10 Common Mistakes in Postgraduate Level Reports

After each semester end, I have to read a lot of reports submitted by postgraduate students. Fall 2014 semester ends with 20+ reports submitted by students of the course, "GIS and Remote Sensing." After review of these reports, I have to communicate students that how they can improve their reports further (as there is always a room for it). Therefore, I come up with following list of 10 common mistakes (CMs) in submitted postgraduate reports.

CM#01: Missing page numbers.
CM#02: Figure/Table numbers are missing or do not follow a numbering sequence.
CM#03: Figure/Table does not have associated text description.
CM#04: Equations are not numbered and well-explained.
CM#05: Report contains short-sentences and incomplete sentences i.e. pharases.
CM#06: Font size changes frequently giving the impression of cut-and-paste work.
CM#07: Report has a presentation style.
CM#08: Sections and subsections are not properly numbered in the report.
CM#09: References are not numbered and not cited inside report.
CM#10: References are irrelevant and incomplete.

I suggest students to revise their reports accordingly and observe improvements by self-reflection. I strongly recommend to spend sometime on refreshing your report writing skills and ensure to adhere formatting guidelines before final submission of your future reports.