Student in a private study space

Did you spot these mistakes?

In the previous step, you were asked to download an example of a report that contained lots of deliberate errors.

How many did you spot? In this section, we highlight some of the biggest mistakes the writer of this technical report has made.

Page 1

The first page of the 'Spot the mistakes' exercise with some errors highlighted. The annotations point out that no author is listed, and the abstract is an introduction without the results or conclusions included. Also there are no page numbers in the contents page, no section or subsection numbers, and no page number at the bottom of the page. The referencing style is inconsistent.

Page 2

The second page of the 'Spot the mistakes' exercise with some errors highlighted. The annotations point out that font style of section headings is inconsistent. Figures are referred to as 'below' and not numbered. The author slips into the personal pronoun in the method section, writing 'We conducted the experiments...'. Also in the method section there is a table that is not numbered or referred to in text, and that is incomplete without units on the temperatures column.

Page 3

The third page of the 'Spot the mistakes' exercise with some errors highlighted. The final page's annotations show that the text is littered with more personal pronouns. The use of 'we' is personal and technical reports should be impersonal.

When an experienced marker views a document containing these types of errors, they spot them almost immediately like it is second nature. Have you, after learning on this course, developed this skill?