Writing reports

Different types of reports

Laboratory reports, technical reports, reports of a work placement or industrial visit, reports of a field trip or field work.

Stages in report writing

clarifying your terms of reference planning your work collecting your information organising and structuring your information writing the first draft checking and re-drafting.

Terms of reference
purpose of the report.

Planning your report

Draw up an outline structure for your report and set the work within a sensible time scale for completion by the given deadline.

Organising information

Style of writing

Collecting
organising your information into topics is to brainstorm your ideas into a spider diagram.

information
Make a list of what information you need. Make an action plan stating how you are going to gather this.

Most reports should avoid the use of subjective language.

Structuring your report

Title page Acknowledgements Contents Abstract or summary Introduction Methodology Results or findings

Layout
The most common system is the decimal notation system.

Discussion checking Conclusion and recommendations References Assess your work in the Appendices following areas: Structure Content Style

Redrafting and

Checklist
Overall: What are the main points for consideration? What have you done well? What needs fine tuning?

Presentation
Paragraphs should be short and concise.