Final Project Report and Product
General Description
Your final projects should include a report and any other document or product that you create for the project (web pages, brochures, or other fomats as applicable).
Report
A final report acts as a central document that summarizes, interprets, and analyzes the information you’ve gathered and what you’ve accomplished in your project.
While the format may vary according to the type of organization and the intended audience, a final report should be written with the understanding that this document may be the only opportunity you have to communicate what you have learned as a result of this project. (Often, only a few people will read the proposal and status reports, while the audience for the final reports may be much wider.) As a result, it is important to provide the audience with the necessary background information that will help them to understand the nature of the project and how you’ve gone about completing it.
It is also important to anticipate the questions that your audience may have in response to this project and to include the answers to those questions in your report.
For example, if you are reporting on your investigation of the need for teleconferencing facilities in the publishing industry, your readers may want to know what other kinds of communications options are available and why you believe that teleconferencing is necessary in the publishing field.
A final report should include the following information:
- executive summary - three or four paragraphs that summarizes the project description and results.
- problem/research question - what did you investigate or what problem did you address?
- historical/contextual background - what are the conditions in the field/organization that have led to this problem/issue?
- significance for the field - why is addressing this problem/issue important for the growth/development of the field?
- potential audience - who is affected by this problem/issue?
- methodologies used - how did you gather your information? why did you choose these methods?
- data and interpretation/analysis of data - discuss your findings and your analysis/interpretation of what the data indicates in relation to the problem/issue your are investigating potential solutions for - what potential solutions might you suggest based on your analysis of the data you gathered? What would be required to implement these solutions? If you have more than one solution, which one do you recommend and why?
- need for further investigation - if you had more time, what additional research might be helpful in order to further investigate the problem/issue?
- ethical implications/considerations - what are the ethical implications/considerations both of the problem/issue and of the solutions you propose? How did you take these ethical considerations into account in devising the solutions that you suggest?
- bibliography of sources - books, journals, electronic sources, interviews, etc.
To write the report, you will need to decide how to organize the information you have gathered and what kinds of materials you will include in your report--text, charts, graphics, sounds, or video. Most likely you will have gathered more information than you can include in your final report, so you will need to decide what to include and what to exclude. Returning to your original proposal will help you decide what information is most important in relation to your project goals.
Product
Your project may include a product that you created based on your research. This may or may not be a separate document from your report, depending on how the project has been structured. For example, your report might be the product you have created. In other cases, you may have created a web page or other type of document based on your research findings. The product you create should be explained in your report. The product should be appropriate to its purpose.
Required Documents for this Assignment
- project assessment memo
- final report document (typical length: for individual projects, 6 - 8 pages, for group projects, 8 - 10 pages, formal report format)
- additional products as applicable
Resources
Hubbel, Pamela. "Business Reports." Clarement Graduate Univesrity Writing Center Student Resources. http://writecenter.cgu.edu/students/busrpt.html