject matter in the study field. The reader should be able to distinguish the writer’s opinions clearly, and all eventual arguments and opinions should be well-founded. (Luukka 2002, 19–21.)
Report writing necessitates an objective and unbiased attitude to the subject matter except for the studies involving creative expression, in which cases a subjective approach can be applied. Furthermore, objectivity calls for special accuracy and careful and critical use of reference and other material.
According to good scientific practice, a large variety of unbiased source material is included in reports regardless of the writer’s own bias. Original sources make up the primary source of data. All sources that are used should be adequately reliable and scholarly acknowledged in the study field. Sources such as electronic data whose origin is unreliable or cannot be accurately traced should be reviewed critically. On the other hand, a reference can sometimes be omitted if the material can be regarded as basic knowledge in the scientific field in question.
The writing process should always follow the principles of good scientific practice. There should be no question as to whose ideas, results, conclusions or argumentations are presented. When source material (books, newspaper articles, experts, the Internet) is referred to, the referenced text should be rephrased, i.e. the matters / ideas should be expressed in the writer’s own words. All references must always be included accurately in the report. The reference instructions are given in Chapter 6.1. When an in-text citation refers to web content, the writer should print out the pages or copy and save the material as a file. In addition, the date when the web content was accessed should be indicated to prove that the reference data in question was available on the date of retrieval. Thus the material that might have been removed or modified can be accepted as reference.
Direct quotations can be used in the text for some exact definitions, for the citations of a person who has been interviewed or for the citations of open-ended questionnaire data. The quotation is written in italic typeface and inserted in quotation marks. Original materials produced by other writers (drafts, pictures, figures, drawings, structural pictures, charts, maps, statistics, programs) are submitted with reference information, and the permission to use the material in question has to be obtained always.
According to the Copyright Act (404/1961), direct quotations and other original data (for example pictures) can be used in scientific papers such as theses. The quotation has to follow good scientific practice and conventions. There are no exact rules regarding the length of the quotation, but the decisive aspects include
- the purpose of the quotation
- the relevance of the quotation considering the scope of the study.
Plagiarism “is to present someone else’s research plan, manuscript, article or text, or parts thereof, as one’s own” (National Advisory Board on Research Ethics 2002, 7). In other words, omitting references, in-text citations and direct quotations from the text means unlawful copying.
The compliance with copyright regulations is verified with the help of Urkund program. If required, the student must show that he/she has obtained the permission to reproduce other researchers’ pictures and material. The reports and theses are sent to the Urkund address provided by the supervising teacher (for further information, see http://www.urkund.fi/ funktion.asp).
Writing style
Academic writing is characterised by professional lexical choices. In other words, the text is written by using professional words and terms typical of the specific field of the discipline. The vocabulary used in reports should be precise, neutral and of unmistakable meaning, and the core concepts should be defined and the terms explained. In general, the words that are typically used in the study field are acceptable but trendy expressions and worn-out clichés should be avoided.
A significant feature of academic writing is impersonal style and passive voice. They are appropriate for presenting material used for the study and for describing the results. The first person singular, in turn, can be used for discussing concrete measures and decisions, and the writer’s own commitments, background assumptions, opinions or comments. (Luukka 2002, 21.) Tenses, in general, are used in compliance with the established conventions and grammatical rules. The most common tenses in reporting are the simple present tense and the simple past tense.
The simple present tense is used in reporting
- to explain and define terms
- to express general truths and scientific facts
- to introduce statements of habitual or general validity
- to state the theory and the relevant arguments and assumptions (hypothesis):
- In this study operating profit indicates…
- The most popular methods in research and development include observation, interviews, content analysis, reflection, discourse analysis, operational research, autobiographical research and discussion analysis.
- to refer to tables, figures and images
- to discuss results and conclusions
- to refer to other researchers’ texts (present perfect simple can also be used)
- Smith (2004) defines…
- Figure 7 shows…
- To summarise the results it can be stated that…
The simple past tense refers to completed actions in the past. In reports, the past tense is used when referring to studies which have been published earlier, and when reporting the writer’s own work process and results. Abstracts are usually written in the simple past tense as well.
- Smith (2004, 32) stated in his study – –
- The questionnaires were delivered to all dairy farmers in Savo region (altogether 1200 questionnaires).
- The tests showed that – –
3 Report structure
The report structure can vary according to the nature of the assignment and should, therefore, follow the conventions of the study field in question. A report comprises different stages of the working process; it shows how the framework of the assignment, problem, subject matter or challenge was created and how the targets or phenomena were chosen for the research. Moreover, the acquisition methods of the source material and the methods of the discussion, the analysis and the interpretation are presented in the report. The description of the material used in the study is often combined with a methodical description, and the discussion is combined with analysis, results and interpretation. The report is divided in three sections.
The front matter of a thesis (i.e. the first pages) directs the reader to the report and provides him/her with basic information on the contents and structure. The opening pages are drafted according to the standards defined by Savonia UAS and consist of
- a title page (cover page)
- an abstract (if required; always in theses)
- a table of contents.
The body (the main part of the report) consists of the introduction to the topic of the report, the discussion, the results and the outcomes and the conclusions. The core content of the body comprises
- the background and the purpose of the work
- the starting point and viewpoint(s)
- the statement of the hypothesis
- the objectives
- the definitions and explanations of the main concepts and the most important symbols and abbreviations
- the introduction to the report structure
- the acquisition and description of the source data and other material
- the process flow and arguments
- the choice of research methods and their substantiation
- validity, reliability, credibility and quality
- ethical aspects.
The end matter (i.e. the third part) consists of the following supportive material
- the list(s) for defining terms, concepts, symbols and abbreviations (if needed)
- the list(s) of source material
- the list(s) of persons
- references and
- appendices.
The planning and implementation of the report should be started at the beginning of the work process according to the assignment. Different research methods and scientific approaches require different report structures and therefore it is worth getting familiarised with the different models of logical reasoning and report structuring. The main purpose is that the report structure corresponds to the work process flow.
The main objective of professional research, development and innovation is to enhance welfare by improving the feasibility of working life and business. The primary objective of professional research, development and innovation is not to look for truth, but to create new realities.
3.1 Front matter
The title page and the abstract of the report are written on templates designed in accordance with Savonia’s graphic guidelines (see Thesis course in Moodle). The abstract is drafted in compliance with the standard SFS 3855 (1978), Abstracts for publications and documentation. The number of pages of the whole report and the number of pages of the appendices are indicated in the abstract, and the abstract also contains information on materials included in the study as well as a list of the key words that describe the study.
The abstract provides an informative summary of the study. The abstract is always included in a thesis and similar extensive reports; as for other documents, abstracts are included when necessary. The abstract describes the content of the whole study objectively in a few compact sentences. Based on the abstract, the reader decides if the content of the original document is worth reading. The abstract is a stand-alone entity and has to be understandable as such. The nature of the study defines the content of the abstract, but usually abstracts contain the following main items:
- the topic, the purpose and the objectives of the study (what was done and why)
- the work process (how the results were achieved)
- the results
- the conclusions
- the evaluation of validity and reliability
- ideas for further research and development.
The abstract provides an outsider’s view on the study, and it is written in the passive voice and mainly in the past tense. The abstract consists of complete, short sentences. It provides a concise description of the table of contents. The abstract consists of 150 – 200 words which must be fitted into the text field of the abstract template. Neither headings nor typographic visualisation are used in the abstract and there are no references to the original text or the source material. On the other hand, an abstract can include a picture or a figure related to the study.