The purpose of a report is to give the reader clearly organised information or data about a situation or problem you have investigated.
Generally, report assignments expect a particular format where you organise your material clearly by the use of headings, subheadings and numbered points to provide sequenced descriptions and explanations.
Example of headings that could be used;1. Introduction, Background, Context
2. Method, Methodology
3. Findings, Results, Data
4. Discussion, Analysis
5. Conclusion
6. Recomendations
Reference List
Appendicies
Introduction-The purpose of the intro is to provide the reader with an overview of what is to come and a rationale or justification for it.
Describe the aim and objectives clearly.
This study aims... ...is limited to...Method-List in order the steps or procedures undertaken in your investigation.
Use past tense if the events have taken place.
It is expected you use impersonal sentence structures. Eg.
Two hundred questionaires were distributed... rather than
We distrubted the questionaires...Findings-Clear and Logical information. Use of tables and charts may be useful.
In keeping with a impersonal structure use things like
It was found that...Comparative terms may be useful, Eg.
More students reported...Discussion / Analysis-This section of a report resembles a short essay in that it is a connected series of sentences that explain and argue for an interpretation of the evidence in a report.
Conclusion-Similar to that of an essay.
Reminds the reader of the overall purpose of the report, the steps through which it progresssed and its overall findings ect.
No new material should be introduced into the conclusion.
This study has investigated....On the basis of this evidence...... in the context of...... and it has found...Checklist-Table of contents formatting matches that in the report. eg. bold, underlined.
Introduction sets a clear purpose and scope.
Aims/objectives mentioned in the introduction and refered to in the findings and discussion in the same order.
Conclusion reiterates the introduction and leads to any rcomendations
Appendices are separately collated and refered to appropriately in the text.
