0.6 Demonstrating your knowledge and contributions to a profession

The reports required for completion of the Professional Science Master’s program must demonstrate the writer’s scholarship and knowledge. Students report on their internships to faculty and other students as part of the educational process. It may be necessary for the advisor to discuss the student’s project AT THE BEGINNING OF THE INTERNSHIP with company managers to ensure that a project will be assigned that has educational benefits as well as corporate benefits. If a company restricts too severely what the student can present to others, he or she will not be able to use the report in his or her job search. Furthermore, if the work to be done is extremely specialized and will not contribute to the student’s marketable experience, it should not be chosen as an internship project. Internships must benefit students as well as companies. Being involved in a standard project or a new but explainable project that a student can use to prepare for his or her career should be a major objective in the internship search.

The management report and the technical report are directed to two different audiences. The management report is directed to the management of the company in which the writer interned. The technical report is written for members of the technical discipline that the student has chosen: nanoscale physics, subsurface geoscience, or environmental analysis and decision-making. The needs of these two different audiences usually require that the writer organize the two reports differently, select different details, and use different types and amounts of evidence in each one.

Rarely, circumstances will justify offering a single report to fulfill the degree requirements. Students may request approval for producing a single report when certain circumstances converge: the technical focus of the company, the nature of the managers’expected decisions (requiring technical data or explanation), and the technical nature of the student’s work. For example, an article for publication in a scientific journal about work done in a public or government institution might demonstrate both technical details and audience adaptation. Similarly, a technical report to be delivered to a company’s client might contain both the technical details and show adaptation to an organization’s needs. A technical report with a cover memo to management will not usually suffice.

The business report

The business report audience.

The business report should be written to an upper-level manager or executive committee audience. It SHOULD NOT CONTAIN a great deal of material such readers already know. The manager knows what’s going on but needs documentation of what you were assigned to do and why. He or she does not need basic information about the firm. Imagine that Dr. Leebron (the president of Rice University) were reading your report about a project you had done here on campus. He wouldn’t need you to say that Rice University strives to provide an outstanding education for undergraduates and graduate students in selected fields or that Rice is located in Houston, right? If you take information about a company’s mission from its Web site, paraphrase it, although you should use the exact wording of its mission, which may be a slogan used widely in the firm.