State of the art

This file says who holds the record on each sub-question: the most adopted practice, kept apart from the best evidence.

Most adopted (practice record)

Sub-question Holder What it is Evidence of adoption
Report components NISO 2010 required title section, abstract, contents, summary, introduction, methods, results and discussion, conclusions a US standard reaffirmed in 2010; a US Air Force laboratory guide uses it (not verified: no guide was reached; search summary only)
Thesis form the simple (introduction, literature, method, results, discussion, conclusion) plan the plan taught by university handouts handouts only; no count found
Summary first NISO 2010 and engineering firms a non-technical executive summary, often prepared for a long report Sheffield 2017 interviews; no adoption count
French internship report school guides such as EOST 2026 and TSE 2017 company, missions, technical work, conclusion with distance; defence before a jury two guides; no count found
French grading a grid with form and substance TSE 2017 (7 and 13 of 20), INSPE 2021 (15 written of 20) two grids; no count found

Best evidence (research record)

Sub-question Holder Method Measured how
Genres of student writing Gardner 2013, Nesi 2012 corpus classification of 2,858 texts counts by family (Table 4) and by level and disciplinary group (tables under Figures 1 and 2)
Which parts engineers read Pinelli 1982 survey, 378 internal and 504 external respondents self-reported share reading each component, and ranked order
How examiners judge Mullins 2002 30 interviews themes (full text), no counts of criteria
Headings and recall Lorch 1996 two experiments (free recall, N = 80; summarization, N = 99) free recall and summaries
Structured abstract Hartley 2004 narrative review of 31 studies information content, readability

Records kept apart

  • Highest self-reported rate: in a survey of 882 readers the conclusion is read by 97% (Pinelli 1982, measured as a self-report survey, 1982, one agency).
  • Not established: any effect of an executive summary, conclusion-first order or length on report readers' accuracy or time.
  • A lower bound would be an impossibility result; none applies here.

Open

Item Status
Move analysis of a French internship report pointers only (a 2009 study of student-teacher placement reports and a 2012 chapter on university writing, not verified: titles not given)
Examiners' reading order reported by interview (Mullins 2002, full text); no test of its effect located
Host companies' reading not located
ISO 7144 content paywalled
Informative against topic headings not located