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Report Writing

A report is a piece of writing that presents an account of an event, situation or process.

Types of Reports

  • Feasibility reports: These reports study whether a project should be undertaken or not. For example, a university may commission a feasibility report to decide if they should add a new course or a stream of study.
  • Progress reports: The progress report spells out the progress that a project has made. It helps the people in charge understand the status of all aspects of a project.
  • Incident reports: An incident report is an objective description of an incident that provides the facts to someone who was not present. The event should be described in chronological order so it is clear to the reader what the sequence of events was.
  • Marketing reports: These reports provide an overview of the marketing efforts undertaken for a particular product.

Elements Of A Report

  • Opening Page Or Title Page: The first page will have the title of the report, the writer’s name, designation and institution all affiliation, funding agency (if any) and date.
  • Abstract: The abstract is a very brief summary of what the report is about.
  • Table of contents: The table of contents lists the numbered sections, subsections and its constituent parts.
  • Introduction: The first main section of a technical report is the introduction. This should begin with the background of the study, which will include how it is related to the work done by others and a literature review of publications on the subject.
  • Literature review: The literature review should be accurately documented in the recommended style with all the necessary details, such as the complete name of the author, the year of publication, the journal where published, the volume number, etc., for articles, and the place of publication. When citing the work of others in the text, give only the last name of the author and the year of publication within parentheses and provide the complete details in the reference list at the end of the report.
  • Body of the report: This presents the findings/details of the study, which are organized under numbered main headings, subheadings and sub-subheadings.
  • Results, Discussion and Conclusion: You can present the outcome of your research, experiment, etc., in the results section. Sometimes this section is combined with the discussion section, where you interpret the results. The conclusion should relate to the aims of the work as stated in the introduction.
  • References and appendices: Appendices are meant for materials not included in the body of the report but pertinent to it, for example data.
  • Figures and tables: Where included, figures and tables must have captions with sources if they are taken from a published book or article.
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