CSC9Z*
Final Stage

Final Report Structure

You must submit three unbound paper copies of the final report ("Honours Dissertation"). See the separate note about formatting and printing reports. The Department will bind the copies you submit. In addition, you must submit a digital copy of your report and your code to the project repository.

You may borrow past reports from the Department's library as a guide to what reports look like. If you borrow a report, please leave a note that you have done so. Past reports are apt to vanish accidentally!

If you use Microsoft Word to prepare your dissertation, it is recommended that you use the dissertation template. For more technical dissertations, you may prefer to use the LaTeX dissertation template

The final report should be roughly 15,000 words including appendixes (i.e. about 60 pages). Note that you should not artificially pad your report because it seems to be too small. In the past, dissertations have ranged from 12,000 to 20,000 words. The size of a report is rather project-dependent. Your report should cover the project adequately without being too terse or too verbose. Ask your supervisor for guidance if you are not sure whether the report is sufficient. The structure of the final report will vary according to the project, but will look something like the following.

The following structure is suggested for the final report. This structure is not mandatory, but significant deviations should be agreed with your supervisor:

Cover Sheet

Give your project title, student name, student registration number and degree. See past final reports or dissertation template for an indication of what the cover page should look like.

Summary

Summarise your project and its results - up to a page.

Attestation

You are required to include a short statement that you are aware of the nature of plagiarism, that you are aware of the University's policy on this, and that your work is original. If there is any exception to this (e.g. you used text, diagrams or code from another source), you must acknowledge this and cite the source. If any of your work was undertaken away from the University (e.g. in conjunction with a company) or outside the project period (e.g. during a vacation job), you are required to state this.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledge any help you have received (e.g. from your supervisor, technical staff, other software that formed the basis of your own).

Introduction

Describe the problem that you tackled. Explain the scope and objectives of the project. State your achievements and the contributions you have made. Explain how others will benefit from these. Give a brief overview of the dissertation.

State of the Art

Discuss the work of others in the same area as your project. Show critical awareness of what others have done, and how you extended or complemented existing capabilities.

Technical Description

The intermediate chapters will describe the system you built. For a software development project, you might consider basing chapters on the software life-cycle: requirements, system architecture and high-level design, low-level design and implementation, testing. Besides functional aspects, you should also describe non-functional aspects such as performance and reliability. For a non-software project, some other logical structure should be adopted.

It is important to demonstrate that your approach has been that of a computing professional. Systematic procedures should therefore be seen to have been used. Awareness of relevant professional issues should arise at appropriate points. Where appropriate, you should report on acceptance testing with your "clients" and trials with potential end-users.

Conclusion

Summarise what you have achieved and the main results. Give pointers to possible future developments from your work. Reflect on your results in isolation and in relation to what others have achieved in the same field. This self-analysis is particularly important. You should give a critical evaluation of what went well, and what might be improved.

References

Cite any documents that your refer to within the report.

Appendixes

Put bulky or reference material into appendixes. Material suitable for an appendix includes things like a software installation or usage guide, detailed algorithms and data structures, and extensive tables or graphs of results.

Final Report Assessment

Work which is submitted for assessment must be your own work. All students should note that the University has a formal policy on plagiarism. Plagiarism means presenting the work of others as though it were your own. The University takes a very serious view of plagiarism, and the penalties can be severe. Specific guidance on computing assignments may be found in the Computing Science Student Handbook.

You are recommended to make a check for unintended plagiarism (e.g. using extracts or figures from other work without acknowledgement). Go to the WebCT module page, login using your University username and password, then click Final Report. Now choose Submit Paper and provide a Microsoft Word or PDF version of your report. Check the TurnItIn response for anything that needs attention.

To avoid accidental plagiarism, you are strongly encouraged to check your report using TurnItIn via WebCT. For example you might quote from other sources when discussing state-of-the-art but forget to cite these, or you might use a diagram without acknowledging the source. Even if TurnItIn says the report is OK, check for other potential issues (e.g. using third-party code but forgetting to acknowledge this).

You should show a draft of the final report to your supervisor before submitting it. The final work is formally assessed and counts as 80% of the overall project mark. Two aspects of the final work are assessed: the technical content of the work (weighted 70%) and its presentational standard (weighted 30%). One copy of the report will be returned to you after assessment, one will be retained by your supervisor, and one will be lodged in the Department's library.

The Department may select the best reports for entry into competitions such as the "Young Software Engineer" award organised by the Scottish Software Federation.

Project Diary and Source Code

Along with the final report you are required to submit the original of your project diary. The diary is not assessed in itself, but is taken into account when the technical aspects of your work are graded. The diary will be returned to you after assessment.

You are also required to submit to the project repository one copy of all programs, specifications and data that you developed during the project. This is usually bulky archival material that is not appropriate for the final report. Your supervisor is also likely to appreciate a copy of your files.

Final Demonstration

You are required to demonstrate your final "system" to your supervisor and second marker before the end of the Spring semester. The demonstration is not assessed in itself, but is taken into account when the technical aspects of your work are graded.

Final Presentation

You are required to give an oral presentation of your project results. Presentations are given to your fellow class-mates and staff. A presentation lasts 10 minutes, including a few minutes for questions. The presentation is not assessed in itself, but is taken into account when the presentational aspects of your work are graded. The schedule of presentations is as follows.

Schedule to follow.

Up one level to CSC9Z* (Honours Project)