Brief Description of Research
[Introduction/Preview]
Major Heading (Level 1 heading)
Body text goes in this position. For the body text of a report, use a serif font like Times New Roman, in 12 pt. Don’t overcrowd the page. Leave plenty of white space to rest the eye. Leave at least 1” margins on all sides. As a general rule, single-space the text of your reports—but double-space between paragraphs. Make sure your paragraphs are not excessively long. Paragraphs are “chunks” of text that are supposed to present a single line of thought—but when your thought is long, don’t hesitate to divide it into two or more scannable parts. Think of your reaction as a reader when you see a huge long paragraph!
Major Heading
Avoid “stacked headings,” or two headings without intervening explanatory text. This means that at the start of each major section, you should include a brief overview stating the purpose of that section and summarizing its contents.
Subhead A (Level 2 heading)
There are other ways to order and design the information in a report. Certainly you should use visuals. As Figure 1 shows, a picture is worth a thousand words: you can represent stages of a process or show comparisons or trends better in a visual than in a lengthy prose discussion, but never let a visual stand alone.
F I GU R E 1 . B u d g e t S u r p l u s
3 5 12
Notice that figures are clearly labeled with title and a consecutive numerical reference. You can reference these in your discussion (e.g., “as Figure 1. shows”)
UNLV Business Writing 1
Brief Description of Research
Subhead B (level 3 heading). Notice that the report’s third-level heading is Times New Roman Bold. You must decide how you will arrange information hierarchically within these three levels of information.
Subhead A
Lists are helpful for ordering information: lists provide a visual means of presenting information lists are logically appealing, scannable lists should be grammatically and conceptually parallel (items should be equal, not sequential, i.e., first, second, third
UNLV Business Writing 2