REPORT WRITING
Introduction
• The term “report” refers to a nonfiction work that presents and/or paraphrases the facts on a specific occasion,
subject, or problem.
• The notion is that a good report will contain all the information that someone who is not familiar with the subject
needs to know.
• Reports make it simple to bring someone up to speed on a subject, but actually writing a report is far from simple.
2
What is a Report?
“
• A report is a short document written for a particular purpose or audience.
• It usually sets out and analyses a problem often recommended for future purposes.
• Requirements for the precise form of the report depend on the department and organization.
• Technically, a report is defined as “any account, verbal or written, of the matters pertaining to a given
topic.” This could be used to describe anything, from a witness’s evidence in court to a student’s book
report.
• Actually, when people use the word “report,” they usually mean official documents that lay out the details
of a subject.
• These documents are typically written by an authority on the subject or someone who has been tasked
with conducting research on it.
What is a Report?
“
What information does reporting contain? All facts are appreciated, but reports, in particular, frequently contain the
following kinds of information:
Information about a circumstance or event
The aftereffects or ongoing impact of an incident or occurrence
Analytical or statistical data evaluation
Interpretations based on the report’s data
Based on the report’s information, make predictions or suggestions
Relationships between the information and other reports or events
• Although there are some fundamental differences, producing reports and essays share many similarities.
• Both rely on facts, but essays also include the authors’ personal viewpoints and justifications.
• Reports normally stick to the facts only, however they could include some of the author’s interpretation in the
conclusion.
• Reports are also quite well ordered, frequently with tables of contents of headers and subheadings.
• This makes it simpler for readers to quickly scan reports for the data they need.
• Essays, on the other hand, should be read from beginning to end rather than being perused for particular
information.
Reporting Format:
“
Depending on the objective and audience for your report, there are a few distinct types of reports. The most typical
report types are listed briefly below:
Identifies data from company
Academic report examines a
reports, such as marketing Shares research findings in
student’s knowledge of the
reports, internal memoranda, the form of case studies and
subject; examples include SWOT analyses, and feasibility
book reports, historical event research articles, usually in
reports, that is useful in scientific publications.
reports, and biographies. corporate planning.
• A report, for instance, could be professional or casual, brief or lengthy, and internal or external.
• A lateral report is for persons on the author’s level but in separate departments, whereas a vertical report is for
those on the author’s level but with different levels of the hierarchy (i.e., people who work above you and below
you).
• Report formats can be as varied as writing styles, but in this manual, we’ll concentrate on academic reports, which
are often formal and informational.
MAJOR TYPES OF REPORTS
NEWSPAPER OR MAGAZINE BUSINESS REPORTS TECHNICAL REPORTS
REPORTS
§ The main purpose of newspaper § Business reports aim to analyze § The main purpose of the
or magazine reports is to cover a situation or case study by technical report is to provide an
a particular event or happening. implementing business theories empirical explanation of
and suggest improvements research-based material.
§ They generally elaborate upon
accordingly.
the 4Ws and 1H, i.e. What, § Technical report writing is
Where, When, Why, and How. § In business report writing, you generally carried out by a
must adhere to a formal style of researcher for scientific
writing and these reports are journals or product
usually lengthier than news development and presentation,
reports since they aim to assess etc.
a particular issue in detail and
provide solutions.
6
9+ Newspaper Report Templates
https://www.template.net/design-
templates/print/newspaper-report-template/
7
8 Annual Review
35+ Business Report Examples
https://www.examples.com/business/business-report-examples.html
9
10 August 26, 2023
50 Professional Technical Report Examples
https://templatelab.com/technical-reports/
10+ Technical Report Writing Examples
https://www.examples.com/business/tec
hnical-report-writing-samples-pdf.html
11 Annual Review
ANNUAL REPORT
12
PROJECT REPORT
13
RESEARCH REPORT
14
ACADEMIC REPORT
15
WHAT IS REPORT WRITING?
