How to Summarize a Log Sheet

Make a log sheet summary to account for your work.

Log sheets are essential tools during every research period. Summarizing a log sheet will give you a clear indication of work you completed over a given period of time. Incorporating your log sheets with research materials and finished products -- a thesis or research papers, for example -- are helpful provisions for a supervising professor or authority. The summary provides a diary-like journal for the entire work process from beginning to end.

Things You'll Need

• Computer

Instructions

1. Title the first log sheet entry: "Summary of Tasks." Type your full name under the title. Type the beginning and end dates of your first entry. The first entry covers a one-week period, from "June 1 to June 7," for example.

2. Add the following sub-heading to the first entry: "Task." Include every specific task you worked on and completed during the work period. Limit your task entries to a three-word maximum; ''Search the database" or "Collected research materials," for example. Add a bullet point before each entry. Include a maximum of five tasks.

3. Title the body of your log summary, "Completed." Write four to eight sentences that summarize what you completed during the work period. Order the activities in the timeline in which they were completed. Include the details of your quest -- "I used the Ohio State University database for my online research," for example -- and any questions you asked yourself during this period that led to the finding of any specific answers.

4. Skip to a second page. Repeat steps one through four to complete a second log sheet summary, if necessary. Continue this process until you have enough one-page summaries to cover the entire work period.

References

• University of Washington: Log Sheet -- Summary of Tasks