HOW TO WRITE AN ASSIGNMENT/REPORT

How to write a report is necessary to know both for the student but also for people
working. This document will give you some advice for making the task easier.
The reports you are going to write in most of the courses should show the results
of your work by analysing and discussing. It is important that statements that are
not obvious are strengthened. You can do that by conducting a line of argument.
You are supposed to explain and justify your statements.
It is important to separate your statements from other people’s statements, you
must make references to the literature you have been reading and quote in a cor-
rect way. Facts and interpretations of facts should also be separated. What was
written in the book/paper and what is my opinion about the fact/concept? You are
supposed to show not only the result of your work but also how this work has
been conducted; you must describe your method (not always required).
Some courses requires more extensive work with your assignments, you will have
to write something that will be more like a scientific paper.

The contents of a “typical” assignment/report

Titlepage: The title should make people interested in reading what you have writ-
ten. On the title page you also write the name of the course, which exercise it is
about and all group members’ names.
Introduction: You must make the reader interested in the subject. Why do you
think this is worth examining, worth writing about? The purpose of your work
should be explained.
Method: You describe how work has been done. If you have used models and
methods from books you must make references to these books.
Theoretical foundation: You describe the most important points of view on and
opinions of the subject you have found when studying the literature. These theo-
ries form the basis of the analysis and discussions made later in the paper. Here it
is important to quote and make references correctly. This chapter is about what
others have written, not about your opinions. Therefore it must be clear which au-
thor you have made references to or quoted. More about this in a section later.
Result: A presentation of your “practical” work. This work could be a visit to a
company, an interview or just discussions with other students. You also analyse
and discuss your results. The theories you described are compared to the results of
the practical work. If the task is theoretical, that is you have only read about the
subject, then you analyse by comparing different authors’ view of the subject.
And for some reports you compare these with your own opinion.

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Conclusions and discussions Which conclusions can be drawn from this work?
The conclusions should show that you have done what you stated when describing
your purpose. You discuss your own work and methods if that is possible. Could
this work have been done in another way? You must also show that your work has
been finalized, show that this is the last part.
References: The last part of your paper is a list of the literature you have used.
(How to write a reference list, see the last page of this document.)

Citing - How to make references and quotes

There are many ways to make references. Different authors and researchers do not
use the same techniques. In your text you can refer to other authors by giving each
of them a distinct number [1] or you can write the authors name, and year of pub-
lication like this; (Wiig, 1993). But choose either way, do not mix them. Be co-
herent and consequent. Every reference/author you mention in your text must be
found in the reference list. Moreover - you should have read every reference you
mention! That is, if you have not read Davenport yourself, but about him in some-
one else’s text, you should refer to him like this: "According to Davenport (in Au-
thor, 2009) is knowledge... " Do notice though, that academically this is not pref-
erable, you should read the original source yourself. Visit the Luleå University
Library website http://www.ltu.se/lib/services/courses/d24259?l=en if you want
further knowledge on citing and references.

Examples
Data:
• ”Raw facts about people, objects and events in an organization.” (Valacich et al.,
2001, p. 10)
• “Raw facts or observations that describe a particular phenomenon i. e. tempera-
ture, cost, age.” (Haag 2002, p. 15)
Data is also mentioned as that we are gathering and that we are processing in an in-
formation system. (Leijk & Deeks, 2002)

“Et al.” is used when there are more than two authors.
The two bullets show quotes, I have written exactly as in the book. When quoting
you need to add the page number.
The last sentence is a reference, a summary of something that I have read. The
recommendation is that each paragraph in the Theoretical foundation should end
with a reference, even if the same book/paper is referenced in the next paragraph.
However, if you write a longer summary in a long paragraph from the same book
you should not write the whole text and end it with one reference. The reader must
be able to find out rather soon who the author is and you must make sure that it’s
clear that everything is summoned from the same book. This is an example of
how to write:

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 According to Blacker (1995), the discussions about knowledge are moving from a fo-
cus on knowledge in the body and routines (embodied and embedded knowledge), and
towards knowledge in the brain, dialogue and symbols (embrained, encultured an en-
coded knowledge). These five types of knowledge derive from the literature about or-
ganizational learning, and serve to emphasise the complexity of issues that any or-
ganization must address in a discussion about knowledge (Blacker, 1995). Blacker
means that all types of knowledge are interrelated, hence, knowledge is “multi-faced
and complex, being both situated and abstract, implicit and explicit, distributed an in-
dividual, physical and mental, developing and static, verbal and encoded” (p. 1032).
However Blacker takes the discussion a step further and suggests that knowledge
should be analysed as an active process that is mediated, situated, provisional, prag-
matic and contested.
(From Holst, Marika: Knowledge Work across Boundaries. Licentiate Thesis 2004:66
Luleå University of Technology)

Layout (Advice)
• Ordinary paper size (A4)
• Line spacing: Single or 1,5 lines
• Length of each row: 13-14 cm (5-5.5 inches)
• Font size: 12 points
• Font: Times New Roman (For printing, easy to read on paper. For web site
publication other fonts are preferred. Most teachers print the reports before
reading)
• Headings: Not more than three levels
• Page numbers at the bottom of the page, in the right corner or in the middle
• Number figures

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References

Awad, E.M. & Ghaziri, H. M. (2003). Knowledge Management, Prentice-Hall,

Upper Saddle River.
Choo, C.W. (1998). The knowing Organization, Oxford University
Davenport, T.H. & Prusak.L. (1997). Working Knowledge: How organizations
manage what they know, Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
Densin, N & Lincoln, Y. (Eds) (1994) Handbook of Qualitative Research. Sage
Publications
Mason, J. (1996). Qualitative researching. Sage, London
Nationalencyklopedin. (2002). Information [On-line]. Available: http://www.ne.se
[2002-09-25] (Website reference. The date should be the date when you visited
the website.)
Nonaka, I. (1994). A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Or-
ganization Science, Vol 5, No1. (Article from a journal.)
Nonaka, I. & Takeuchi, H. (1995). The knowledge-creating company: how Japa-
nese companies create the dynamics of innovation, Oxford University Press, New
York, NY.
Polyani, M. (1997). The tacit dimension, in Prusak, L. Knowledge in Organiza-
tions. Newton: Butterworth – Heinemann.
Spek, R. v.d. & Spijkervet, A. (1997). Knowledge Management: Dealing intelli-
gently with Knowledge, CIBIT, Utrecht.

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