KOLEJ PROFESIONAL MARA BERANANG

REPORT WRITING FORMAT

Prepared by:

Roselena Mansor
Deputy Director (Academic Affairs)

10 December 2009

1
This report format contains guideline on word-processed report writing for all
programmes in KPM Beranang.

1.0 Language

The entire report should be written in English except for courses which the medium of
instruction is not in English. Language used must be simple and direct to the related
course.

2.0 Font

Use Arial as font type of size 12 for all text in the report.

3.0 Title and subtitle

All titles and subtitles must be numbered and bold. The subtitles should not be indented
but arranged in a structured manner not more than three levels as follow:

1.0 First level (Title of the topic) – level 1

1.1 Second level (Title of the subtopic) – level 2
1.1.1 Third level (Title of the sub-subtopic) – level 3

Sub-topics beyond level three are not allowed and should be labeled using alphabets
(a, b, c, …) and Romans. Numbering using Roman style (i, ii, iii, ….) is only allowed
after the alphabets have been used.

Example:
1.1.1 ………
a. ……………..
i. ……………..
b. …………….

2
All numbering should be left aligned.

4.0 Line/Body Text Spacing

Use JUSTIFY alignment with 1.5 spacing for the entire body text throughout the report.
The text body should not be indented for each paragraph, but hit the enter key twice
before stating the following new paragraph.

5.0 Captions

Captions must be written at the top of any table or figure.

6.0 Margins

All pages should be set with the same margin. The left margin should be 1.5 inch (for
binding purpose) and 1 inch for the top, right and bottom margins.

7.0 Pagination

Page numbers should be at the right bottom of the page and the page numbers should
appear by themselves and are not to be enclosed in parentheses, hyphens, title, etc.

8.0 Report Content

Report must not exceed 3,000 words and must contain the following:

3
8.1 Title page

College Logo (top centre)

KOLEJ PROFESIONAL MARA BERANANG

Course Title (centre)

Title of Report (centre)

Prepared for
Lecturer’s Name

Prepared by
Student’s Name (centre)

Academic Session & Year (centre)

8.2 Declaration

4
 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the work in this report is my own except for quotations and
summaries which have been duly acknowledged.

Date Student’s name & Signature

Student’s ID Number

8.3 Text

A report must have an introduction, findings or discussion, conclusion(s) and/or

recommendation(s).

8.4 References

Please cite the source of reference accordingly either from book, journal, electronic
media or etc.

8.5 Appendices
Each appendix should be identified in sequence separately in alphabetical order
(Appendix A, Appendix B, …. etc.). Do not provide page number for the appendices and
they should be placed at the end part of report.

9.0 Reference Style

KPMB follows Harvard Referencing format of writing references.

Books - Single author

5
In text*
(Civitello 2008)
OR
Civitello (2008) commented that...
References
Civitello, L 2008, Cuisine and culture: a history of food
and people, 2nd edn, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken.
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, Title and subtitle, Edition, Publisher,
Place of publication.

Books - Two authors

In text*
(Bennett & Blythe 2003, p. 171)
OR
Bennett & Blythe (2003, p. 171) claimed this...
References
Bennett, R & Blythe, J 2003, International marketing:
strategy planning, market entry & implementation,
Kogan Page, London.
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, Title and subtitle, Publisher, Place of
publication.
 Use an ampersand (&) between two authors' names.

Books - More than two authors

In text*
(Stephens et al. 2006)
References
Stephens, DR, Diggins, C, Turkanis, J & Cogswell, J
2006, C++ cookbook, O'Reilly, Sebastopol.

6
In text*
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, Title, Publisher, Place of publication.
 Names should be cited in the order they appear on
the title page.

Books - No authors

In text*
(Advertising in the Western Cape 1990)
References
Advertising in the Western Cape 1990, ABC Publishers,
Cape Town.
Bibliography Format
Title Year, Publisher, Place of publication.

Books - Multiple works by same author

In text*
Marketing research (Adcock 1998, 2000) has indicated
that...
References
Adcock, D 1998, Marketing: principles and practice,
Financial Times, London.
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, Title and subtitle, Publisher, Place of
publication.
 The items are arranged chronologically.

Books - Multiple works published in the same year by same author

In text*
In recent research (Arnold 2004a, 2004b)...
References

7
In text*
Arnold, G 2004a, Financial Times guide to investing:
the definitive companion to investment and the financial
markets, Financial Times, London.

