Writing a piece that keeps the audience around is nothing less than art. However, there are multiple types of writing in use these days. You will hear various types of writing, such as articles, blog posts, academics, emails, and research papers. In addition to the aforementioned types, another important type of writing is called ‘Report Writing. The most interesting thing about report writing is that it is a part of both educational and professional landscapes.
However, writing good reports is a skill that is more or less required in educational and professional ecosystems. However, many people struggle while writing a good report. The confusion mainly arises because they don’t know the structure of a report.
In addition, when a report writing task is assigned to students, they often confuse it with an essay. However, there is a significant difference between an essay and a report. The main difference is that a report features facts for a solid conclusion, while an essay includes reasoning and arguments for the same purpose. Moreover, a report is significantly lengthy and divided into multiple sections for easier understanding.
In this guide, we have covered everything to help students and professionals create perfect reports.
What is a Report?
A report is a written document that provides information in structured and organized formats for addressing specialized audiences and purposes. However, this is not true; a report could be a document written to serve a specific purpose and fulfill the requirements of a particular audience.
For example, a report can feature a summary of facts regarding a series of events or a particular situation. Alternatively, it can include an explanation of an event or situation. It can also describe the results of certain research activities. In addition, a report can take account of future outcomes because of a specific proceeding or event.
However, you can also define a report as an account of affairs relating to a particular situation or topic. Simply put, a report is a document aimed to provide necessary information to people who don’t know anything regarding a certain matter, event, or topic.
Note: Facts featured in a report should be derived from credible sources.
Types of Reports
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Generally, there are three main types of reports based on their purposes. In addition to purpose-based types, there may be other categories of reports. For example, according to the tone used while writing reports, they can be categorized into informal or formal reports.
Mainly, business reports are written using formal language with the use of professional jargon. Similarly, reports can be categorized vertically or laterally based on the audience that gets to see them.
The purpose-based types are business reports, academic reports, and scientific reports. Every type caters to the requirements of different audiences with a distinct purpose.
Here are the most common types of reports:
1. Academic Reports
An academic report is a type of report in which students need to share their comprehension of a particular subject, book, event, historical affair, or biography.
2. Business Reports
Business reports take account of strategies, internal memos, SWOT analysis, and the feasibilities of a particular project. Their supervisors and senior managers often ask professionals assigned to work on creating strategies and projects and analyze them to create reports.
3. Scientific Reports
Scientific reports are also called technical reports. The main purpose of scientific reports is to share the outcomes of a particular research activity and case studies. Such reports are generally published in scientific journals for broader reach to the concerned audience.
General Structure of a Report
Before discussing all the features of a report, it is necessary to understand the main components of the report structure. These main elements include ‘Executive Summary’, ‘Introduction’, ‘Body’, and ‘Conclusion’. Considering these elements, many people will likely confuse a report with an essay, but it’s not; you will understand it later. For now, let’s understand the elements in detail.
1. Executive Summary:
An executive summary of a report works like the abstract of an academic paper. It outlines the main content of an entire report and summarizes all the findings included in it to help the audience understand what the report features.
The main purpose of an executive summary is to give individuals working in executive positions with busy schedules a quick idea about the report’s content. Hence, it is more important for business or scientific reports and less necessary for academic ones.
Important: It is better to write the executive summary of a report after writing it to ensure that you don’t miss anything important. “Generally, an executive summary should be no longer than half a page.”
2. Introduction:
Like other writing types, a report also features an introduction. The objective behind writing a report introduction is to elaborate on the overall topic and the content you will discuss in it. Moreover, the introduction of a report also features the thesis statement, which allows you to set the tone of your writing and gain control over the content. Additionally, it also offers context to the readers before they start reading the body of a report.
3. Body:
After an introduction, the body section is the next component of a report, which features all findings in an ordered way. The body of a report is partitioned into various headings and subheadings to ensure easier understanding. It makes a major part of the report that can be extended to several pages. In addition, including elements like bullets and numbered lists can make the information easy to scan and interpret for the audience.
4. Conclusion:
The last element of a report is a conclusion. The main purpose of a conclusion is to briefly describe the entire content of a report and reach a judgment based on the content included in it. In addition, the conclusion allows writers to present the case briefly and share their own opinions or findings.
Key Elements Included in a Report
In addition to the aforementioned components that make up the main structure of a report, a few other elements contribute to a proper report structure. These elements make it easier for the targeted audience to scan through the report and understand the necessary information quickly.
There is no hard and fast rule about the presence of these elements in a report, but it can be helpful. Moreover, institutes that require reports for documentation or assignments can also formulate their own formats. Further details about these elements are given below:
● Title Page
Title is the first element of a report that can make it easier for others to sort it out and understand what is included in the report. However, unlike other writings, the title of a report is written on a distinct page for an easier scan.
