This document provides information on what a report is and guidelines for writing an effective report. It defines a report as a statement of the results of an investigation that provides definite information. Reports are highly structured. Reasons for writing reports include presenting findings and results, keeping records, and reporting on failures and successes or project progress. There are different types of reports depending on the objective, such as information reports to present information and analytical reports to analyze a situation. The document provides guidelines for writing different sections and elements of an effective report such as the introduction, body, conclusions, and appendix. It emphasizes the importance of structure, clear writing style, and following standard report writing practices.

2. WHAT IS A REPORT?
 “A report is a statement of the results of an
investigation or of any matter on which definite
information is required”.
(Oxford English Dictionary)
 Reports are a highly structured form of writing.

3. Why do we write reports?
 To present the findings and results.
 To keep records.
 To tell about failures and successes.
 To tell the progress of the project/research.

4. KINDS OF REPORTS
Objective is either to present
information or to analyze a particular
situation
INFORMATION REPORT
ANALYTICAL REPORT
PRACTICAL REPORTS

5. INFORMATION REPORT
Presents reports of events, which
may be periodical, covering the past &
new information, allowing the readers
to stay current on the topic.
The purpose of this report is to convey
the data Clearly, Concisely,&
Correctly as far as possible.

6. ANALYTICAL REPORT
Seeks to solve the problem, by
investigating events, Gathering &
Analyzing data
Followed by arriving at a decisions &
Making recommendations.
Business point of view : Teaches better
ways of financing & anticipates the acts of
competitors.

7. PRACTICAL REPORT
Gives an account of what has
happened in a test situation.
A practical session or as part
of an experiment
EXTENSIVE CASE STUDY

8. TYPES OF REPORTS
 Sales Reports
 Inspection Reports
 Annual Reports
 Progress Reports
 case study reports
 laboratory reports

9. GOOD REPORT…
 Meet the needs of the readers.
 Answers the questions.
 Is it at the right level for readers?.
 Clear logical structure.

10. CONCISENESS…
"This report, by its very length, defends itself against
the risk of being read.“
Churchill, Winston on Wordiness

11. REPORT WRITING PROCESS
objective planning
Collecting
information
Organizing
information
audience Structure Finishing

12. THE PURPOSE....
 It defines the scope of your investigation.
Identify the purpose…
 To inform?
 To convince?

13. PLANNING YOUR REPORT
 How much time do you have to write the report?.
 How can your work be divided up into the various
stages?
 Set yourself deadlines for the various stages.

14. COLLECTING INFORMATION
 What is the information you need ?
 Where do you find it ?
 Survey
 Organizations
 Online: Google
 Publications
 How much do you need ?

15. ORGANIZING INFORMATION
 Discriminate between relevant and irrelevant
information.
 Sort/organize information under main ideas/details.

16. THE AUDIENCE
Often 3 different audiences
 The casual reader/big boss who wants the main
message as painlessly as possible
 The interested reader who wants more detail but
doesn’t want to grapple with all the gory technical
details
 The guru who wants the whole story

17. WHAT TO DO?
To address all 3 audiences effectively,
 Include an abstract for the big boss
 A main body for the interested non-specialist
 A technical appendix for the guru
Thus, a structure emerges!

18. Structure of the Report

19. STRUCTURE:
A good report has the following parts:
 Title Page
 Table of Contents
 Summary or Letter of Transmittal
 Introduction
 Chapters/Sections
 TABLES
 FIGURES
 Conclusion
 Recommendations
 Appendices
 References

20. TITLE
 Should be informative, “punchy”.
 Brings Eye-catching factor of your work.
Good
 Short, but not too general.
 Use ordinary English grammar.
 Well formatted.