16 Annual Review August 26, 2023
Report writing : Things to keep in mind
Before writing a report, there are certain things you must know to ensure that you draft a precise
and structured report, and these points to remember are listed below:
• Write a concise and clear title of the report.
• Always use the past tense.
• Don’t explain the issue in the first person, i.e. ‘I’ or ‘Me’. Always write in the third person.
• Put the date, name of the place as well as the reporter’s name after the heading.
• Structure the report by dividing it into paragraphs.
• Stick to the facts and keep it descriptive.
17
Structure of Report Writing
Title: A clear and concise report title.
Table of Contents: A page dedicated to the contents of your report.
Summary: An overview of your entire report — you'll need to wait
until you've completed the full report to write this section.
Introduction: Introduce your report topic and what readers will find
throughout the pages.
Body: The longest section of your report — compile all of your
information and use data visualization to help present it.
Conclusion: Different from the summary, this concludes the report
body and summarizes all of your findings.
Recommendations: A set of recommended goals or steps to
complete with the information provided in this report.
Appendices: A list of your sources used to compile the information
in your report.
18
1. Title
On your title or cover page, be sure to include the
following:
• Report title
• Report subtitle (if necessary)
• Author of the report
• Who the report is meant for
• Date the report was written
19
2. Table of Contents
• Always leave the Table of Contents page until the
end.
• After all, you can’t write a table of contents if you
don’t know all of your page numbers yet.
• Having a Table of Content pages makes it easy for
your readers to find the information they're most
interested in quickly and easily, improving overall
readability.
• So you absolutely do not want to skip this step.
20
3. Summary
• The summary (also known as the abstract) of the
report is best done after you’ve finished writing the
report.
• You can draft a summary at the beginning to help
you continue with the work, but you’ll definitely
want to revisit it at the end.
• A summary is a blurb of the entire report.
• It must include the purpose, the process and a
snippet of the resolution.
21
4. Introduction
• In the introduction, state what the report is about
and why it has been created.
• Depending on the length of your report, the
introduction could range from one single paragraph
to an entire page long.
• Take this time to introduce why your topic is so
important, especially if it's a research report.
• You need to focus on why your readers should care
about what you have uncovered.
22
• The body of your report is where all the information is put together and will be the
longest section of your report.
• This will likely span several (anywhere from 5-50) pages. Follow your initial outline
5. Body to maintain consistent flow in the content creation.
• Write the body content as sections and subsections.
• Furthermore, use bullet points and data visualization as visual cues.
• These will help your audience to better understand the content of your report.
23
6. Conclusion
• Close your report with a well-crafted conclusion.
• Formulate it as a brief summary of what was
covered within the report, and be sure to include a
mention to the recommendations section and the
resources in the appendix.
• This section should never bring new information to
the table — instead, it should simply summarize all
of the findings you've already mentioned into one
concise final section.
24
7. Recommendations
• Craft the recommendations section as a set of
actionable steps with smart goals associated along
with possible solutions.
• This section is irrelevant for school reports or book
reports, but is essential for business reports or
corporate settings.
25
8. Appendices
• This is the section where you list all your sources if
it’s a research report.
• You should also add any links that are relevant to
the report — or previous reports about the same
topic.
• A good rule of thumb when creating your
appendices is to only add information that is
relevant to the report or that you referenced when
writing your report.
• Use reference annotations inside the report to link
to the content in the appendix.
26
Report Writing in 7 steps:
“
1. Choose a topic based on the assignment
2. Conduct research
3. Write a thesis statement
4. Prepare an outline
5. Write a rough draft
6. Revise and edit your report
7. Proofread and check for mistakes
• Make sure that every piece of information you have supplied is pertinent.
• Remember to double-check your grammar, spelling, tenses, and the person you are writing in.
• A final inspection against any structural criteria is also important.
• You have appropriately and completely referenced for an academic work.
• Check to make sure you haven’t unintentionally, purposefully, or both duplicated something without
giving credit.
Thank you