● Table of Content
Some reports can be as lengthy as booklets or even medium-sized books, depending on their content. Hence, a table of contents makes it easier for the audience to access their required information easily.
● Numbering of Pages
Easier access to the desired section of a report is only possible if its pages are numbered properly. Additionally, page numbering helps you avoid mix-ups and misprints and keep the report in order.
● Headings & Subheadings
As mentioned earlier, the body of a report will be divided into various sections. The elements that will help you divide these body sections are headings and subheadings. Headings will take account of a particular matter, while subheadings will relate to all the things that are relevant to that matter.
● Bulleted & Numbered Lists
Sometimes, you have to include the kind of information that is highly essential for readers. If you write such information in the form of paragraphs, your audience may end up missing it. However, writing them in the form of bulleted or numbered lists will help them realize the importance of information.
● Citations
Like essays, assignments, thesis, and white papers, it is also essential to cite the sources you have used to include information in the report. Again, make sure you cite sources in the recommended format.
● Bibliography
At the very end, list the sources you have used to obtain information relevant to the topic covered in the report. Give credit to those sources and write their legal information correctly.
Tips to Write a Perfect Report
Now that we have understood a report’s main components and formatting, it is time to discuss a few report-writing tips that will help you create a perfect report for the corporate, educational, or scientific sphere. Working on these tips will make it easier to ensure engaging content in your report and keep your audience around. Let’s dive deeper into these tips.
1. Choose a Topic Wisely
This tip is highly important for students who are assigned report-writing tasks. While writing an academic report, choosing a topic for the report is important. In addition, choosing a topic is not enough; make sure it fulfills a few requirements, including:
It should not be too general.
It shouldn’t be specific.
There should be substantial information regarding the topic.
Make sure you are interested in the topic yourself.
2. Proper Research is a Must
Whether you’re writing an academic, business, or scientific report, adequate research is a must. You can’t come up with a worth-reading report if it doesn’t feature credible information that is verifiable through trustworthy sources. Business and scientific reports can provide a large amount of internal information. But you also need to skim through plenty of data from outside resources.
In business reports, you may need data from competitors or situations in the market. Similarly, you will need data from previous research findings for scientific reports. In short, you need to collect all the data from every possible source to make your report a trustworthy piece.
3. Ensure the Presence of a Thesis Statement
A thesis statement is highly essential when you are writing a report. This statement will help you predefine the report’s theme and avoid deflections. However, many people struggle to determine a thesis statement for the report.
“Defining a thesis statement is easier when you put ample time into researching and finding the relevant patterns or trends. Then, if all these trends lead to a bigger common point, you can use it as the thesis statement of your report.”
After inserting the thesis statement into your report, it will be easier to work on it. The rest of the process will elaborate on the thesis statement using various credible facts from multiple trustworthy sources. The thesis statement can also be used in the executive summary and conclusion.
4. Make an Outline to Keep Things on Track
Creating an outline before writing content on any topic is essential. However, working on a lengthy write-up with several pages, like a report, requires you to create an outline beforehand. Doing so makes things easier for you to avoid missing anything. An effective way of creating a good outline is to take notes during the research phase. These notes will help you evaluate the points worth discussing in the report.
5. Start with a Rough Draft
You can’t write a perfect report in one go like other types of writing. Hence, it is better to start with a rough draft first. You can write everything you want to include in the report from the research phase. However, there is a chance that you may get overwhelmed because of the huge amount of information. The trick is simply following your prepared outline, and creating the rough draft will become easier.
6. Stay Vigilant About Plagiarism
You need to be highly careful about the presence of plagiarized patches in your report content. The inclusion of duplication in an academic, scientific, or business report can seriously hurt your reputation. Moreover, you may have to face unlikely and uncalled-for consequences. Hence, an advanced plagiarism checker is the best way to avoid these issues. This way, you identify plagiarized patches and easily remove them by rewriting certain phrases in the content if needed.
7. Proofread Writing & Polish Wording
The final step is to proofread your rough draft from the beginning to the end. For this purpose, you can utilize an AI-based proofreader. The online proofreader will thoroughly scan your report text and provide the grammatical issues and vague sentences it found immediately. It will also offer valuable suggestions for rectifying those mistakes straightforwardly.
Putting it Together:
Report writing can be tricky if you don’t know the structure of a report and effective tips to create a flawless report. The information shared in this in-depth guide will help you write perfect business, academic, or scientific reports effortlessly. Following the above-mentioned key points while writing a report will help you greatly. Hopefully, you will benefit a lot from this blog!