Arnold, G 2004b, Handbook of corporate finance: a

business companion to financial markets, decision &
techniques, Financial Times, New York.
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, Title and subtitle, Publisher, Place of
publication.
 Date is followed by an "a" or a "b".
 The items are alphabetical arranged by title.
 The" is ignored in alphabetical listing

Books - Editors

In text*
(ed. Chin & Hack 2004)
References
Chin, CC & Hack, K. (eds) 2004, Dialogues with Chin
Peng: new light on the Malayan Communist Party,
Singapore University Press, Singapore.
Bibliography Format
Editor (ed.) Year, Title and subtitle, Publisher, Place of
publication.
 No full stops and no spaces are used with people's
initials.

Books - Chapter in a book

8
In text*
As stated by Roberts (2003, p. 91)...
References
Roberts, L 2003, 'Capital accumulation: tourism and
development processes in Central and Eastern Europe',
in D Hall (ed.), Tourism and transition: governance,
transformation and development, Cabi Publishing,
Oxfordshire, pp. 53-64.
 Editor's initial precede the surname because the
person's name is irrelevant when arranging the
reference list alphabetically.
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, Title and subtitle of the chapter, in
Editors (eds), Title of book, Publisher, Place of
publication, Pages.

Books - Book in a series

In text*
(Lahley 2001)
References
Lashley, C 2001, Empowerment: HR strategies for
service excellence, Hospitality, leisure and tourism
series, no. 9, Butterworth/Heinemann, Boston.
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, Title and subtitle, Series Title, volume
number, Publisher, Place of publication.

Books - E-book

9
In text*
(Widmer 1999)
References
Widmer, E 1999, Young America, Oxford University Press,
New York, retrieved 26 September 2007, from
url=http://site.ebrary.com/lib/taylorscollege/Doc?id=10086882.
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, Title, Publisher, Place of publication, Date
accessed, from url of site.

Books - Encyclopedia or Dictionary

In text*
The Penguin dictionary of architecture and landscape
architecture (1998, p. 235) defined it as...
References
Fleming, J, Honour, H and Pevsner, N (eds) 1998, The
Penguin dictionary of architecture and landscape
architecture, 5th edn, Penguin, London.
Bibliography Format
Editor(s) (eds) Year, Title, Edition, Publisher, Place of
publication.

Books - Theses

In text*
(Ho 2002, p. 63)
References
Ho, KH 2002, The emergence of fusion cuisine and its
link with nouvelle cuisine a multiple case study of
fusion-themed restaurants in Kuala Lumpur, BHTM
dissertation, Universite De Toulouse Le Mirail.
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, Title, Type of qualification, Academic
institution.

Books - Conference proceeding

10
In text*
(Yao 1997)
References
Yao, S 1997, 'Developing applications using ORDBMS
technology', Proceedings of the 8th International
Database Workshop (industrial volume), 29-31 July
1997, Hong Kong, Springer-Verlag, Singapore, pp. 30-
35.
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, 'Title of Paper', Conference Name, Date
of conference, Conference Location, Publisher, Place of
publication, Pages.

Books - Annual report

In text*
(Bank Negara Malaysia 2006)
References
Bank Negara Malaysia 2006, Annual Report 2006, The
Bank, Kuala Lumpur.
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, Report Title, Publisher, Place of
publication.

Journals - Article

In text*
As mentioned by Eagle (2007, p. 103)...
References
Eagle, L 2007, 'Commercial media literacy: what does it
do, to whom and does it matter?', Journal of
Advertising, vol. 36, no. 2, Summer, pp. 101-110.
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, 'Article title', Journal title, Volume,
Issue, Season, Pages.

11
Journals - Electronic article

In text*
According to Marsh (2006, p. 342)...
References
Marsh, C 2006, 'Aristotelian Ethos and the New Orality: implications
for media literacy and ethics', Journal of Mass Media Ethics, Vol.
21, No. 4, pp. 338-352, retrieved 28 September 2007, from
http://www.leaonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1207/s15327728jmme2104_8.
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, 'Article title', Journal title, Volume, Issue, Pages,
Date accessed, from url of site.

Journals - Newspaper

In text*
(Study loans for Bumis at Taylor's 2007)
References
'Study loans for Bumis at Taylor's' 2007, The Sun, 3
July, p. 6.
Bibliography Format
'Article title' Year, Newspaper (Section), Issued date,
Pages.

Journals - Press release

In text*
(BroadVision, Inc. 2007)
References
BroadVision, Inc. 2007, Taylor's University College to
Build Portals on BroadVision Portal Agility Suite, press
release, 6 August 2007.
Bibliography Format
Organization Year, Title, Description of document,
Issued date.

