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General Feedback on Reports
Written on 23.02.2023 13:35 by Swen Jacobs
We have now received most of the report drafts. Those who have sent their draft will soon receive their personal feedback.
In addition, here are some general guidelines that all of you can use to improve your reports:
- scientific writing needs a lot of revision: it is fine to start with a very rough draft, as long as you go over it again and again, improving it in every iteration.
Please go over your report again, in the best case after letting it "rest" for a few days, and try to read it as if you were not the author, but a reader of your report - are there parts that are unclear? that could be misunderstood? that could be improved by adding something? could complex sentences be replaced with short and understandable ones? is it better to remove some part because it cannot be explained properly in the limited space? - structure: in addition to sections and subsections, your text is organized in paragraphs. Every paragraph should handle exactly one idea. The usual structure within a paragraph is that the first sentence introduces the idea, makes a claim, or raises a question, and the following sentences elaborate on this basic idea/claim/question. The first and the last sentence of a paragraph have the highest impact on the reader, so they should cover the most important information. The last sentence can for example be used to conclude/summarize the topic, or to lead over to the next topic, connecting this paragraph to the next.
The latter is more regularly done in the first sentence of the next paragraph, often by starting it with a fixed phrase such as "However,...", "Additionally,..." or "In contrast,...". Paragraphs are also connected by re-using key words or phrases again, e.g., one paragraph introduces the verification technique "X", and the next paragraph begins with "However, X also has significant limitations."