Appendices in reports and dissertations

Question

Do all reports and dissertations need an appendix?

Answer

Sometimes universities will require you to use an appendix (plural of appendix is appendices) in a report or dissertation and sometimes they will specifically tell you that appendices cannot be used; you should check your assessment requirements to see if appendices are allowed to be used. In general, it is not always necessary to provide appendices if you have enough space to provide full information in the main body of your report. However, sometimes it may be necessary to use an appendix if you do not have space. The appendices should not be used to provide important analysis, instead the appendices should be used to provide information that supports your analysis but is not essential information that should be included in the main body of work. For example, if you were writing a business/management/marketing report you could provide the full PESTLE analysis in an appendix and then analyse the most important factors from the PESTLE analysis in the main body of the report. If, for example, you were writing a dissertation you would include all the primary data collected in appendices but would then use extracts of the most important data for analysis in the main body of the dissertation.

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