REPORT WRITING: Structure , do’s and don’ts

1. GROUP 5 PRESENTATION
RUP 411- PROFESSIONAL PLANNING
DR GWESHENGWE

2. GROUP MEMBERS
SIBANDA NATASHA E M180020 (GROUP LEADER)
JAPUCHAPU BENSER B M186730
GWEWU VANESSA T M186451
ZIREVA RUVARASHE M186485
NGWENDE JACQUELINE M185973
USENI AISAM M186368

3. PRESENTATION TOPIC
REPORT WRITING: STRUCTURE , DO’S AND DON’TS

4. REPORT DEFINITION
 Peter Little (1965:158) defines a report as a document which provides an
account of something witnessed or examined or of an investigation together
with conclusions arrived at as a result of the investigation
 Krevolin (1983:39) defines a report as an objective oral or written
presentation structured to communicate information, investigation problem,
record ideas and facts, interpret and or to provide solution to a problem
 Otagburuagu (1995:17) defines a report as ‘a description of an event, an
experience, a statement about situations or actions which is meant to give a
reliable and accurate piece of information about its subjects and or the event it
covers’
 Is a short, sharp, concise document which is written for a particular purpose
and audience. It generally sets outs and analyses a situation or a problem,
often making recommendations for future action. It is a factual paper and
needs to be clear and well-structured

5. DEFINATION OF REPORT…
 Thus it’s a given account, spoken or written of a particular matter,
especially in the form of an official document, after thorough investigation
for a participation or consideration by an appointed person or body.
 It is a specific form of writing that is organized around concisely
identifying and examining issues , events or finding that have occurred
within an organization or findings from a research
 Whatever the definition, report writing takes cognizance of particular
readership, particular situations and particular relationships between a
reader and a writer.

6. TYPES OF REPORTS
 Formal reports that stress objectivity and organization contain much detail
and are not personal. These are generally written containing data for the
purpose of problems and possible solutions. Eg inspection report, safety
report, compliance ,audit, incident etc
 Formal reports , are generally longer, have a variety of supplemental parts,
do require research and an analysis, and the arrangement in wording are
more indirect.
 The formal report's introduction will include the problem and the purpose
of the report, before presenting the research.
 Informal reports on the other hand are short messages without prefatory
parts, has limited research and are well known for their direct approach
and personal language. Eg memos, emails and papers

7. TYPES OF REPORTS CONT..
 Informal writing may use first person: I, me, our. Second person: you, yours.
And third person: they, them, pronouns in terms of wording. Contractions may
be used, but be careful. And the wording is likely to use more active voice, and
the writer's opinion may be noted.
 Formal writing on the other hand, uses no first or second person pronouns
rather only third person pronouns are acceptable e.g them, their
 Generally informal report paragraph should not exceed six to eight lines. The
paragraph length in formal, longer reports, may be up to 10 to 12 lines.
Although if paragraphs are consistently that long, the report may lose its
reader-friendliness thus it is important to examine those longer paragraphs, to
be sure each has a clear topic sentence with only one idea, regardless of
whether the report is formal or informal, it should always be professionally
written.

8. STRUCTURE OF A REPORT
 The structure of a report is flexible. It depends on the type and the form
one may be writing. A report, however, has the following structure.
 1. The Report Title, Summary, Introduction, The Body, Recommendations,
Conclusion:
 A longer report however includes the following: Cover page/title page,
table of contents, acknowledgements, introduction, executive summary,
introduction, literature review, methodology, body, conclusion,
recommendations

9. STRUCTURE CONT…
 Title Page: The title page is the first page a long report. It contains the title
and author’s name, the reports reference number and date.
 Table of Contents: This shows the sections and subsections of the report
with the pages of the report where each may be found
 Acknowledgements: On this page, the writer expresses his gratitude to
those who have contributed and helped him during the course of the work
in one way or the other.

10. STRUCTURE:
INTRODUCTION
 A report essentially begins with an introduction,
 This sets the scene and includes the aims and objectives of the report. It
also defines the limits of the report, outlines the method of enquiry, gives
a brief general background to the subject of the report and indicates the
proposed development.
 The introduction includes the background ,Problem statement, hypothesis,
justification, aims and objectives
 The definition of technical terms should be defined as it is impotant for
the reader to understand the key terms
 Simply put it is a summary or glimpse of the whole report highlighting
why it exists.

