Project report
| 10% | Overall understanding |
| 10% | Overview of project |
| 10% | Summary of basic physics and underlying theory |
| 20% | Method of investigation and experimental procedure |
| 20% | Results: correctness and presentation, incl. graphs, tables and error bars |
| 15% | Interpretation and conclusions |
| 15% | Style and clarity of report: grammar, spelling, balance of contents, quality of diagrams |
The project report is the main output from your project. It should be written in such a way that a scientifically literate person who is not expert in the field of your work can follow it. The report is a scientific publication, aimed at an audience you don't know, not just the people marking it. For this reason, it is important that you take particular care about the content as well as its presentation. Make a few bound copies, both to hand in and to give to potential employers and perhaps to people who have supported you during your studies.
General guidance on report writing is contained in our guide to writing a good report or paper. This describes in detail the structure of any research publication, which applies to project reports. In particular, note that the report must present the objectives, results and conclusions of the projects in a logical manner; a blow-by-blow account of the twists and turns of the project is not acceptable.
Include your literature review for completeness (although this won't be marked again). Keep results and discussion (interpretation of your results) separate. Once you've finished the substantial chapters, write a brief conclusions section and an abstract summarising your work. Aim for about 5000 words excluding the recycled literature review.
When you've finished writing your report and are ready to submit, read it again as one piece to eradicate typos, unclear or incomplete sentences and poor graphics. It is also easier to spot mistakes and incoherent logic in other people's work than in ones own, so swap your draft report with someone else's and act as copy editors for each other. This can make a tremendous difference to the quality of your report and the mark you achieve.
You should hand in a draft version of the report directly to your supervisor at the beginning of the final week of teaching. They will give you feedback within a couple of days, so you have one last chance to polish your report before you submit the final version. The draft report should be finished and genuinely the version you intend to submit. It would be pointless to provide feedback on a version that is still in flux, so don't expect your supervisor to do that.
You should hand in two copies of the final, bound version of your report to the General Office at the beginning of Revision Week.
Blame me, not my employer etc. etc.