The business report should follow the following structure:
1. Title page (including word count to nearest thousand words)
2. Acknowledgements (if any)
3. Table of Contents and List of Illustrations
4. Executive Summary (approximately half a page)
5. Chapters are recommended to be structured as follows
• Chapter 1 Introduction, containing:
1) A clear statement in the opening paragraph of the objectives of the
business report
2) A restatement of the title as an issue/problem;
3) Issues/topics that you would like to analyse for your chosen
company/business sector.
4) A summary of the accounting/finance techniques employed
5) A brief outline of subsequent chapters (Reader Map).
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• Chapter 2 Review of the background of your chosen company/business
sector. You should identify and discuss topics or issues that you would like
to investigate and justify why they are worth analysing.
• Chapter 3 Research Methods. You should explain which accounting/finance
techniques you would like to adopt in order to address the issues identified.
You should explain what data you would collect and how they are to be
collected and analysed.
• Chapter 4 Analysis of your empirical data derived from your application of
the chosen techniques.
• Chapter 5 Conclusions (and Recommendations). You should reflect on your
discussion to reach your conclusions. You should also identify the limitations
of your research.
The chapters are recommended: discuss with your supervisor if needed.
6. Appendices
7. List of References
2 Formatting of the report.
The following rules apply:
• Please use 12 point, Time New Roman or Arial font, 2.54cm margins and at
least 1.5 line spacing. Ensure appendices are referenced within text and
clearly labelled at the end of the report and that appropriate referencing
standards have been used (please see below for further guidance on
referencing). Please also ensure figures and tables are clearly labelled and
referred to in the text. Small characters (such as subscripts and superscripts) should
be at least 7pt.
• The presentation of your report must be of acceptable quality (see Marking
Descriptors below).
• The cover sheet must be included with your report, which should also show
the number of words in the business report (to the nearest thousand).
5 Suggested checklist for the report
There are some key questions you should ask yourself about the structure, style and
content of your business report. These are:
• Have I clearly, and briefly, stated the objectives of the business report on the
first page of the first chapter (Introduction) of the business report?
• Have I provided the reader with a reader map (i.e. a brief description of what
each chapter of the business report covers) in the first chapter?
• Have I tackled the topic covered by the title? Have I left out important themes
and material? Have I included material that is not relevant?
• Have I structured my business report so that the material is coherently
organised and builds an argument in a logical way?
• Have I shown the ability to collect data of sufficient size and quality to produce
useful analyses?
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• Have I given references whenever appropriate? Are there points at which I
have failed to deal with the question “How do we know that?”? (Another
common failing of Master’s business reports is uncritical use of assertions in
newspaper articles or in websites that have no obvious standing or authority).
• Do my citations and my list of references conform to the standards given in
these Guidelines?
• Are my conclusions a good summary of the findings of my business report?
Are they well supported by the evidence I have used and my discussion of that
evidence? Do they relate to the objectives stated for the business report at the
outset?
• Have I checked spellings and grammar? Have I conveyed my ideas clearly in
English? Is the presentation of the business report of good quality?
• Does the title accurately reflect the contents of my business report?
• Would someone attracted by the title of my business report find its contents
and conclusions useful?
• Is the abstract an accurate summary of the entire business report (a common
failing is to use the abstract as a surrogate Introduction)? Have I ensured that
the abstract does not contain any ideas that do not occur in the main text?
