We will have a standard format for our reports in this class. Feel free to include multiple charts, but clearly label them and refer to them in your text.
The first section should have your title and introduction paragraph. It should describe the purpose of your analysis, the data being used, your main question, and your major finding.
Your major finding should clearly state the main results. If needed, use bullet points or numbered lists for clarity. Include any relevant statistics, figures, or visualizations (e.g., “Sales increased by 15% in February” or “the R^2 was 0.45, showing a strong effect”).
Example
Created by Nathan Garrett. Updated 1/1/11
This analysis uses holiday toy sales to test for the existence of Santa Claus. Its data includes holiday toy sales from Amazon.com and Target. If Santa exists, I expect that most holiday gifts would be from the North Pole. However, we see a significant increase in parent gift purchases. This confirms my Grinch hypothesis.
The second section should describe your data. Write a short paragraph describing your data, its source, observations, and time period. Mention any assumptions or preprocessing steps taken (e.g., data cleaning, handling missing values). Add a bullet list for your key variables.
Example
Amazon and Target provided three million order records from the 2020-2021 holiday season. Thirty-thousand rows related to Hanukkah were excluded.
Key variables included:
Describe your methods, such as statistical tests or machine learning models. Include a data visualization of your prediction or errors.
Example
The regression model predicted the purchaser field (Santa or a parent). My independent variables included item type, price, and date. Date was converted to a days_until_christmas variable. The model has a R^2 of 0.56. The errrors were appropriate for the model type.
include model output include a chart showing the results
Mention any limitations or constraints of the analysis. Suggest areas for further investigation or analysis.
Example
This analysis did not account for external factors such as market competition or economic conditions, which could influence sales performance. Future research could incorporate these factors to enhance the model’s accuracy.”
List any sources, datasets, or tools used in the analysis.
Sources included:
Here are some good examples of well-designed reports.