Formatting your information

Appendices

‘Appendices’ is the plural of the word ‘appendix’. This section of your report is titled ‘Appendices’ if it has more than one appendix entry. If you only have one item to put in this section, you would title it ‘Appendix’.

Appendices are at the very back of your report as the last part to your report structure. The section also requires a strict format to tell the reader what each appendix entry is. Look at the image below for more details on how your appendices should be formatted. Click on the dots for more information.

Here are some key points for organising your appendices: 

• Alphabetical or numeral headings e.g. Appendix A or Appendix 1 etc. 
• Refer to your appendices in the main body of your report e.g. ‘see Appendix A for the survey questions’ 
• Organise by the order they appear in the main body of your report 
• List your Appendices in your contents page 

Remember, each appendix entry is additional information to the main body of your report to support your work. If you have not mentioned the information in your report, it should not be in your appendices. 

Images

A common feature of report writing is to include graphs, charts and/or images to visually illustrate your work. It is important to ensure these graphics are accompanied with appropriate information for the reader to understand what they’re looking at and why. The example below shows a standard layout of a graph and details the information which must be included. Click on the dots for more information. 

Graphs, charts and images are labelled as ‘figures’ e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3 etc. Tables are labelled as ‘tables’ e.g. Table 1, Table 2, Table 3 etc. Your report should include a ‘List of figures’ and a ‘List of tables’ after your contents page (if you have one) and before your abstract/executive summary (if you have one) or introduction. 

Top tip: if you are importing a graph or chart generated through Microsoft Excel, make sure you have all your labelling correct and in a large enough font to be readable on your report before you download the image.