Letter of Transmittal

The letter of transmittal goes with the report, but is not part of the report. As a type of business communication, it is single spaced (double spacing between paragraphs). It is not paginated, nor counted as a page. The letter of transmittal generally has four paragraphs. The first announces that the report is enclosed. It reminds the receiver what the research is about. It can include some background information. The second tells how the research was conducted. The third gives some information about the research results. The fourth is a "bread and butter" paragraph, in which the writer thanks the receiver for the opportunity to work on the project.


NOTE: Lannon's example includes the letter in the report and in the table of contents. This format is one he specifies for student reports. You should format your report as if in the workplace. Use the examples on reserve in the Knight Library instead.

Title Page

This page is considered page i (lower case Roman numeral one), but does not actually carry the page number. It should include the title, the author's name, the name of the person the report is written for, and the date. Examples are in Lannon and in the reports on reserve in the Knight Library.

Table of Contents

This page is numbered ii (lower case Roman numeral two). It contains a list of first- and second-level headings, glossary (if any), appendices (if any), and Works Cited. If the report contains more than two levels of headings, additional levels can be included on the Table of Contents page; this decision is up to the author. The number listed in the page number column is the first page each section begins on. (That is, if a section titled "History and Background Information" ran from page 2 to page 4, only page 2 would be listed.) Page numbers are aligned at the imagined decimal point.

List of Figures, List of Tables

Each of these should be placed on a separate page. These pages are paginated consecutively from the Table of Contents, still using lower case Roman numerals. The sample reports on reserve in the Knight Library are correctly formatted.

Abstract

The abstract in the report is more like an executive summary than an abstract for a journal article. The writer has one page, single spaced (double spacing between paragraphs) to summarize the report. When the number of major topics is brief, one approach is to use an introductory paragraph (what is the purpose of this report, why should the reader be interested), a short paragraph on each major topic, and a concluding paragraph (what the research results are; what recommendations, if any, are made). The abstract is numbered consecutively (lower case Roman numerals, again) from the Lists.

The Report

The first page of the report is numbered Arabic numeral 1. The report begins about 2" down from the top of the page. The title is not repeated--instead, the first, first-level heading begins the report. The entire text of the report, including quoted material, is double spaced.

Some things students in this course should remember to do when revising their research reports follow:

• The first sentence in the report is a formal, three-part sentence definition.
• The report uses a three-part organization--Introduction, Collected Data (or Research Results, or a more descriptive heading marking the beginning of the body of the report), and Conclusion.
• The last sentence in the Introduction is a list of major topics.
• Any quotation longer than 3 lines or 40 words should be set up in block format.
• Block quotations are double spaced. Only the left-hand margin is indented. Quotation marks are not used in block format unless a quotation appears within the text selected or the selected text includes alternating dialogue.
• Each page should be "filled" to the bottom margin. New sections should simply be continued without a page break, as in the examples on reserve in the Knight Library. However, if a heading is left "hanging" at the bottom of a page without any text attached, the heading should be pushed to the next page.

Glossary

The glossary (optional) follows the report. It is paginated consecutively. Definitions borrowed from other sources must be correctly identified and cited.

Appendices

Appendices (optional) follow the glossary and are paginated consecutively. If the report includes only one appendix, it is simply titled APPENDIX, or APPENDIX on one line and a short title indicating what it is on the next. When several appendices are included, they are differentiated by letters--APPENDIX A, APPENDIX B, and so forth. Each one should also have an identifying title.

Works Cited

The Works Cited is paginated consecutively from whichever part precedes it. The entire Works Cited is double spaced (no extra spaces between entries). All lines except the first of each entry are indented. If the Works Cited is longer than one page, entries should not be split between pages.

Last Updated 4/24/99