Guidelines for Writing Summer Training/Dissertation Report

It is mandatory for all the students of PGDM/PGPFC/PGPSM at IMIS to undergo Summer Training in an organization for a period of eight weeks, on completion of their third term. In addition to Summer Training, all the students are essentially required to carry out a research work known as Dissertation on a specific topic during the fifth and sixth term. Both the Summer Training and Dissertation require submission of report as a testimony of their work, which will be examined and evaluated. The Summer Training report is to be submitted not just to the institute but also to the organization where the student has undergone training. The content of a report depends on the type of the report the student is writing, the requirement of the target audience, the organization he/she is working for. In a generalized sense, an ideal project report should cover the following elements: a. Cover Page b. Certificate from the Guide/Organization c. Declaration d. Acknowledgements e. Abstract/Preface f. Contents g. Introduction h. Main Text i. j. k. l. Conclusion/Recommendations Appendices (if necessary) References Glossary (if necessary)

Cover Page

This is the first page of the report. It should contain the title of the report, name of the organization, name of author, enrollment no., name of the guide, name of the institute with logo. A sample format of this page is given below.
Summer Training Report On

Comparative Analysis of Credit Policies of Different Housing Finance Corporations

At

Birla Home Finance Ltd.,

Kolkata

Enrollment No. 0321 Batch 2007-09 Under the Guidance of

Mr. Surjit Singh

Prepared By

Prof. Madhusudan Sengupta

As a Partial Fulfillment of PGDM Programme of IMIS

Institute of Management & Information Science

Bhubaneswar

However, in case of report on dissertation, there will be no provision for the name of the organization in the cover page if the student is not attached to any organization for dissertation work. Rest of the things will remain as they are.

Contents
This element gives the reader an overall view of the report. The main divisions and subdivisions should be listed with the number of the page on which they first appear. It helps the reader locate a particular chapter easily. An example is given below.

CONTENTS
Certificate Declaration Acknowledgement List of Illustrations/Tables Abstract Chapter I Introduction 1.1 Objective, Scope, and Limitations 1.2 Research Methodology Chapter II ____________________________________ 2.1 ________________________ 2.2 ________________________ 2.3 ________________________ 2.4 ________________________ Chapter III ____________________________________ 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ i ii iii iv v 1-6 1 2 4 7 - 15 7 8 10 12 14 16 - 32 16 17 20 25 30 33 - 40 33 34 37 38 - 41 42 43

Chapter IV Conclusions 4.1 Conclusion/Findings 4.2 Recommendations Appendices References Glossary

Certificate from Guide/Organization

In case of Summer Training, the student has to attach the copy of certificate showing the authenticity of the work done by him/her from both the organization and the faculty guide.

Declaration
In this element the student has to give a declaration duly signed by him stating the originality of his/her work.

Acknowledgements
There are many persons who may have helped the student during the course of his/her project. It is his/her duty to acknowledge and thank them for their help. Customarily thanks are due to the following persons in the given order: a) Head of the Institute b) Company Guide c) Faculty Guide d) Others

List of Tables/Figures
A separate list of tables and figures are given immediately after the Contents page. Its layout is same as that of Contents and it gives information about the number, title and page reference of each table/figure.

Abstract
The abstract is the summary form of the entire report. This tells in concentrated form what the report is about. The purpose of this report is to enable the reader to gather the idea about the work quickly without going through the whole report. An abstract should be self-sufficient and intelligible without reference to any other part of the report. It is never intended to work as a substitute for the original document. But it must contain sufficient information to allow the reader to ascertain his/her interest.

Introduction
In this element the problem of the research/project assignment is introduced. It should contain the purpose of the report, scope, limitations of the study, methods of collecting data and their sources, sufficient background material including literature survey to present the reader a clear picture of the work.

Main Text
This section describes the main content of the report. The main function of this part is to present the data in an organized form discuss its significance and analyze the results therefrom. Usually it has several chapters grouped under different headings and sub-headings. It contains the information about the organization (in case of Summer Training), data collection, the survey done, a description of activities, the results obtained and interpretations, etc.

Conclusions and/or Recommendations

The conclusions and/or recommendations (if any) are based on the discussions and interpretations of the results obtained. It would be helpful to the reader if other possibilities pertaining to the stated conclusions and/or recommendations are discussed.

Appendices
The contents of the appendix are essentially those, which support or elaborate the matter in the main text. The matter which is essential but which unnecessarily diverts the attention of the reader from the main problem is generally put into an Appendix. These are some of the items, which normally form part of the Appendix: Calculation Sheets Flow Charts The Questionnaire

 Maps Samples of work done Supplementary details of concepts, etc.

References
All references should be given in this section. The reference citations should be taken up in the following manner: Shocker, R.L. (1996), An Alternative Approach to Retailer Choice Models, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol.29 (3), pp. 102-118. (for Journals) Pattnaik, Bikas K. (1990), Strategic Marketing, New York: Oxford University Press. (for books) Time to Call in the Boss, Business Week, 27th July 1999, pp. 32-36. (for periodicals) Sometimes, the reference citations are given in the main text. This should include the authors last name and year of publication enclosed in parentheses separated by a single space. For example, (Miller 1988) or (Miller and Kumar 1989) or Miller, Kumar and Dey 1993). In case of more than three authors, the reference can be cited as (Miller et al.1994).

Glossary
The glossary is a list of technical words used in the report and their explanations. However, if the number is small, they can be explained in the footnotes. Whether the glossary is to be included in the report or not depends upon the target audience for whom the report is prepared. If the readers field of expertise is the one to which the report relates, there is no need for a glossary. But, if the audience is drawn from other areas, it is advisable to give a glossary.