11. STRUCTURE:
LITERATURE REVIEW
 Identify recent literature that explain how your research builds on what has
already been reported in literature.
 When writing a research proposal report In this section, the author is
expected to cite and write about previous research on the subject. A
general survey of important works and concepts that establish the basis
and relevance of the research should be given. This section is very
important because it demonstrates the author’s knowledge of the
research problems and area as well as indicates one’s ability in
critically evaluating and synthesizing relevant information and work. It is in
this section that the author strives to establish holes or gaps in previous
researches so as to establish a basis for the present research: what the
work will prove or solve. For a proposal, the literature review should be
very brief

12. LITERATURE REVIEW Cont..
 When writing a research report, In the review of literature, the
researcher does a purposeful search and investigation of documented
works relating to the topic. This is done with view to ascertaining what is
already known about the problem that underlies the study. While doing
this review, the researcher should strive to highlight the similarities and
differences between past research efforts and the present one as well as
show the gap in knowledge the present research wants to fill .Also ,the
researcher critically analyses and evaluates the works done by other
authors.

13. METHODOLOGY
 Requires one to state methods used in conducting the research.
 This, along with how the data was analyzed to endorse credibility
 The methods are e.g experiment, descriptive or historical survey, activity
analysis, trend study, programme evaluation, follow up study, document
(content) analysis, case study, ethnographic study, correlational etc
 Data collection Tools : interview, questionnaire, observations, tests etc.
 It is also important to note who are your respondents/subjects/
participants

14. METHODOLOGY Cont..
 This section should have the following in consideration :
 How do you plan to execute your work; is it a questionnaire study or a laboratory
experiment
 What subject do you plan to study?
 Who are your intended population?
 What is the size of the population?
 How do you intend to bring out the sample of the population - the sampling procedure.
 How do you intend to collect data?
 What type of measuring instrument do you intend to use in data collection?
 What method do you intend to use in administering the chosen instrument?
 How would you analyse the data collected?

15. DISCUSSION/BODY
 This is the core of the report as it presents all the relevant information
 In other words, it is a detailed discussion highlighting in depth what was
done and the credibility of ones work.
 It should preferably be concise, relevant and straight to the point to avoid
boring or losing the reader its being presented to.
 The body of any report provides the material which the writer
presents to support his point of view. The body is divided into sections
and subsections, each one marked with suitable heading and subheading

16. CONCLUSION
 Summarise the key points of the report or results of your work in a small
text while reinforcing its main message.
 This section gives an unbiased judgment of the findings made.
Personal opinions are avoided and objective statements are made to
prove the authenticity of claims and allegations as the case may be

17. RECOMMENDATIONS
 suggestions based on the findings or content presented in the report
 Recommendations demonstrate the writer’s sense of judgments’. They
are actually meant to precede whatever the discoveries are in the findings.
10. References: The books and materials consulted in the course of the
work are arranged correctly. Usually this adopts alphabetical arrangements

18. Do’s
 According to Bjork, Knight and Wikborg (1992), the use of I, we, you is
generally the informal choice. However, some disciplines may accept the
use of these pronouns or recommend that they only be used in the
introduction and conclusion of the text in report writing
 Use formal language e.g have found
 Leave out conversational phrases, Use appropriate connectors and
introductory phrases e.g In addition, moreover, furthermore
 Use full verb form of e,g they are, cannot
 Be concise ,clearly state only the main ideas
 State main ideas clearly and concisely in your own words in topic
sentences.

19. DO’s Cont…
 Leave out conversational phrases. Use appropriate connectors and
introductory phrases.
 Subheadings are recommended
 Maintain tense consistently
 Define all relevant terms especially any “jargon” you wish to use
 It is recommended to use the letter head or title page with a company
logo to show where the report came from.
 Provide references whenever you say something that is not your own
 A good report must be coherent. The structure must be perfectly adapted
to its subjects and be presented step by step and logically too

20. Don'ts
 Avoid using long winding paragraphs
 Do not be personal (the use of first person narrative )
 Do not generalize
 Do not overcomplicate or oversimplify
 Avoid frequent use of the same words and phrases.
 Do not plagiarize
 Do not use shortened verb forms (contractions), such as they're, isn't, can't.
 Do not use slang, jargon, colloquialisms,

21. THE END