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ITLS5050 REPORT GUIDE

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16 April 2024

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This is a guide to the ITLS5050 individual report. The guide talks about how to write, structure and format a
professional report. The report itself is presented in the University of Sydney template. You can use this template
or create your own professional template.

All professional reports should include an executive summary. The length of the summary will depend on the
length of the report itself. For the individual report the Executive Summary should be less than half a page and
will not count towards the word count for the overall report.

The executive summary should include a summary of all of the key points covered within the document. The
executive summary should be written so that someone who is too busy to read the main report can read only the
executive summary and still determine if the content and any arguments presented within the document are
logical and that any recommendations made can be followed without the need to read further. The executive
summary should include an outline of all parts of the report including any recommendations made by the
writer(s) of the report.

To use this template you will need to:

1. Give the report a meaningful title. Replace the text which says ‘ITLS5050 REPORT GUIDE’ at the top of
this page.
2. Replace the text which says ‘<STUDENT ID NUMBER>’ with your Student ID number. Find this text at
the top of this page and also in the page header.
3. Replace the date with the current date. Find this text at the top of this page and also in the page footer.
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CONTENTS
ITLS5050 report guide............................................................................................................................................ 1
Executive Summary................................................................................................................................................ 1
Contents................................................................................................................................................................. 2
Introduction............................................................................................................................................................. 3
1 Contents of a report......................................................................................................................................... 3
1.1 Cover page............................................................................................................................................. 3
1.2 Table of contents.................................................................................................................................... 3
1.3 Main body of the report........................................................................................................................... 3
1.3.1 Content of the report........................................................................................................................... 3
1.3.2 Picking a topic..................................................................................................................................... 3
1.3.2 How to support your arguments.......................................................................................................... 4
1.3.3 Do you need to do data analysis for this report?.................................................................................4
1.3.4 Formatting your report......................................................................................................................... 4
1.3.5 Figures................................................................................................................................................ 4
1.3.6 Tables................................................................................................................................................. 4
1.3.7 Equations............................................................................................................................................ 4
1.4 Conclusions............................................................................................................................................ 5
1.5 Reference list.......................................................................................................................................... 5
1.6 Appendices............................................................................................................................................. 5
2 Referencing..................................................................................................................................................... 5
2.1 Direct quotes........................................................................................................................................... 5
2.3 Indirect quotes........................................................................................................................................ 5
2.4 When to use quotes................................................................................................................................ 6
3 Other tips......................................................................................................................................................... 6
4 Conclusion....................................................................................................................................................... 6
Reference list.......................................................................................................................................................... 7
Appendix 1.............................................................................................................................................................. 8

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INTRODUCTION
All professional reports need to have an introduction and this should follow after the table of contents. An
introduction should briefly set the scene for the report. The introduction of a report should state why the report is
being written and should be written with the target audience in mind. The introduction should clearly state what
the purpose of the report is and what problem or problems are being addressed within the report. An introduction
should also provide background material on the topic being discussed. The length of an introduction to a report
will depend on the problem being analysed and the degree of background information required.

The second part of the introduction should set out the structure of the report. For instance, by stating ‘Section 1
will discuss topic X, Section 2 presents a literature review, Section 3 discusses the methodology, Section 4
discusses the results and Section 5 will present the recommendations for future research.

1 CONTENTS OF A REPORT
This section sets out the recommended structure of a report. Treat these as general guidelines as there may be
specific requirements for particular assessment tasks in the other units that you study.

1.1 COVER PAGE

The cover page of a report should include the author’s student ID number. Sydney University uses anonymous
marking of reports so your name should generally not be put on the document. You should also give your report
a meaningful title that makes the content of the report clear to the reader. A title which lists the enterprise and
the issue you are discussing would be helpful for this report. To fill out the cover page for this template, enter the
correct date for your report and replace <STUDENT ID NUMBER> with your actual student ID number. Also
enter your student ID in the header of the document on page 1 and page 2 and the date of the assignment in the
footer on page 2.

1.2 TABLE OF CONTENTS

All reports should include a table of contents containing chapter headings, section headings, and subsection
headings. In addition, if appropriate, there should be a separate list of tables and list of figures. The table of
contents, list of tables, and list of figures should include the page numbers on which each entry is to be found.
The Table of contents should always follow after the executive summary.

1.3 MAIN BODY OF THE REPORT

1.3.1 Content of the report

The main body of the report should also be broken down into sections and subsections as required. The main
body of the Individual report can be up to 1000 words and should start by outlining the industry of your choice
and the impact of the LSCM issue of particular importance to that industry over the next three years. Do not pick
a topic that can be considered business as usual (e.g. demand forecasting) unless the topic will be particularly
challenging over the next five years (and then your report needs to explain why this is so).

The focus on this section needs to be a discussion of how data analysis can help the company and industry
address the issue of importance over the next five years. You need to clearly explain in your own words what
data is needed, what analysis technique is needed and how to implement the technique. Even if you do not have
access to all the data that you require, you should still provide tables, charts, and a demonstration of how the
data analysis works.

Finish with a section containing clear recommendations for future analysis, future work or future actions for the
company, industry and/or other relevant groups related to the data analysis you discussed in your report.

Use meaningful section headings. This means replacing the section headings in this template with ones that are
relevant for your report.

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1.3.2 Picking a topic

If you are studying ITLS5020 Production and Operations Management then you are free to use the same
industry for the individual report in both units or use the industry you discuss in the team project. If you do decide
to use the same industry in more than one assessment then you must not just copy and paste text from one
report into the other. You must rewrite your material in both reports and adapt the content to the different focuses
of the two reports.