21. Distributed Learning Resources and Online Courses in
Business and Technical Writing
(center the title of the report and situate the title approx. inches from the
top of the page; use a bold type in a large font—we can use Georgia,
14-point)
Prepared for: Dr. Tilly Warnock, Director of Composition
Prepared by: Dr. Thomas Miller, Prof Comm Project Leader
(include the parties to whom the report is addressed in the "Prepared For"
section and situate approx. in the middle of the page--if the report is
external, include the organization name and address; use a font 2
points smaller than your title—we can use Georgia, 12-point)
January 10, 2001
(center the date and situate it approx. 2 inches from the bottom of the
page; use a smaller font—we can use Georgia, 10-point)

22. TABLE OF CONTENTS
 Shows the structure of the document and lets the
reader navigate through the sections.
 Includes from summary through to appendices.
 Does not include title page and table of contents
page.
 Uses the decimal numbering system (DNS)

23. Table of Contents
Memo of Transmittal i
(use lower-case Roman numerals for all documents that precede the
Introduction)
List of Illustrations ii
Executive Summary iii
Introduction 1
Heading 1 2
Heading 2 3
(include the Headings exactly as they appear in the body of the report; if
your report is long and includes subheadings, include these in the Table
of Contents)
Conclusions and Recommendations 4
References 5
Appendices 6
Appendix A: Examples of Student Projects 6
(put the page number 1 inch from the bottom of the page)

24. ABSTRACT/EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Describes the problem and the solution in a few
sentences. It will be all the big boss reads!
 Represents 10% of the written report.
 All covered in the same order as the report.
Remember the 2 rules
 Keep it short
 State problem and solution

25. THE INTRODUCTION
 What is the report about?
 Who is conducting the research?
 Any background information relevant to the report.
 Describe the contents of the rest of the report
briefly.
 in Section 2 we ...
 in Section 3 we ...

26. Introduction sample…
With the rise in global warming and increasing
pollution levels, it is becoming essential to find a
viable alternative to the internal combustion engine
petrol powered car.
The aim of this project was to create two designs
for a fuel cell powered car, the main criteria being
environmental friendliness in terms of both
emissions and materials.
And an analysis of operational efficiency for each
car are followed by a comparison of the two
designs. Finally, the most cost efficient design is
recommended.

27. CHAPTERS/SECTIONS
 Describe
 Data
 Methods
 Analyses
 Findings
 Don’t include too much technical detail.
 Divide up into sections, subsections.

28. FIGURES AND TABLES (FLOATS)
Golden rules for Figures and Tables:
 Describe float in text (integration), make
sure it matches description
 Place after the first mention in the text
 Make sure float conveys the desired
message clearly: keep it simple!
 Provide informative captions

29. FIGURES
 Always label and give a caption under the figure
 Be aware of good graphics principles: avoid
 chart junk
 low data/ink ratio
 unlabelled axes
 broken axes
 Misleading scales
 See Cleveland, “The Elements of Graphing Data”,
“Visualising Data”
 Using a good graphics package (R!) helps enforce
good practice

30. 0 5 10
0
2
4
6
8
log(Animals$body)
log(Animals$brain)
Mountain beaver
Cow
Grey wolf
Goat
Guinea pig
Dipliodocus
Asian elephant
Donkey
Horse
Potar monkey
Cat
Giraffe
Gorilla
Human
African elephant
Triceratops
Rhesus monkey
Kangaroo
Golden hamster
Mouse
Rabbit
Sheep
Jaguar
Chimpanzee
Rat
Brachiosaurus
Mole
Pig
Bad!

31. Figure 1. Plot of log Brain weights (gm) versus
log body weights (kg) for 28 species
0 5 10
0
2
4
6
8
Log Body weight (kg)
Log
Brain
weight
(gm)
Mountain beaver
Cow
Grey wolf
Goat
Guinea pig
Dipliodocus
Asian elephant
Donkey Horse
Potar monkey
Cat
Giraffe
Gorilla
Human
African elephant
Triceratops
Rhesus monkey
Kangaroo
Golden hamster
Mouse
Rabbit
Sheep
Jaguar
Chimpanzee
Rat
Brachiosaurus
Mole
Pig
Better!

