How to Write Report Using Microsoft Word

Recommended as a Group Project in a 2nd Year Undergrad Course

Course Coordinator: Syed Rahman

Email: ________ Updated on: _____

Project details:
– This assignment is worth 25% of the total mark.
– Group of 5 will be formed for this project. There will be individual marking.
– Submission: Colour printed copy, pdf copy of the report and power point slides (.pptx)
have to be submitted on ________. The printed copy should have transparent cover and
wire spiral coil binding.

Project specification:
A company offers marketing proposal and strategic direction to its clients. The company has 30
employees, and everyone uses a computer. Some of the employees are graduated from
universities, but most are from colleges. Most employees are aged between 24-40 years, and
most are male. The director is receiving following complaints from their clients and internal
stakeholders:

– Document issue: File name is meaningless, formatting of MS Word document and PDF
are not professional. The company has a file server, and it is very hard to find a document,
i.e. file server is not organized for different departments and types of document.
– Reference issue: No or inappropriate referencing in the proposal and it is challenging to
review any reference if the client needs to.
– Language issue: Sometimes the proposal is written in ‘not so professional’ language.
Clients are thinking that the company is lacking professionalism.
– Email issue: No subject, no description in the body, sometimes less information in
attachment but long details in the email body, no email signature with contact details etc.

The director hired your team because of your university degree assuming you are capable of
solving these issues by proposing guidelines. As a team of 5 graduates, your task is to prepare a
guideline for all the employees to address/resolve these issues. This guideline will work as a
training manual as well.

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 How to Write Report Using Microsoft Word
Recommended as a Group Project in a 2nd Year Undergrad Course

Report structure:
Formatting of the report itself must reflect the guidelines in your project report. The report
must have following sections. Higher marks will be awarded for additional sections and
your innovation which are revenant to the objectives of this project:

– Cover page (Use the template provide by faculty)

– Signed Contribution Margin (CM %) (Use the template provide by faculty)
– Table of Content, Table of Figures (Must be created using MS Word ToC, ToF feature)
– Executive Summary
– Introduction
– Body (Guidelines / How To/ Why it is important, Size: as required, no limit)
– Guideline: File and folder naming convention, organising files in server
– Guideline: Write a good email and signature at the end. Using various common
elements in an email client such as Gmail.
– Guideline: Writing a good ‘Executive Summary’ & ‘Introduction’ in a report.
– Guideline: How to use useful features in MS Word available in the ribbon, i.e.
how to create a table of content (ToC), how to use a screenshot, use of page
break, use of heading styles, spell check, word count & more.
– Create template Using MS Word and attach in the appendix: General official
letter, email with signature, leave request form.
– Guideline: Basics of APA referencing, avoiding common mistakes in referencing
with example and using Reference tool in MS Word.
– Video tutorial: Create a video tutorial of how to create ‘Table of Content’ and
how to use ‘APA referencing’ in MS Word. Upload this video on YouTube and
provide an embedded link in your report.
– Discussion: Improve document quality by using appropriate wording. Example of
some bad practices. Example of best practices.
– Review Process (How to measure the effectiveness of this guideline)
– Conclusions (Max 200 words)
– Reference (Using APA 6th style)
– Appendix A: Screenshots, images, data etc.
– Appendix B - Z: Templates

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 How to Write Report Using Microsoft Word
Recommended as a Group Project in a 2nd Year Undergrad Course

Presentation structure:
– Each team has to prepare slides using MS PowerPoint to explain all the guidelines in
their report. You need to submit this presentation slides along with report’s pdf file.
– All team members should prepare themselves to demonstrate any work in their report.
– The faculty will randomly give one topic to individual team member during presentation
– An individual team member will have 3 minutes to present given topic. Failure to explain
will result to 0. Individuals can use team’s PowerPoint slides, MS Word and any other
software package to answer the question.

Marking Rubric:
Topic Mark
Report structure, formatting, reference, quality of pptx 5
Quality of proposed templates and attention to details 5
Quality and extensiveness of guidelines and video tutorial 10
Ability to present and provide training 5
0

Helpful links:
University of Waikato (18 Oct, 2014), APA Referencing, Retrieved from
http://www.waikato.ac.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/51632/APA_Referencing_6th_ed.pdf
University of Waikato (18 Oct, 2014), APA Style: Common Examples, Retrieved from
http://www.waikato.ac.nz/library/study/referencing/styles/apa/examples
Open Polytechnic (18 Oct, 2014), How to format and present your assignment, Retrieved from
http://www.openpolytechnic.ac.nz/study-with-us/study-resources-for-students/assignments/how-
to-format-and-present-your-assignment/
University of Sussex (18 Oct, 2014), Email Best Practice, Retrieved from
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/pressandcomms/communications/channels/email/bestpractice
Monash University (21 Oct, 2014), Academic Writing, Retrieved from
http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/index.xml

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