Sample Report Format Format is the layout and typography of a document. Typography includes the style and size of type for a document. Layout includes the margins, line spacing, paragraphing, and pagination. This web page presents templates for both short reports and long reports. These formats are based on formats created by professional artists at Sandia National Laboratories and discussed in Appendix D of The Craft of Scientific Writing.
Please understand that no universal formats exist in engineering and science. In other words, each company or journal has its own format that suits the needs and desires of that company or journal. However, when formats are not specified, these templates will give you a professional look that rises far above Microsoft Word's weak defaults and above the simplistic look that some companies choose. Having a professional format is important--after all, the format is the attire for your content. Why choose something ugly when for a bit more effort you could have a professional look? Given below is a discussion of the principles that serve as a basis for these formats. |
Format is the typography and layout of a document. Although no universal format exists in engineering and science, the formats of technical documents are specific and based on core principles. |
Typography
Typography includes the size and style of type for a document. Type sizes are measured in points. In general, twelve point type is used for the text portion of most documents. Larger sizes may be used for headings and titles, and smaller sizes may be used for footnotes and illustration call-outs. As far as the styles of types, two main classifications exist: serif and sans serif. Which typestyle should you use? Here, much depends on the situation, but a serif font of 12 points is generally accepted for the text portion of formal documents such as reports and correspondence. An example of a serif typeface is Times. Why are serif typefaces generally used for the text? The reasons are historical as much as anything. For the headings, illustration call-outs, and online text, professionals often use sans serif typefaces such as Calibri. One reason that professionals use sans serif typefaces for headings and subheadings is that the uniform strokes of letters work well in boldface .
Another aspect of typography is the use of initial capitals in titles and headings. One convention, but not the only one, for using initial capitals is that you capitalize the first letter of the first and last words--no matter what the words. Then, you capitalize the first letter of every included word except for articles, conjunctions, and prepositions that have fewer than four letters: a, an, and, as, but, for, in, nor, of, on, or, out, the, to, up, and yet.
Besides type sizes, type faces, and initial capitals, there are other typography guidelines that vary from institution to institution. For instance, the following list presents one recommended way to format unusual plurals: IBMs, CDs, 1970s, and 1900s.
Typography includes the size and style of type for a document. Type sizes are measured in points. In general, twelve point type is used for the text portion of most documents. Larger sizes may be used for headings and titles, and smaller sizes may be used for footnotes and illustration call-outs. As far as the styles of types, two main classifications exist: serif and sans serif. Which typestyle should you use? Here, much depends on the situation, but a serif font of 12 points is generally accepted for the text portion of formal documents such as reports and correspondence. An example of a serif typeface is Times. Why are serif typefaces generally used for the text? The reasons are historical as much as anything. For the headings, illustration call-outs, and online text, professionals often use sans serif typefaces such as Calibri. One reason that professionals use sans serif typefaces for headings and subheadings is that the uniform strokes of letters work well in boldface .
Another aspect of typography is the use of initial capitals in titles and headings. One convention, but not the only one, for using initial capitals is that you capitalize the first letter of the first and last words--no matter what the words. Then, you capitalize the first letter of every included word except for articles, conjunctions, and prepositions that have fewer than four letters: a, an, and, as, but, for, in, nor, of, on, or, out, the, to, up, and yet.
Besides type sizes, type faces, and initial capitals, there are other typography guidelines that vary from institution to institution. For instance, the following list presents one recommended way to format unusual plurals: IBMs, CDs, 1970s, and 1900s.
Layout
Layout includes such things as the type of paper chosen, the margins, the line spacing, the pagination, and the incorporation of equations, illustrations, and references. Table 1 presents general specifications for the page layouts. Table 1. Specifications for page layout of reports |
Margins |
standard (about 1 inch) |
Line Spacing |
1.15 spacing |
Indentations |
standard tab for all paragraphs |
Paragraphing |
no line skip between paragraphs |
Pagination |
centered page numbers (about .5 inches from bottom) |
Headings. A format for headings, subheadings, and sub-subheadings follows the pattern shown below. In this pattern, all headings, subheadings, and sub-subheadings are in initial capitals. In a short report, the major heading is the report's title. In a formal report, the major heading serves as the name of each section--for example, the "Introduction" or "Conclusion." Note that in a long report (more than 50 pages), these major headings begin a new page, while in a shorter report, these major headings follow one another in a continuous fashion.
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Title of Major Heading
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For a major heading, skip three carriage returns from the top margin (or previous section) and place the heading. Use a font larger than the text (14 or 18 points), initial capitals, and boldface. For minor reports, the major heading serves as the report's title.
