The report

The report represents an integral part of the technical work. Start planning the report at an early stage – preferably as soon as the assignment is set for the degree project. Be sure to document the results you obtain as you work, both positive and negative. Also write down your ideas and reflections during the work period.

Technical/scientific reports must be written clearly and concisely. Most bodies that receive scientific articles and the like have a limitation on the number of pages/words or similar.

The report is written in Swedish or English. It is you who is responsible for the language in the report being appropriate and correct.

You should write the entire report before accepting a position somewhere. Unfortunately, there are too many examples of degree project students who started working before the report was completed and who then had major problems finishing the report.

You need to formulate a title for the degree project. This may well consist of a short main title and a longer subtitle. The title should ideally grab the reader's interest. It should be understandable and should not contain any strange abbreviations. The degree project title is reported in the KTH study documentation system and appears in the records of your grades.

A degree project outside of KTH can sometimes involve the production of documentation in the form of a business report. Businesses sometimes have specific requirements and expectations regarding how this should be structured. It is unlikely that the internal business report will suffice as a degree project report. Any work on a special report for the company is not included in the degree project work. The degree project report must, naturally, provide a detailed description of your degree project in order to receive a passing grade. It must also meet certain formal requirements and be formulated entirely by you in order to pass.

The report is a public document

Please note that degree project reports are public documents. Some degree projects may contain parts that the principal wishes to be kept confidential for some reason. You (and your supervisor) must explain to the principal that if they want any part of the work to be confidential, they must discuss this with the supervisor at CSC before the work commences. The degree project report must be so thorough that it is clearly representative of a work of quality and sufficient scope for a degree project. The supervisor and the examiner's assessment of the work is based on the public report. It should also be mentioned that KTH upholds as a principle that supervisors do not sign confidentiality agreements.

The reports are stored electronically and will be posted in the DIVA database.

Making a KTH title page

Use the KTH template for producing a report cover as a pdf.

Fill in:

• Degree project, second level (30 credits)
• Title and any subtitle
• Author
• Choose KTH School in menu: School of Computer Science and Communication
• Subject for the degree project or name of study program (depending on what is available in the cover generator at the time).

Numbering with ISSN, TRITA and ISRN is no longer used for CSC degree projects.

The result is a pdf of the title page and back page. Disassamble and put these together with the pdf of your report, e.g., using Acrobat.

Help with writing

Plagiarism

The text of the degree project report must be your own - do not copy, paraphrase or translate someone else's text. It is by thinking and articulating yourself that you achieve the intended learning. Your education is to prepare you for a career where it does not work to steal the work of others.

KTH language workshop

At the KTH language workshop you can get help with questions and issues concerning writing in Swedish or English. However, proofreading and language review must be done by you.

• KTH's typography tips
• Writing rules concerning KTH

For those interested in further improvement, the 7.5 credit course LS2439 Writing and Presenting a Degree Project in Science and Engineering is available.

Tools for writing

Regardless of which tool you intend to use to write the report, you should learn to handle the tool properly before/when you start writing.

Microsoft Word

Many people choose to write their report using Microsoft Word. Here is a Word template that you can start from.

Consider the following:

• Headers and footers belong to the section. You must thus start a new section when you want to start a new page number sequence or when you want the header or footer to appear differently.
• The headings printed before the table of contents should not be included in the table of contents. This is fixed by giving them special format templates that are based on and look the same as the headings later in the report. However, these special format templates must be assigned the Body text level.
• Usually, you have to change the format templates in the table of contents to get it looking good. Avoid italics. Make sure that there is straight and neat indentation of headings on the lower level.
• All images must be sharp and in paper resolution (it must not therefore be possible to see the pixels on a hard copy). This is achieved by careful consideration when selecting a drawing programme and by using an uncompressed storage format, at least until the image is complete. (Screen shots have a naturally inferior resolution and the pixels are visible there.)
• Headings at the lowest level may be italicised, but headings at higher level should not.
• All spaces that you require, e.g., between paragraphs in the text or before and after the headings, are to be added in the format templates. It is then easy to adjust the format templates and thus change the appearance consistently throughout the whole document.

Latex

Many people choose to write their report with Latex, and it is probably the best choice for degree project reports with a great number of formulae. CSC's system group has a website about Latex with various templates, but no complete template for degree project reports. On Serafim Dahl's website there are templates for degree project reports and a list of libraries needed.