Whatever type of project you're doing it represents a significant and extended exercise in design and development requiring good management. The progress report provides a fixed point near the the middle of your project giving the ideal opportunity for both you and your supervisor to take stock of the work so far and to consolidate your plans for the remaining time. Your ideas may well have changed. Indeed, if part of your project was initial research in order to develop your own approach or solution, then you won't have been able to set out a plan for latter part of the project with much detail. Now you'll be able to provide those detailed plans and revise and expand your timetable accordingly.

The progress report is not intended to be an interim version of the final report or the first few chapters of the final report (although obviously the work you've done will be forming the basis of that lengthier report later). The progress report should provide a self-contained, brief overview of your progress so far and a convincing, detailed plan of the work remaining.

Talk to your supervisor

Your supervisor may prefer a particular form for the progress report or have ideas of what needs to be included for your specific project so talk to him/her as you plan the report. The following guidelines give the general expectations for what a progress report should include. Even if your supervisor has additional requirements for what you should include, the report length should not be significantly greater than that suggested above.

You may wish to ask your supervisor to look at a draft of your report before submission. Most supervisors are happy to give feedback at a general level but would not be reading the document in fine detail at this stage.

Style

The progress report is a formal document and should be written in an appropriate formal style. You should use clear, objective language and avoid the use of colloquialisms and abbreviations. Anything stated as a claim should be backed up (by a reference to the literature or by refering to your findings). In general, you should avoid writing in the first person. My advice would be that there are some occasions when avoidance of 1st person leads to very convoluted writing and you may want to relax the rule in such cases. However, mostly it should be unnecessary to use "I".

Areas for inclusion

Brief introduction to the project

The report should be a self-contained document so you should provide at least a brief introduction to the problem or area the work is addressing. You may wish to include some brief comments on your motivation for this such as the importance/timeliness of the investigation.

You can include a copy of the original specification as an appendix and can refer to this when appropriate.

Make sure the objectives of your project are clear and clarify why this is a significant undertaking of suitable level for a Work Based Project.

Background research

You will have done a good deal of finding out about the project area by reading articles, books, websites, technical manuals and so on. You may have tested other related systems to provide ideas. You need to show that you have a good understanding of the background area and how your project fits in to the existing landscape. There is certainly no room for a full literature review in the progress report, but you should give an indication of how you have gained background information. It would be appropriate to mention just a few citations which you view as key sources for your project. References should be provided as a formal reference list at the end of your report. Check if your supervisor has a preferred format. If not, you can choose your own style, but be consistent.

The Library has some good resources about referencing - see https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/students/referencing/referencing-styles/

Where are you now?

Provide an overview of your work so far. This should include:
Technical content - what work have you done? You should provide a meaningful summary of the significant aspects rather than simply saying "I did x, y and z". This is necessary to show you've actually done it and in order for your assessor to award marks according to the assessment criteria.
Progress - review your progress against the original timetable. If unexpected problems or delays have occurred, how have you dealt with the problem?

What are you doing next?

You may have changed your plans. At the very least, you are likely to have a much clearer idea of how things will proceed and the timings needed to complete each stage. Outline the plans for the remainder of your project and any alterations to your original ideas.

Provide an updated timetable with as much detail as possible.

Appraisal and reflection

What is your assessment on how things have gone so far? Are there lessons learned that you can use to make the work run more smoothly?

Ethics

Does any part of your work involve human involvement? If so you need to clarify whether ethical consent is needed. Even if it's not, it's a good idea to state that to show you've thought about it. In your progress report you should include a section which:

• confirms you have obtained consent and states the unique reference number you will have been allocated OR
• confirms that you have still to obtain consent (what stage is the application at?) OR
• states that your project does not involve any activities which require ethical consent.

Project management

How have you managed the project so far? You may be using a formal methodology (eg for software development or management of code versions). It may also be appropriate to refer to less formal ways of keeping on track, for example, regular timetable reviews with your supervisor.

A final thought...

The assessment criteria show how marks are awarded. Does your report make it easy for your assessor to tick off each requirement?