Style and content

It is common in academic and industrial research to produce an interim report about half way through a piece of project work. Such a document details the progress to date and outlines the strategy that will be adopted to ensure that the project is completed successfully and on time. Typically, a milestone report is read by both technical and business managers. It should therefore contain details of technical issues, but must also be well presented and clearly written. The reader will need to be convinced that the work is worthwhile and is likely to result in an interesting and/or useful outcome.

You are required to write a technical milestone report (TMR) conforming to the following rules:

• the length of your TMR must not exceed 6 A4 sides, including diagrams, references, appendices and all other content elements. A penalty of up to 20 marks may be applied for exceeding the page limit;
• use 12-point font, single line spacing and 2.5 cm margins all round;
• two copies of the TMR must be submitted;
• the title, author’s name and a summary should appear at the top of the first page, with the main text continuing. No special covers are required and the sheets should be stapled together before submission.

You may find the CUED Guide to Report Writing helpful.

Assessment

The technical milestone report will be assessed against the following criteria:

• professionalism of presentation;
• motivation for work;
• clarity of explanation of the work that has been completed;
• achievement in the project so far;
• quality of structure and detail in the plan for future work.