Capstone Writing Review

Information on Capstone Reports

There are two kinds of reports that will be used in this course:

• Standard report

• Memo-style report

Unless otherwise instructed, the two-week problems will require a standard report and the one-week or shorter problems will require a memo-style report.

For both types of problems, please read CasptoneWork.doc.

A standard report should be written in the following format (the numbers indicate a rough emphasis on different portions, but these will vary based on the nature of the problem.). Each of 1-6 below should correspond to a section of the report.

1. Executive Summary 15

Approximately a half-page summary for management (a busy executive who knows little about statistics, and is interested only in how the results are of use to the company). An introduction to remind the executive of the problem, and then quantitative results, conclusions and recommendations. Totally void of jargon.

2. Background, Motivation, Statement of Problem and Objectives 10

3. Design and Data Collection, or Explanation. 10

For experimental data, the design, protocol, how response is defined, with enough information so that someone else could repeat the process, aside from very technical features. What factors & why (if known...), what levels & why, etc. For observational data, an explanation of how data were collected, purpose of original data collection, and so on. If appropriate, your evaluation of the quality of the data based on the quality of the data-collection process.

4. Statistical Analysis 50

What results occurred. Appropriate plots that indicate key features of the raw data. Build a suitable model, do residual analyses, ..., and summarize your findings. This may well be an iterative process: examining different error distributions, transformations, predictors, and so on. Use proper statistical analyses and good graphics to summarize your findings. Remember sufficient statistics.

5....