Websites - Document on websites

12
In text*
(Beirman 2001)
References
Beirman, D 2001, World Tourism Under Siege, online,
retrieved 28 September 2007, from
http://www.pata.org/patasite/index.php?id=198.
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, Title, Description of document, Date
accessed, from url of site.

Websites - Document on websites - no author

In text*
(The non-hub story 2007)
References
The non-hub story 2007, online, retrieved 28 September 2007, from
http://www.pata.org/patasite/fileadmin/docs/issuestrends/I_T_Mar07_The_Non-
Hub_Story.pdf.
Bibliography Format
Title of website Year, Description of document, Date accessed, from url of site.

Secondary Sources - Book

In text*
(Philips, cited in Civitello 2008, p.300)
OR
Philips (cited in Civitello 2008, p.300)
References
Civitello, L 2008, Cuisine and culture: a history of food
and people, 2nd edn, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken.
 The secondary source should be listed in the
References.
Bibliography Format

13
In text*
Author(s) Year, Title and subtitle, Edition, Publisher,
Place of publication.

Secondary Sources - Journal article

In text*
(Buckingham, cited in Eagle 2007, p. 106)
OR
Buckingham (cited in Eagle 2007, p. 106)
References
Eagle, L 2007, 'Commercial media literacy: what does it
do, to whom and does it matter?', Journal of
Advertising, vol. 36, no. 2, Summer, pp. 101-110.
 The secondary source should be listed in the
References.
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, 'Article title', Journal title, Volume,
Issue, Season, Pages.

Illustration - Image in a book

In text*
View from Haliburton's Hill by Daniell (Aiken 1994, plate
4)...
References
Aiken, SR 1994, Imperial Belvederes: the hill stations of
Malaya, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur.

14
In text*
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, Title, Publisher, Place of publication.

Illustration - Image on websites

In text*
Daniell's View from Strawberry Hill, Prince of Wales Island (British Library 2007)
References
British Library 2007, View from Strawberry Hill, Prince of Wales Island, online, retrieved
28 September 2007, from http://www.imagesonline.bl.uk/results.asp?
image=017118&imagex=12&searchnum=0002.
Bibliography Format
Originator Year, Title of image, Description of document, Date accessed, from url of site.

Illustration - If viewed the original artwork

In text*
(Daniell 1821)
References
Daniell, W 1821, View from Haliburton's Hill, Prince of
Wales Island, Etching and aquatint, Museum & Art
Gallery, Penang.
Bibliography Format
Artist Year, Title of image, Type of work, Location.

Other Sources - Blog

In text*
(Cresswell 2007)
References
Cresswell, P 2007, 'Explaining carbon 'cap-and-trade':
welcome to the era of eco-enslavement', 1 October
2007, Peter Cresswell's blog, online, retrieved 3

15
In text*
October 2007, from
http://www.solopassion.com/node/3323.
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, 'Title of blog entry', Date blog entry
written, Blog name,, Description of document, date
accessed, from url of site.

Other Sources - CD-ROMs

In text*
(Who's who 1897-1998 1998)
References
Who's who 1897-1998 1998, CD-ROM, London, Oxford
University Press.
Bibliography Format
Title Year, Description of document, Publisher, Place of
publication.

Other Sources - Lecture notes

In text*
(Martin 1992)

16
In text*
References
Martin, C 1992, 'Urbanization and climate', lecture notes
distributed in the topic ARCH5610, Designing for
climate, James Cook University, Brisbane on 12
October.
 Do not use italics.
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year of presentation, Lecture title, lecture
notes distributed in the topic, Title of module, Teaching
organisation, Location of teaching organisation, on Date
of presentation.

Other Sources - Podcasts

In text*
(Schools for the 21st century 2007)
References
Schools for the 21st century 2007, podcast radio
programme, 9 August 2007, ABC Radio National ,
Sydney, retrieved 2 October 2007, from
http://abc.net.au/rn/edpod/stories/2007/2000292.htm.
Bibliography Format
Title Year, Description of document, Date released,
Distributor, Place of distributor, Date accessed, from url
of site.

Other Sources - Unpublished documents

17
In text*
(Yoong 2007)
References
Yoong, SK 2007, Remote access in MATRAD
Resource Centre, Unpublished.
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, Title, Unpublished.

Other Sources - YouTube

In text*
(Gearthblog 2007)
References
Gearthblog 2007, 3D Layer of American Architecture -
Google Earth, online, retrieved 28 September 2007,
from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTTUeyokTgM.
Bibliography Format
Author(s) Year, Title, Description of document, date
accessed, from url of site

18