Proofread, check and correct. It is vitally important to proofread your report after

194 Chapter 8 n Presenting your project in written form Be careful when using in-built spell checkers. Many are based on American dictio- naries and will change words to their American equivalent; for example ‘center’ instead of ‘centre’ or vice-versa if you are an American reader. Spell checkers might also change spelling ‘errors’ within verbatim quotes you have used from other authors. Grammar checkers should also be used with caution. What might appear an elegant, well-constructed sentence to you might be changed automatically by a grammar checker. However, if you feel that your grammar is weak, these facilities are invaluable. While most students will use a WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get word processor for example, Microsoft Word for their reports, for those undertaking more technical reports with lots of mathematical equations, a text formatter such as LaTeX pronounced LayTech may be more appropriate. LaTeX is a text formatting tool that takes a text document prepared by you and converts it into a form that can be printed. The text document is encoded in a similar way to HTML in that different markers within the document format the text in different ways when it is printed out. LaTeX has facilities for automatically numbering chapters, sections, equations, etc. It is mainly used within the computer science and mathematics fields and by professional publishers. Oetiker et al. 2008: 3–4 list the following advantages of LaTeX over conventional word processors: n The documents produced are ‘professionally crafted’ and look as if they have been ‘printed’; n Mathematical formulae are easily typeset; n You only need to learn a few commands that specify the structure of the document; n Footnotes, references, contents tables, etc. can be easily generated; n It encourages users to write well-structured reports because this is how LaTeX works; and n The tool is free and portable between systems. For those of you using Linux or UNIX, the chances are that your system already has LaTeX installed speak to your supervisor or technical staff for help. For those with Windows-based systems you can use a system called MiKTeX which can be downloaded from http:miketex.org . Macintosh users can use a similar system called OzTeX which is also freely available from numerous sites on the Internet.

8.2.8 Tips

This section on report writing will conclude with a few report writing tips to help you. Bell 2005: 245–247 identifies a number of points that can help you discipline yourself and improve your writing skills: n Set deadlines. Your report will take a long time to produce. If you do not set yourself deadlines and stick to them, you will not finish on time. Using a report breakdown structure can help you to plan your time commitments more accurately. n Write regularly. Find your best time of day for writing and your favourite location. In other words, make sure that you ‘write when your mind is fresh’ and ‘find a regular writing place’ Saunders et al., 2007: 520–521. People often find they cannot write with distractions or when they are over-tired.