Paper Report Assessment

Below are common mistakes to avoid when writing a project report. This is not an all-inclusive list. The questions are worded such that a positive response results in a "yes".

yes / no	____	Did the report include an adequate number of references?
yes / no	____	Did the report cite the references, for example, include [1] or [Smith08] as appropriate?
yes / no	____	Did the report reference the papers and books correctly, that is, include the authors, title, journal, volume, date and page information in a "references" section?
yes / no	____	Does the report relate the project to the class?
yes / no	____	Did the report spell out all acronyms used?
yes / no	____	Did the report explain all uncommon terms used?
yes / no	____	Did the report conform to the specified format?
yes / no	____	Did the report cite where any figures originated?
yes / no	____	Is the report free of grammatical, spelling, proof-reading or other presentation problems?
yes / no	____	Are all equations and variables clearly presented?
yes / no	____	Are all variable names explained and italicized?
yes / no	____	Did the report flow smoothly from one paragraph to the next?
yes / no	____	Is the report free from lists and unneccessary subheadings?
yes / no	____	Is the report free of extraneous information (rambling sentences or paragraphs that do not add value)?
yes / no	____	Is the report complete enough (explaining things adequately)?
yes / no	____	Does the report talk about (in the text) any figures that it includes?
yes / no	____	Did the report avoid ambiguous references to "the authors" or "this paper"?
yes / no	____	Is the report turned in on time?
__________		Overall

This sheet provides an assessment, not necessarily a grade. An excellent paper should have fewer than two "no" responses, though some questions are more important than others, and some may have a degree of error. For example, "Did the report cite the references?" is more important than "Are all variable names explained and italicized?". Also, a "no" response to "Did the report conform to the specified format?" may mean different things, such as a report that has a tiny font versus one that has bad margins, bad spacing, wrong number of columns, etc.