Do not skip a line between paragraphs. Skipping a line between paragraphs distorts the hierarchy of vertical spacing given to the headings and subheadings.
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First Subheading
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Subheadings are 12 or 14 points, flush left, and boldfaced. For all subheadings, skip two lines before and one line afterwards. Use initial capitals. Note that you need not have subheadings. Include only if breaking up the section serves the reader. Similar with paragraphs at the heading level, do not skip a line between paragraphs. Skipping a line between paragraphs distorts the hierarchy of vertical spacing given to the headings and subheadings.
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First Sub-Subheading. Sub-subheadings are in 12 point type, italics, and followed by a period. Skip one line before the sub-subheading. Begin the sub-subheading's text one space after the period. Use initial capitals for sub-subheadings. Note that you need not have subheadings. Include only if breaking up the section serves the reader.
Similar with paragraphs at the heading and subheading level, do not skip a line between paragraphs. Skipping a line between paragraphs distorts the hierarchy of vertical spacing given to the headings, subheadings, and sub-subheadings.
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Second Sub-Subheading. If you have one sub-subheading, you must have a second. Otherwise, the first sub-subheading has nothing to be parallel with.
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Second Subheading
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If you have one subheading, you must have a second. Otherwise, the first subheading has nothing to be parallel with. Note that the subheadings "Introduction" and "Conclusion" are inherently parallel with other types of subheadings: noun phrases, participial phrases, or questions. "Introduction" and "Conclusion" are also descriptive because the audience expects particular kinds of information from them.
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Title of Major Heading
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For a major heading, skip three carriage returns from the top margin (or previous section) and place the heading. Use a font larger than the text (14 or 18 points), initial capitals, and boldface. For minor reports, the major heading serves as the report's title.
Do not skip a line between paragraphs. Skipping a line between paragraphs distorts the hierarchy of vertical spacing given to the headings and subheadings.
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First Subheading
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Subheadings are 12 or 14 points, flush left, and boldfaced. For all subheadings, skip two lines before and one line afterwards. Use initial capitals. Note that you need not have subheadings. Include only if breaking up the section serves the reader. Similar with paragraphs at the heading level, do not skip a line between paragraphs. Skipping a line between paragraphs distorts the hierarchy of vertical spacing given to the headings and subheadings.
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First Sub-Subheading. Sub-subheadings are in 12 point type, italics, and followed by a period. Skip one line before the sub-subheading. Begin the sub-subheading's text one space after the period. Use initial capitals for sub-subheadings. Note that you need not have subheadings. Include only if breaking up the section serves the reader.
Similar with paragraphs at the heading and subheading level, do not skip a line between paragraphs. Skipping a line between paragraphs distorts the hierarchy of vertical spacing given to the headings, subheadings, and sub-subheadings.
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Second Sub-Subheading. If you have one sub-subheading, you must have a second. Otherwise, the first sub-subheading has nothing to be parallel with.
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Second Subheading
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If you have one subheading, you must have a second. Otherwise, the first subheading has nothing to be parallel with. Note that the subheadings "Introduction" and "Conclusion" are inherently parallel with other types of subheadings: noun phrases, participial phrases, or questions. "Introduction" and "Conclusion" are also descriptive because the audience expects particular kinds of information from them.
Incorporation of Illustrations. There are two classes of illustrations: figures and tables. Illustrations should appear below the end of the paragraph in which that illustration is first introduced. If not enough space is available below the end of the paragraph, then continue the text and place the illustration on the next page. When placing an illustration into a document, leave a space between the illustration and the text (one line skip both above and below the illustration).
Captions for figures appear below the figure. Use Arabic numerals to number figures. A figure caption includes a phrase that identifies the figure and a sentence or two that explains important details in the figure. See the example shown in the Figure 1. When referring to figures, call them by their names: Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure IS-1, Figure A-1, and so forth. Note that Figure IS-1 would appear in an informative summary and Figure A-1 would appear in an Appendix A. Unlike figures, titles for tables appear centered above the table. Number tables using Arabic numerals. Use initial capital letters for table titles. In the text, call tables by their names: Table IS-1, Table 1, Table A-1, and so forth. |
Incorporating illustrations into a laboratory report. Presenting in this film in Mary Duncan (B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2021). |
Unlike figures, titles for tables appear above the table. For an example, see Table 2. In the text, call tables by their names: Table 1, Table 2, and so on. Note that another common table format has the title centered above the table.
