WRITING A REPORT

Activity 1
Pay attention to the words in the bold and answer the following questions!

Questions!
1. What is the dialog about?
2. What do you know about the report?
3. What are the bold words in the dialog?
4. What do you think the purpose of making a report?
5. How many kinds of report that you know? Explain
 Learning Material

A report is a specific form of writing that is organized around concisely identifying and examining
issues, events, or findings
A report can be academic, technical, or even business related. Reports are written to deliver facts
about a project, process, or a situation.
When writing a report, we start with the cover which informs the title of the report, followed by others
components. Here are components of a report.

No. Outline Meanings

1. Title the name of a report
2. Content page list of the contents of the report

3. Acknowledgement statement of an author's thanks to other people

4. Abstract a short summary of a book

5. Introduction setting out the aims and objectives, terms and definitions

6. Background all your background research

7. Methodology set of the chosen methodology and research methods

8. Findings/Analysis set of your main findings

9. Conclusions sum up your findings
10. Recommendations list of recommendation from funder

11. Executive summary brief statement of the main points

12. References/Bibliography reference section

13. Glossary a list of technical or special words

14. Appendix a section giving extra information

Not every report applies all the components in their writing. A business related report may
only use title, acknowledgement, then showing the data related to the topic and ended with
findings and conclusions. However more elaborate and advance report like a science project or
research will most likely use more of the components.
 Writing a Report
If you are asked to write a report, for example, analyzing the results of some research,
summarizing articles, or interpreting statistics, your aim should be to present facts clearly so
that the reader will understand the main points quickly.

• Look at the report below and notice how the information is divided up using headings.
• The style of report is impersonal: it is not important who the writer is or what his or her
opinion is.
• Notice whether you are told who the reader is. This will help you decide how much you
need to explain.
• In many reports, the important information involves numbers. Read the report again and
find out what these expression refer to:

50+50 two thirds eight out of ten

four 75% the majority
5% a half a large majority
twice three
Your style of writing will not be personal, but it need not be boring. Vary your language so
that you do not overuse the same expressions. Think of other ways of saying the words and
phrases that are written in dark type in the report below.

Activity 2
Read the following part of report
Which each part of a report do you thinks it is? Explain your answer.
Answer the following questions

Aim
The objective of the survey was to find out whether shopping habits have changed since the
building of the new suburban mall at Lake water, and to identify trends for the future.

Method
The survey targeted four groups of people: (A) downtown residents, (B) suburban residents up
to three miles from the center of town, (C) business owners in the central area of town, and (D)
merchants in the new mall.
Shoppers received one questionnaire, while merchants received another. Researches visited 50
homes in the center of town and 50 in the suburbs as well as a cross section of stores in both
locations.

Results
SHOPPERS
 75% of all residents said that they had been to the new mall at least twice during the last month. Of
these, the majority were from group B. Among the most popular reasons cited for shopping at
Lake water instead of downtown were the ample free parking there compared with the difficulties
of parking there compared with the difficults of parking in the center of town and the convenience
of having a large number of stores in one location in the mall. Families in particular mentioned
the Lake water children's play area as an important advantage.
In contrast, two thirds of those questioned in group A reported that they valued he
convenience of being able to walk to the stores. Eight out of ten of the order shoppers surveyed
said that their daily shopping trip was their only contact with other people. Moreover, they
preferred the personal attention of the smaller stores compared with the anonymous atmosphere of
the larger outlets. They were, however, concerned that prices were increasing.
MERCHANTS
The merchants in town have seen business drop off by up to a half, whereas Lake water business
have recorded a steady increase in sales over the year. When asked whether they viewed the future
with optimism, a large majority of group D replied positively, while only 5% of group C said that
they expected to see a growth in their business in the coming year.
Conclusions
The opening of Lake water mall has clearly had a devastating effect on downtown shopping, and
this trend seems set to continue. Parking problems down ton have been a significant factor in
changing people's habits. Mobile, better-off consumers are deserting the main street for the new
mall, leaving downtown merchants to rely on the business of local residents, particularly the elderly
and those without cars. As a result, many long-established businesses now face grave difficulties.

Questions!

1. What is the report about?

2. Where is the research conducted?

3. What is the objective of the research?

4. Who were the participants of the research?

5. How did the researchers get data fom shoppers?

6. What are the findings of the research?

7. As the student, what do you think about the research?

Activity 3

Read the dialog and Answer the following questions!

Yani : How is our report, Febri?

Febri : I have finished the methodology. What about you Arya?
Arya : I am still writing the glossary. How many pages do we need for the glossary?
Febri : I Think one full page is enough. How many have you got so far?
Arya : It almost two full pages. Should I cut it?
Febri : No. It is fine. What about you, Yani?
Yani : Most of the front pages are done. What about the title? Is “Diferrent ways in fermenting
Tempeh” good?
Febri : Yeah. That’s fine. It represent our report accurately. Don’t you agree, Arya?
Arya : I agree. Most of our data are about the different results of fermenting tempeh, so the title
is appropriate
Yani : alright. I’m glad that everuone agreed.

Questions!

1. What is the dialog about?

2. How is the report?
3. What is the topic of the report?
4. How does Yani feel about the report’s title?
5. Why does everyone agree with the report’s title?

Activity 4

Read the following parts of the report

Which each part of the report do you think it is? Expalin your answer
Arrange the paragraphs into a sequential report.
Then, answer the following questions.
Questions!

1. What is the report about?

2. Where is the research conducted?
3. What is the objective of the research?
4. Why is the observation conducted in separate time?
5. What is the purpose of the interview?
6. What is the result of the observation?
7. What is the result of the interview?
8. What are the findings of the research?

Activity 5

Complete the research outline based on the dialog.

You : Have you decided your report topic?

Your friend : I Have. Whay about you?
You : I Haven’t. Can you tell me about your topic? It might give me inspiration.
Your friend : Alright. I will make a report about the significance of “Bau Nyale” tradition to the
people of Lombok.
You : What is the purpose of your report?
Your friend : Well, I want to know how people of different ages perceive their cultural heritage.
You : Like what exacly?
Your friend : I want to know their understanding of the background and the ritual. How adults,
teenagers and kids see it
You : That’s quite complicated. What are you going to do to get the data?
Your friend : I will go to the event of course. Then, I will ask the participants to complete
questionaires and record several visitors’ opinion on the phone
You : O.K. Thank you for telling me your report topic
Your friend : Don’t mention it. I hope I will give you inspiration.

NO OUTLINE STATEMENT
1 Title
2 Aim
3 Methodology
4 Findings
5 Conclusion

Activity 6

Create an outline of research based on the following topics.

Write a good report based on the outline
1. Multimedia
2. Marketing
3. Culture
 SUMMARY MAPPING

GENERAL STRUCTURE :

 TITLE :………………….

 AIM :………………….

 METHODOLOGY :………………… WRITING A REPORT

 FINDINGS :…………………

 CONCLUSION :,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,