Contextual Report

(assignment 2):
An Outline
CIS13-3
Enjie Liu
Where Are We?
For your final year project

Done:
Project supervisor
Project Proposal Form
Ethics Form
To do:
Contextual Report
Interim report
Final report
Contextual report – assignment 2

• Contextual Report:
• What does it cover?
• Structure & presentation
• Grading example
• Writing style & referencing
• What next?
Contextual Report

• CIS013-3 – Assignment 1 (Project Proposal) and list of

resources: 30% of the unit CIS013-3 Assignment Grade
• CIS013-3 – Assignment 2 (Contextual Report): 70% of the unit
CIS013-3 Assignment Grade.
Contextual Report: What does it
cover?

• Three key inputs:

• Market Research/Literature Review
– depend on the project type, and discuss this with
your supervisor, you will be asked to do both, or
just literature review
• Project plan
• Planning your artefact
• Of course, you need to properly reference your
findings from the literature
Market Research

• For certain project, you will need to discuss with your supervisor, if
you need to undertake a market research
Literature Review

• to summarise relevant work done in your chosen area.

• this may refer to a mixture of sources used in the chosen area,
including:
 academic journals
 may also survey the tools
Approaches
products.
• to identify and critically review the main and state of art ideas within
your chosen area.
Project Plan

• identify the tasks necessary to complete your project

• present a timeline for their completion, using a graph, such as a
GANNT chat
Planning your artefact

• identify, review and report on relevant techniques necessary to

validate your design. This will include hardware, software or
simulation tools that you will use to analysing your design.
What goes into the contextual
report?

• Title page
• Contents Page
• Section 1 Introduction
• Section 2 The Literature Review/Market Research
• Section 3 Project plan
• Section 4 Planning your artefact
• References
• Appendices
What goes into the contextual
report?
• Title page
• Contents Page
• Section 1 Introduction
• Section 2 Literature Review
• Section 3 Project plan
• Section 4 Planning your artefact
• References
• Appendices
Project brief & report
structure:
- Goal of project
- Context of project
- Overall objectives
- Techniques for realisation
- Structure of contextual
report
What goes into the contextual
report?
• Title page
• Contents Page
• Section 1 Introduction
• Section 2 Literature Review
• Section 3 Project Plan
• Section 4 Planning your artefact
• References
• Appendices
- Literature Review
• What is the latest
achievement/technologies/
tools/approaches in your
chosen area
• Reference to existing
work
• Comparative analysis
- Market research
• Reference to clients
• Patterns & analysis
• Requirement
specifications
What goes into the contextual
report?

• Title page
• Contents Page
• Section 1 Introduction
• Section 2 Contextual Review
• Section 3 Project plan
• Section 4 Planning your artefact
• References
• Appendices Tasks, and when to start and
finish the tasks
What goes into the contextual
report?

• Title page
• Contents Page
• Section 1 Introduction
• Section 2 Contextual Review
• Section 3 Project plan
• Section 4 Planning your artefact
• References
Requirements, Design,
• Appendices Testing strategy, and
Evaluation strategy
Sample contents in the
contextual report?

• Title page Don’t copy these

• Contents Page
subheadings –they are an
• Section 1 Introduction
• Section 1.1 Aims and Objectives indication of the kind of
• Section 2 The Literature Review/Market research structure that you might
• Section 2.1 Some technical background
• Section 2.2 Relevant work done in your chosen area
use: choose headings that
with critical review are relevant to your topic
• Section 3 Project plan
• Section 3.1 Project review
• Section 3.2 Future plan
• Section 3.3 GANNT chat for the future plan
• Section 3 Planning your artefact
• Section 3.1 Requirements
• Section 3.2 Design
• Section 3.3 Testing strategy
• Section 3.4 Evaluation strategy
• References
• Appendices
The final project report
(sample)

• Title page
• Contents Page
• Chapter 1 Introduction This assignment
• Chapter 2 The Literature Review
• Chapter 3 Design
When you do the main
• Chapter 4 Implementation implementation work on
• Chapter 4 Evaluation your project you will
complete these chapters
• Chapter 5 Conclusion
• References
• Appendices
Marking Scheme

• The marks will be allocated as follows (a detailed marking scheme

can be found in unit handbook)

• 10% communication and quality of the Contextual Report

• 20% for planning of Artefact
• 50% for the Literature Review on the up to date development, tools,
approaches, algorithm, in your chosen area of project subject
• 20% for the Project Plan
Writing style (I)

• Work out how the material that you have got fits together
• Try drawing a mind map or other graphic – use this to organize
the sections as you write them
Writing style (II)

• Use a formal, third person style

Example…
• Lasseter [87] summarizes the main principles of traditional
animation that can be applied to computer animation, including
‘squash and stretch’.
Not
• Lasseter wrote a journal article that says the main principles of
traditional animation can be applied to computer animation.
• I researched a website that gives the main principles of
traditional animation.
Writing style

• Summarise all of the relevant information or ideas:

don’t expect a reader to do the work for themselves:
• Lasseter [87] summarizes the main principles of traditional
animation that can be applied to computer animation. These
include squash and stretch, anticipation and staging. ‘Squash
and stretch’ is the…

Not
• The main principles of traditional animation that can be applied
to computer animation are explained by Lasseter [87]

If they are not worth mentioning in

your text then get rid of the whole lot!
A reminder about referencing

• You must paraphrase (write the ideas in your own words) or put
in quotes if you use somebody else’s words
• Even if you paraphrase, you still need to provide the reference
so the reader knows where you got your information from and
how reliable it is.
• Always include short reference in body of text and full reference
in references list at end of report

• You must reference all work that is included in your report.