Table 2. Physical characteristics of planets [Handbook, 1969]. |
Planet |
Diameter (km) |
Gravity (Earth ratio) |
Year (Earth days) |
Temperature (K) |
Mercury |
5,100 |
0.40 |
88 |
700 |
Venus |
12,600 |
0.90 |
225 |
700 |
Earth |
12,800 |
1.00 |
365 |
350 |
Mars |
6,900 |
0.40 |
687 |
320 |
Jupiter |
143,600 |
2.70 |
4,333 |
150 |
Saturn |
120,600 |
1.20 |
10,759 |
138 |
Uranus |
53,400 |
1.00 |
30,686 |
90 |
References. When incorporating the opinions, data, and illustrations of other sources into your writing, you must give credit to those sources. For information of how to paraphrase and quote sources, see Appendix B. In these writing guidelines, the format for bestowing that credit is an author-year referencing system. Within the text of the article or report, references should be cited by giving in brackets the last name of the author(s) and the year of publication of the reference. The year should always be enclosed in brackets; whether the name of the author(s) is enclosed depends on the context. The two possibilities are illustrated as follows:
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Recently, a new chemical process was developed for eliminating nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel engines [Perry and Siebers, 1986].
Recently, Perry and Siebers [1986] developed a new chemical process for eliminating nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel engines |
For three or more authors, just list the first author's name as follows: [Lee and others, 1972]. If there is no author listed, give the first word (not articles, conjunctions, or prepositions) of the document: [Manual, 1983] or ["Plastic", 1989]. If you have two documents with the same author and year (for example, two documents by Jones in 2003), then assign the reference listings as follows: [Jones, 2003a] for the citation that alphabetically appears first at the end, and [Jones, 2003b] for the citation that appears second at the end.
The full reference citations will appear in an alphabetical list at the end of your document. When the format for citations is not specified, you might consider using a citation generator. Otherwise, you might consider the following common format in engineering and science: |
Book
Author, Title in Initial Capitals and Italics, edition # (City of Publication: Publisher, Date of Publication).
Fox, R.W., and A.T. McDonald, Introduction to Fluid Mechanics (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1978). A Manual of Style, 12th ed. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1969). McElroy, W.D., Cell Physiology and Biochemistry, 3rd ed., Foundations of Modern Biology Series (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971). |
Newspaper
Author (if known), "Title in Initial Capitals and Quotation Marks,"Newspaper Name (Date), section #, page #s.
Luoma, J.R., "U.S. Hunts New Ways to Clean Up Wastes," New York Times (3 January 1988), pp. 15, 18. "Plastic Explosives Blamed for Airline Disaster," New York Times (3 January 1989) sec. 2, p. 11. |
Report
Author, Title in Initial Capitals and Italics, Report # (City of Publication: Publisher (Company or Agency), Date).
Borcherdt, R.D., Results and Data From Seismologic and Geologic Studies Following Earthquakes of December 7, 1988, Near Spitak, Armenia SSR, vol. 1, USGS OFR 89-163-A (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Geological Survey, 1989). Guide to Operations, IBM Personal Computer Hardware Reference Library #1502490 (Boca Raton, Florida: IBM Corporation, 1984). Spent Fuel Storage Requirements, DOE RL-88-34 (Richland, WA: Department of Energy, 1988). Sheldon, K.E., Analysis Methods to Control Performance Variability and Cost in Turbine Engine Manufacturing (Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Tech, 4 May 2001), pp. 156-158. |
Patent
Patent Holder, Patent # (Date of Patent).
Lyon, R.K., U.S. Patent No. 3,900,554 (August 1975). |
Brochure
Author, "Title in Initial Capitals and Quotation Marks," brochure (City of Publication: Publisher (Company or Agency), Date).
Cheng, D., "Chemtronix XT Manometer," brochure (Asheville, NC: Chemtronix Corporation, 1974). |
Interview
Speaker's Name, Speaker's Affiliation (City of Interview: Date of Interview), type of interview.
Lee, R., Engineer at Apple Corporation (San Jose: 5 June 1987), phone interview |
Letter
Author, Affiliation (City: Date of Letter), recipient of letter.
Alley, C.D., Plant Manager of Mason-Hanger Pantex Plant (Amarillo, TX: 3 March 1989), letter to Amarillo Globe News. |
Website
Author, "Title," web listing in italics (City: Publisher, Date).
Bassett, Vicki, "Causes and Effects of the Rapid Sinking of the Titanic," http://writing.engr.psu.edu/uer/bassett.html (University Park, PA: Undergraduate Engineering Review, November 1998). Varian Corporation, "Smithsonian Researchers Use High-Tech Digital Imaging Device to Study Collections," http://www.varian.com/ (Palo Alto, CA: Varian Corporation, 13 February 2002) |