32. TABLES
 Always label and give a caption over the table
 Be aware of rules for good tables:
 avoid vertical lines
 don’t have too many decimal places
 compare columns not rows

33. Multiple Prefix Symbol
1012 tera T
109 giga G
106 mega M
103 kilo K
10-1 deci d
Multiple Prefix Symbol
1012 tera T
109 giga G
106 mega M
103 kilo K
10-1 deci d
Too busy
Better

34. Multiple Prefix Symbol
1012 tera T
109 giga G
106 mega M
103 kilo K
10-1 deci d
Horizontal
hard to read
Vertical
easier to read
Multiple 1012 109 106 103 10-1
Prefix tera giga mega kilo deci
Symbol T G M K d

35. Busy – too
many DP’s
Better
Number of
Processors
Time (secs)
1 28.35221
4 7.218812
8 3.634951
16 1.929347
Number of
Processors
Time (secs)
1 28.35
4 7.21
8 3.63
16 1.92

36. MATHS
 Good
 Bad
a
b
y
x
b
ax
y /
)
( 



.
/
)
(
that
follows
it
equation
the
From
a
b
y
x
b
ax
y





37. CONCLUSIONS/SUMMARY
 Summarize what has been discovered
 Repeat the question
 Give the answer
 Outlines the findings of the research
 Do not introduce new information in the conclusion.
 Analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of
various courses of action..

38. THE RECOMMENDATIONS
 They are the honest, justified opinions of the writer.
 Force the report to be “end” rather than
“means” oriented
 Poor recommendations can overshadow an
otherwise effective report
 Don’t compromise professional integrity to
please decision makers

39. APPENDIX
 This is where the technical details go.
 Be as technical as you like.
 Document your analysis so it can be reproduced by
others.
 Include the data set if feasible.
Appendices can include:
 Glossary
 Raw data sheets
 Diagrams or maps

40. REFERENCES
 Always cite (i.e. give a reference) to other related
work or facts/opinions that you quote
 Never pass off the work of others as your own – this
is plagiarism and is a very big academic crime!!

41. FINISHING OF THE REPORT

42. FINISHING THE REPORT
Writing style
 Structure alone is not enough for clarity – you must
also write clear sentences.
 Rules:
 Write complete short sentences
 Avoid jargon and cliché, strive for simplicity
 One theme per paragraph

43. TECHNICAL ISSUES
 Sectioning
 Spelling and Grammar
 Choice of word processor

44. SECTIONING
 Proper division of your work into sections and
subsections makes the structure clear and the
document easy to follow.
 Use styles in word/ sectioning commands in Latex
begin{section}….end{section}.

45. SPELLING AND GRAMMAR
 Use a style manual/dictionary if in doubt
 Spell check!!!!
 Proofread!!!!
He meant…
 This technique can also be applied to the
analysis of golf balls
He typed….
 This technique cam also by applies to the
analysis or gold bills

46. CHOICE OF WORD PROCESSOR
 Word or Latex?
 My spin…..
 Use Word for a short document with few figures and
tables and little mathematics
 Use Latex for a longer document with many figures and
tables and lots of complicated maths.

47. Who is the rapporteur?
 All reports should be written in the third person i.e.,
as an objective observer!.
 Avoid using terms such as ``I did this experiment
and ..".
 Instead substitute terms, such as ``The experiment
was performed ...''.

48. Some friendly help…
 The view of an objective and completely fresh
reader can be of great benefit.
 This person may also be able to pick up spelling or
grammatical errors which you yourself are unaware
of.

49. FINISHING TOUCHES
55
 Type
 Don’t use too many styles
 Avoid All Caps
 Difficult to Read
 Double Space
 Number Placement
 Bottom Center
 Paper
 High Quality
 20# Weight
 White/Off-White
 8 ½ x 11
 Margins
 Top & Sides - 1”
 Bottom - 1 ½”
 Left & Right 1.25”