Assessment Tasks: Reports

A typical report is structured in this way:

• Title page
• Table of contents
• Executive summary / abstract
• Introduction
• Body / discussion
• Conclusion
• Recommendations
• References or bibliography
• Glossary (optional)
• Appendices

(Adapted from:  Eunson, B  2007 Business writing, Wiley, Milton, QLD.)

Review your work before submitting.
Make sure that you have: 

• met the assignment criteria
• used the correct headings
• included all required sections
  • Title page
  • Executive summary
  • Table of contents
  • Introduction
  • Literature review etc.
• explained data gathering methods
• discussed the findings
• drawn a conclusion
• made recommendations
• included references
• included appendices
• checked for errors
   

Content adapted from: University of NSW, "Writing a Report", viewed August 2020, 

Before you begin writing your report ...

Set your objectives

• Be absolutely clear about your reasons for writing the report, and articulate them.

Assess your audience

• Concentrate on the points that your audience will care about
• Try to identify what they need to know
• Consider any concerns they may have

Decide on the information you need

• Refer to your objectives and your audience
• Use them to help your discern the types of information that should be covered by your report

Prepare, test and revise your framework

• Once you have your objectives, audience and information requirements, you can begin testing how it all fits together

(Adapted from:  Bowden, J  2011 Writing a report, 9th ed, How To Books, Oxford.) 

Laboratory reports provide an account of experimental research procedures and results

Field reports are about the observations made, and the data gathered, on field trips

Technical reports convey technical information about the progress or results of research and development

More information on how to write a variety of reports