Types of reports and definitions

1. Universidad Cristiana de Panamá
Writing and Documentation
Definition and types of reports
Magister Israel Torres
Student: Margarita Calderon
Year 2019

2. Summary
To provide with the definition, importance and types of reports
that an organization can use.

3. Introduction
Every company and organization, needs to communicate with their
employees in order to improve their service. Usually companies use
written communication method to inform something to their
employees (more when needs to be provided to a mass of people).
This kind of written work are call reports.
In "Contemporary Business Reports," Kuiper and Clippinger define
business reports as "organized, objective presentations of
observations, experiences, or facts used in the decision-making
process."
Sharma and Mohan define a technical report as "a written
statement of the facts of a situation, project, process or test; how
these facts were ascertained; their significance; the conclusions
that have been drawn from them; and [in some cases] the
recommendations that are being made" in "Business
Correspondence and Report Writing."
A report is a document that present the information organized to a
specific audience or for a specific purpose. There several ways to
make a report, in the following pages you can find some types of
reports.
Types of reports include memos, minutes, lab reports, book
reports, progress reports, justification reports, compliance
reports, annual reports, and policies and procedures. And this types
are divided in other format like, long or short report, formal or
informal reports, informatical or analytical report, vertical or
lateral report, etc….

4. Purpose
To provide the different types of reports that can be use and how
to do it.
Research Questions
What is a report?
What are types of reports?
Why is important a report?
Objective
To identify the most common report types and what is the use of
them.

5. Theoretical Framework
A report as you read above is a document that contains a specific
information. Reports can be used in different areas such as
financial, scientific, investigative, business, etc.
There are different types of reports and these are not related
just with what information you are writing but more about how you
need to write the information. Here you can check some different
types of reports.
Type # 1. Formal or Informal Reports: Formal reports are very
structure and organized, also need to be detailed about the
information. For this type of writing people tends to eliminate
elements like personal pronouns. Informal reports are usually short
messages with natural, casual use of language.
Type # 2. Short or Long Reports: This is a confusing classification.
A one-page memorandum is obviously short, and a twenty-page
report is clearly long. But where is the dividing line? People have
trouble to define when it is not an short report anymore and where
it begins to be a long report.
Type # 3. Informational or Analytical Reports: Informational
reports (annual reports, monthly financial reports, and reports on
personnel absenteeism) carry objective information from one area
of an organization to another. Analytical reports (scientific
research, feasibility reports, and real-estate appraisals) present
attempts to solve problems.
Type # 4. Proposal Report: The proposal is a variation of problem-
solving reports. A proposal is a document prepared to describe how
one organization can meet the needs of another.
Type # 5. Vertical or Lateral Reports:

6. It refers to the direction a report travels. Reports that go upward
or downward the hierarchy are referred to as vertical reports;
such reports contribute to management control. Lateral reports,
assist in coordination in the organization. This report travels
between areas of the same department or same organization level.
Type # 6. Internal or External Reports: Internal reports travel
within the organization. External reports, such as annual reports of
companies, are prepared for distribution outside the organization.
Type # 7. Periodic Reports: Periodic reports are issued on
regularly scheduled dates. They are generally upward directed and
serve management control. Preprinted forms and computer-
generated data contribute to uniformity of periodic reports.
Type # 8. Functional Reports: This classification includes
accounting reports, marketing reports, financial reports, and a
variety of other reports that take their designation from the
ultimate use of the report. Almost all reports could be included in
most of these categories. And a single report could be included in
several classifications.