You are free to choose a different topic and/or industry in the two reports. The choice is yours. However, there
must be a connection to logistics and supply chain management in either the industry or the issue or both. For
instance, you could discuss any issue of long term importance to the aviation sector (aviation is a part of the
broader LSCM industry) or you could discuss the growth of outsourcing in government (outsourcing is an aspect
of LSCM). These are just two examples, please try to come up with your own. If you are not sure if your
preferred industry and topic is relevant to LSCM then, please email Geoffrey.

1.3.2 How to support your arguments.

You must illustrate your report with at least one chart that you have created yourself and at least one table that
you have created yourself. You must also make reference to academic literature as well as other articles,
publications, news articles, websites, etc. that can support your argument.

1.3.3 Do you need to do data analysis for this report?

You are free to write your report more like a scoping study if you wish, for instance if you do not have access to
all the data you would need or you are wanting to discuss a difficult analysis technique that would be difficult to
implement but you should do some data analysis of your own for this report even if it is just to
demonstrate how the analysis might work.

As an example, you may want to discuss how the latest big data analysis techniques could help Toyota predict
demand for its SUVs. Obviously, you will not have the data for this and we would not expect you to be able to
implement the big data techniques in this unit. This would mean that your report would mostly describe what
data Toyota would need and how the big data analysis techniques work. But you should still be able to find a
time series of demand for Toyota and show some time series analysis to illustrate your report.

1.3.4 Formatting your report

This document is written in the University of Sydney report format. You are welcome to use this as a template.
However, any professional format is fine.

1.3.5 Figures

All figures need to be numbered and carefully labelled. Here is an example:

Figure 1: An image of a smiling face.

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1.3.6 Tables

Tables also need to be numbered and labelled but the label for a table goes above the table:

Table 1: An example table

Example table Example table
Information in a table Information in a table
Information in a table Information in a table

1.3.7 Equations

Most reports will not need equations, but these should also be numbered.

(1)

1.4 CONCLUSIONS

The conclusions section should summarise the findings of the report. For short reports, the conclusion may
include discussion of the recommendations, limitations of the analysis and areas for further research. For longer
reports, these may be given their own sections.

1.5 REFERENCE LIST

Every report should have a reference list that comes after the conclusions and before the appendices (if any
appendices are included). Section 2 discusses referencing.

1.6 APPENDICES

Sometimes an author will question whether to include some material in the body of the report. The material might
be something of a digression from the main report, it might interrupt the flow of the report or not be relevant to
every reader. This material can be put in an appendix.

Use appendices to include any material that is not essential to be included in the body of the report but is still of
some relevance to the report. Anything that is included in an appendix should always be referred to in the
document. Avoid using appendices as an excuse to exceed the word limit.

2 REFERENCING
Properly referencing the work of others is an essential element of academic integrity. It is also very easy to
achieve and well worth the effort. On the one hand, there are always marks for good referencing and good
referencing makes the report easier to read and appear more professional. On the other hand, poor referencing
can lead to loss of marks and the hassles of dealing with an academic integrity case. There are two types of
quotes, direct and indirect.

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2.1 DIRECT QUOTES

Direct quotes are where the idea and the words are taken from another source. The first step to referencing is to
acknowledge directly quoted material using quotation marks. Short quotes should be included in the body of the
paragraph like this: ‘Short quotes should be included in the body of the paragraph’ (Clifton 2020) but longer
quotes should be put in a separate indented paragraph. For example

‘From 2000 to 2005, the federal government offered a $2,000 tax deduction for the purchase of
any hybrid vehicle, beginning with the 2000 model-year Honda Insight. Under the Energy Policy
Act of 2005, the deduction was converted into a tax credit in January 2006.’ (Gallagher and
Muehlegger 2011).

Notice that both quotes are written in italics and both quotes list the author of the quote and the year it was
published. This is called in text citation and is the second step of properly referencing the work of others

The third step is to create a reference list at the end of the report. The reference list should include all the
sources that have been quoted in the report. You should follow the APA referencing style.

The library has a good guide: https://libguides.library.usyd.edu.au/citation to properly referencing the work of
others with details of the APA referencing style.

2.3 INDIRECT QUOTES

An indirect quote is where an idea has been taken from another source but not the exact words. In this case
quotation marks are not used but the idea still needs to be referenced using in text citations and reference lists.
As an example, Clifton (2021) discussed using indirect quotes and compared these to direct quotations.

2.4 WHEN TO USE QUOTES

Quoting other people’s work in a report demonstrates that the author has read widely and has considered the
thoughts of others in forming their own opinion. However, quoting is not a substitute for actually forming and
sharing opinions. Be careful not to write a report by simply stringing together quotes from others.

Make sure that the material that is quoted helps to support the arguments made in the report or otherwise adds
value to the report. Short direct quotes are usually better than longer direct quotes. Best of all are indirect quotes
as that demonstrates that the author has found some relevant material and understands the material well
enough to be able to express it in their own words.

3 OTHER TIPS
Carefully read the report for issues of clarity of written English, spelling mistakes, grammar issues. Good
presentation and good use of English makes a report look more professional.

4 CONCLUSION
This report suggests that a well formatted report will always be better received than a poorly formatted report.
Enjoy your report writing! Please note, we do not normally use exclamation marks in written reports!

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REFERENCE LIST
Gallagher, K.S. & Muehlegger, E. (2011), Giving Green to get Green? Incentives and consumer adoption of
hybrid vehicle technology. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 61(1),1-15.

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APPENDIX 1
This is where the appendix would go if one was required.

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