Producing other forms of written work

Much of the guidance given above can be applied to other written work, including short answers to coursework exercises. You may, though, find the following tips useful:

Producing a project

For projects you need to collect, present and interpret information on a particular topic and to identify a central question. You may find it useful to produce a short draft outlining how you plan to tackle the project in order to assess its feasibility with your tutor.

Writing a report

Reports recording research projects or practical exercises are structured differently from essays and usually include the following:

• Aims which define the objectives of the project
• Methods which describe how the project was planned and implemented and discuss methodological strengths and weaknesses
• Results which present the findings of the project or exercise in prose, tabular and/or graphic form
• Conclusions which summarise and interpret the results, critically evaluate findings and show that the aims have been achieved.

Writing a course journal

You will be expected to write a brief report on all or a specified number of sessions attended. Your journal entries might summarize the content of the session, describe what you found particularly interesting, highlight subjects, activities or skills that you would like to pursue further etc. Your reports should be reflective in character and trace the development of your knowledge, skills and ideas as the course progresses.

Writing a book review

You will need to supply full details of the book (title, author, publisher or journal, year of publication and number of pages). The review should be structured like an essay (with an introduction, middle and end) and include:

• a brief summary of the book
• an evaluation of its strengths and weaknesses
• an indication of whether it is enjoyable and easy to comprehend
• an assessment of its contribution to the subject