Information Report

1. What is?

An information report is a type of text that gives information to describe something or an

information report provides readers with information on a chosen topic by providing them with
facts.

Generally, an information report is written to provide facts about a living or non-living object. It
can be an individual object or a group of objects. The thing it is describing could be a living thing
or a non-living thing. For example you could have an information report describing a panda and
also have an information report describing a video game.

 Sea Creatures
 The Bald Eagle
 Aircraft
 The Titanic
 Rome
 Pollution

2. Structure of an Information Report

 Introduction ; Classify your topic, describe the aspects, features or characteristics

of the subject.
 Body paragraph ; a. Paragraphs will be used to organise your information report.
Use paragraps to elaborate on your subject.
b. Images labelled diagrams such as maps, diagrams and pictures
support and extend your written information.
c. Subheadings keep your report in a logical state and ordered. It also
helps the reader find key information quickly.
 Conclusion ; is the last part of something or an opinion reached after some thought.
3. Types of information report
 Scientific Reports : Usually focuses on describing of appearance and behaviour
of the subject of your report.
 Technological Reports : Usually focus on two main categories of information.
Those are the components and uses of the technology.
 Social Studies Reports : Usually focuses on the description of people, places,
history, geography, society, culture and economy.
4. INFORMATION REPORT FEATURES

 SPECIALIZED VOCABULARY Allows for more information to be shared with

minimal text.
 THIRD PERSON PERSPECTIVE Relays information from an impersonal position
devoid of strong emotive language.
 COMPARATIVE LANGUAGE Such as compared to, smaller than, greatest,
different form is used to provide context
 DEFINITIONS Of uncommon or unfamiliar language may be required in parts
to assist the reader
5. Researching your information report
There are also several different processes students need to develop to ensure that they
can filter their research for relevancy and accuracy. Let’s take a look at these:
1. Define the Scope of the Topic
2. Uncover Important Keywords and Phrases
3. Evaluate Sources
4. Develop Note-Taking Skills
6. How to write an information report

The general structure will be as follows:

a. Table of Contents

A table of contents should be included for longer information texts. It should outline
where specific information can be found in the document or the text. For longer texts, each
section should correspond to a page number on the table of contents. For shorter texts,
this may be numbered sections instead of page numbers. This will allow the reader to
locate specific information that is being searched for without having to read through the
whole text. Page numbers can be entered on the table of contents after the text is
completed.

b. Introduction

As with other writing genres, information texts must first use a hook to grab the reader’s
attention. This hook may take the form of an interesting fact or statistic, an anecdote or a
question etc. Fundamentally, the introduction to the text must orientate the reader to the
 topic in question. It should outline what the reader can expect to learn within the body of
the text.

c. Subheadings

The main job of the student when writing an informational text is to organize the
information so that the reader can easily understand it. To help the reader achieve this,
they need to organize their ideas into paragraphs and to help the reader locate the
information on each of these ideas, each paragraph should contain a subheading. These
subheadings can also provide titles for the table of contents.

d. Conclusion

The closing section of an information report can be used to summarize. The conclusion should
focus on what the reader has learned in the text. It may also contain information on links or
further reading the reader can undertake to find out more about the topic. For more advanced
students, the opportunity to make cross-curricular links to IT skills (for example) can be taken
by encouraging students to incorporate hyperlinks to further sources.

e. Glossary

The glossary will contain much of the subject-specific vocabulary identified at the prewriting
stage. It will contain the words in alphabetical order and a definition that gives the word
context in light of the topic. Some of the contents of the glossary will also be identified by the
student reading over the body of the text they have written and selecting words that may pose
difficulties for readers or need further contextualizing in terms of the topic. Sometimes, it is
helpful to use bold fonts to emphasize the words in a text that will be defined in the glossary.
This allows the reader to know they can turn to the glossary to find out further information on
the definition of this word and its use in context. As with the other sections of an information
report, illustrations, tables, and photographs can be used here to visually represent related
ideas and concepts and reinforce the definitions provided.
Example