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Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Field Work Report Format 2012

KABALE UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Field Work Report Writing Format
1.0 Introduction
Field work is an important component of arts and social sciences. It provides students
with the opportunity to apply the theory acquired in the lecture room to real work
situations. It therefore enables the student to acquire practical knowledge, skills,
professionalism and attitudes that build interpersonal relations which attributes are
essential in personal growth and development. Field work is also important because
students are able to see (first hand) how problems are handled, decision making for
action, implementation of activities, monitoring and evaluation of the different activities.
A good field work report should contain at least the following components; title page or
cover page, declaration and approval, list of abbreviations, table of contents,
introduction, objectives of the field work practice, field work activities, challenges,
recommendations, a conclusion and appendix.
The title page (Cover Page)
This should clearly indicate the place where the field work was undertaken, with such
details as department, name of organisation or company and its location. There should
also be the students name, registration number, programme of study, and an indication
that the field work is partial fulfillment of the programme plus the month and year of
the field work. This page should not be numbered.
Preliminary Pages
This is the first component of the document it consists of the following among others;
Declaration
This statement authenticates the originality of the document and should be for none
other than the student under which they must append a signature.



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Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Field Work Report Format 2012

Approval
The field work based supervisor (also called agency supervisor) should sign and stamp
approving the student carried the activities in their organisation under her/his guidance.
It is on this same page that the University supervisor should sign.
List of abbreviations
All abbreviations in the document are listed on this page and should flow alphabetically.
They are sometimes called acronyms.
Table of Contents
This is a chronological list of all components of the document and should only exclude
the title page.
NB: The preliminary pages are numbered in Roman numerals
Section One General Introduction
1.0 Introduction
This is a summary of the document. The major purpose of this component is to
describe what is in the document. However, students should ensure that it is not too
short to give a clear picture of what is contained in the document but also care should
be taken not to make it too long. Many students tend to pay less attention to this
section yet this is what creates the first impression to the reader.
1.1 Objectives of the Field Work
This is gives the rationale of doing the field work. For example what do you aim to
achieve by carrying out the field work practice. There should be the major objective and
specific objectives. Different student doing different programmes have different
objectives. However, if the major objective was to give the student an opportunity to
translate theory acquired in class into practice to enable him gain competence as a
development worker, they could have such specific objectives as;
1. Analyse actual community problems and relate them to the causes and come up
with corrective measures
2. To learn how to carry out day to day administration of programmes and design
effective interventions in place of work
3. To establish linkages and networks with other organisations, department, and
partners (stakeholders) implementing similar or relation activities.
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Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Field Work Report Format 2012

4. Conduct community mobilization activities aimed at community capacity building
and empowerment for development.
1.2 Background of the Agency
This should inform the reader about the agency where field work is being done. It
should bring out the vision, mission, and organizational structure as well as the
contribution the organisation towards community.
Section Two Field Work Activities
2.1 Students Work Plan
This is a sequential projection of the activities the student will be involved in. The
activities should fit within the general work plan of the agent. This plan should indicate
the type of activity, the person to carry it out, under whose supervision, place and
expectations. All these should be tabulated.
2.2 Methods used by the Student
Such methods should be like; documentary analysis, interviews, observation and
participatory approach among others
2.3 Actual Activities
This should clearly and chronologically indicate the different activities that the student
was involved in. They should be tabulated as activity, implemented by, supervised by,
place, output and comment.
2.4 Cases handled by the Student
While at the agency, each student is required to address between three to five cases.
Indicate what the cases were and how you handled them.
2.5 Contribution of the student to the agency
During the field work, what was the outstanding thing that the student did that helped
the organisation.
Section Three Challenges
The student should write in paragraph form all the challenges that they encountered
during the course of the field work.

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Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Field Work Report Format 2012

3.1 Challenges faced by the Agency
In its operations, what challenges does the organisation face and how do they handle
them
3.2 Challenges faced by the Customers
Every organisation has customers or clients it serves, enumerate the challenges they
face in their interaction with the organisation or company
3.3 Challenges faced by the student during field work
This should extensively explain the challenges faced by the student and they should
indicate how they managed to overcome them.
Section Four Lessons Learnt, Recommendation and Conclusion
4.1 Lessons Learnt
From the field work done, what have been the lessons learnt by the student?
4.2 Recommendations
These are aimed at advising the agency and any other relevant party how to address
the challenges encountered. There could be other issues that may not have necessarily
been challenges, but issues the student feels they should improve on.
4.3 Conclusion
This is a rap up of the entire field work process, however, note should be taken that a
conclusion is not a summary of the field work document.
NB: Pages from General I ntroduction to Conclusion should be Arabic
numerals i.e., 1, 2, 3, etc
Appendix
This section should have attachments like the assessment form, copy of introductory
and acceptance letters, maps, photographs and should be arranged as appendices 1, 2,
3 e.t.c.