7. Methodology
How do I write a report? Well, there different ways and certainly
write an it depends of the type of report you are doing. However,
there are some points of headlines that we can’t miss while writing
a report.
Step 1: Decide on the 'Terms of reference': Read all the
information that have been given to you for the report and
determine what is the purpose of it.
Step 2: Decide on the procedure: You will need to clarify what is
necessary for write the report, either if you need to research or
investigate information for the report.
Step 3: Find the information: Mostly you will need to read a lot of
information regarding your report’s topic but in some cases you will
need to go to the area related to the topic in order to observe or
talk with people so you can obtain valuable information and data for
you report.
Step 4: Decide on the structure: depending of the type of report
the structure can be (A title page, Executive summary, Contents,
An introduction, Terms of reference, Procedure, Findings,
Conclusions, Recommendations, References/Bibliography,
Appendices, The sections, of a report usually have headings and
subheadings, which are usually numbered)
Step 5: Draft the first part of your report: Now that you have the
structure is time to fill all that headings with the information you
collected before.
Step 6: Analyse your findings and draw conclusions: You will share
what you found in all the information collected and what can this

8. mean for the organization/company also how can this change or
improve, etc.
Step 7: Make recommendations: Review your findings and give that
you think can solve the problem or conflict. You need to be detailed
so the reader can comprehend what need to be next.
Step 8: Draft the executive summary and table of contents: Some
reports require an executive summary and/or list of contents. Even
though these two sections come near the beginning of the report
you won't be able to do them until you have finished it, and have
your structure and recommendations finalized.
Step 9: Compile a reference list: Put all the sources where you get
information to make your report. Don’t forget the APA
referencing.
Step 10: Revise your draft report: Last but not least important is
to review and check your work. This way you can make sure that
the message you needed and wanted to give was achieved and also
make sure there are no grammatical or spelling mistakes.

9. Findings
John M. Lannon, "Technical Communication" explained more about
how the reports can be divided between the information/analysis
or the formal/informal
"In the professional world, decision-makers rely on two broad
types of reports: Some reports focus primarily on information
('what we're doing now,' 'what we did last month,' 'what our
customer survey found,' 'what went on at the department
meeting'). But beyond merely providing information, many reports
also include analysis ('what this information means for us,' 'what
courses of action should be considered,' 'what we recommend, and
why').
"For every long (formal) report, countless short (informal) reports
lead to informed decisions on matters as diverse as the most
comfortable office chairs to buy to the best recruit to hire for
management training. Unlike long reports, most short reports
require no extended planning, are quickly prepared, contain little or
no background information, and have no front or end matter (title
page, table of contents, glossary, etc). But despite their
conciseness, short reports do provide the information and analysis
that readers need."
People sometimes doesn’t understand or know when it is a formal or
informal report. This happen because there is not specific number
of pages to determine either it is an informal report or formal
report.

10. Conclusion
In conclusion, reports are document that can share a variety of
information in different ways. To make a good report, we need to
plan questions about what is the report about, what we need to
investigate, if the report need to be short or long, what is the
purpose of the report, etc.
This will help to structure the report in the best way and to get all
the information needed as well. We should not forget that the
report is something that other person will read and we need to be
careful on how we express our thoughts and what type of words we
are using for this.
It can be difficult or at least complicated to perform a report
without the outlined list of the information provided in the report.

11. Infographic
https://www.businessmanagementideas.com/business-reports/report-types-top-8-types-of-
reports/3317
https://www.thoughtco.com/report-writing-1692046
https://www.openpolytechnic.ac.nz/current-students/study-tips-and-
techniques/assignments/how-to-write-a-report/
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1SQJL_esPA784PA784&biw=1366&bih=657&tbm=isch&sx
srf=ACYBGNQ2zq9ekUNNrxfFgqJd_WiwbEIoRw%3A1570129787621&sa=1&ei=e0eWXYy8JcGc5wLi
6IqgCw&q=example+of+informal+report&oq=example+of+informal+report&gs_l=img.3..0l2j0i8i30
j0i24l2.154452.157056..157245...0.0..0.158.1938.0j15......0....1..gws-wiz-
img.......35i39j0i67.w11uIgSFCns&ved=0ahUKEwjM5feh5YDlAhVBzlkKHWK0ArQQ4dUDCAc&uact=
5#imgdii=0SWDhWG1bmNcdM:&imgrc=pYzdtBaPzKKjFM:

12. Appendices
This is an example of the content of the formal report

13. Informal report example