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In the present time, report writing is one of the most used and famous formats of writing.
Contrary to a popular belief, a report is not a simple outline. It is a deep analytical work
that must be done. It is often approached as the list of things that are usually included in a
typical paper draft but it is the content that always differs. It means a report has to be
provided with an abstract, objectives, and a list of sources that have been used for some
research project, and the structure must be there with a bit of relevant analysis. Here we
are going to discuss what a report is, its variation, style, aspects, and its uses in the
academic and professional world.

What is a report?

A report is a specific form of writing organized around concisely, identifying and

examining issues, events, or findings that have happened in a physical sense, such as
events that have occurred within an organization, or conclusions of a research
investigation. It is a concise document based on research that typically analyses a
situation and sometimes makes recommendations.

A report is a sharp, short document written for a specific audience. It informs the readers
simply and objectively about all relevant issues. It usually sets out and analyses problems
or situations. It also makes recommendations for actions to be taken in the future. It is a
paper that focuses on facts and it's supposed to be well-structured and clear.

Reports are written to present and discuss research findings. They provide the render with
the rationale for the research, a description of the method used to conduct the research,
and recommendations.

Purposes of report writing

A report has lots of purposes both in the academic and professional world. But since It's
usually used in the professional world most of the time, the three main purposes are
discussed here :
 ● Making decisions: In our modern world today, most individuals and business
organizations need a lot of information. Reports provide huge amounts of
information that are required to make important decisions. Also, individuals get to
understand a specific area based on the information presented in a report.

● Conducting investigations using reports: When there is a serious problem, a

study group, committee, or commission investigates the issue to find the root
cause of the problem and presents findings with recommendations in a report. At
school and in the business world, problems will always arise. However, how
people deal with these problems determines whether they'll grow and thrive or fail
miserably. Professionals who delegate this task to a report-writing service will
understand the problems that they are facing and come up with effective solutions.

● Professional advancement: A report plays a huge role in professional

advancement. To get promoted and improve job satisfaction, intellectual ability is
essential. And this ability can be demonstrated by writing a good report and
submitting it to the relevant authorities.

● Managerial tool: Reports are essential for managers because they can be used for
organizing, planning, motivating, coordinating, and controlling. All managers
need reports to get essential information that will help them make informed
decisions. When managers make informed decisions, the business will naturally
grow and thrive.

STYLES AND STRUCTURES OF REPORTS

Style: Reports are written in objective style. In report writing, a reporter presents what
the evidence tells him. Reports should never be presented with unsupported or personal
opinions. Facts are stated accurately and objectively in an organized way here. Instead of
a single narrative voice from beginning to end, reports are written in sections that use
different styles of writing, depending on the purpose of each section:

● Introduction: In a report, writing an introduction should be explanatory. The

background of the report has to be clear and it should give a purpose to the report.
 ● Methods and results: The elements of a report have to be factual and descriptive.
It should state the facts exactly as they are and provide a detailed account of the
characteristics of concepts and processes.

● Literature survey and discussion: This part should be analytical and discursive.
The reporter should examine complex data to discover how things work and come
to a conclusion through reasoning about the data.

● Tenses: There are conventions for when different tenses should be used. when
presenting personal findings, the report should be written in the past tense. In the
case of reporting other people's research, like relating something that is established
knowledge, should be presented in the present tense.

Structure of writing: It can be helpful to write up sections as going along. A reporter

can write about what he has done while it is fresh in his mind and spot any gaps that
require additional research. It also means that he won't have to do all the writing in one
go.

Here is a suggested structure for writing:

1. The order: In general, the more factual the section, the earlier it should be
written. Firstly, the sections describing what the reporter did and what he found
should be written.
2. Introduction and Literature Survey: Sections that explain or expand on the
purpose of the research should be next. Completing these sections will help one to
see how to interpret and analyze the reporter's findings.
3. Discussion: Now it can be seen how the results contribute to the brief and what
kind of answers they point to. this section should be written early enough that
reporters still have time to fill any gaps.
4. Conclusions and Recommendations: These should follow logically from the
Discussion. The conclusion of a report should be unbiased and contain a
conclusion based on the findings and information of the research or investigation.
This section should not be written until after the main body and appendixes have
been completed, reviewed, and where necessary redrafted.
5. Abstract: It's often easier to write a summary of the main features of the report
once everything else is written.
 6. Illustration: The reporter needs time to collect the data as well as write the
report. Using graphs, diagrams and images heighten the report's essence. Since
reports are very factual, visuals are often very suitable additions to the texts. They
can help the audience understand the findings and see how they compare with
other data. The key point is that visuals must make things clearer for the audience.
If a graph is not needed, it shouldn’t be included. If a table makes the data more
confusing, it should be left out. All the visuals must be large enough to be read
easily and clearly labeled to explain what they show.
7. Reference: A reporter needs to reference diagrams and photos if they are not his
own work.

COLLECTING AND HANDLING INFO IN A REPORT

The most important part of writing a report is to collect and handle info. If this process is
not properly done, the report becomes valueless because a report loses its purpose
without information. The way of collecting and handling info in a report is discussed
here:

Planning: According to the type of report, an agenda may take various forms. Two
common forms of agenda can be the standard agenda and the discussive agenda.

● The standard agenda: It simply lists the subject to be discussed and the order in
which they will be presented.
● The discussive agenda: It is designed to stimulate thought before and comment at
the meeting.

Background: After the report has been planned and the framework decided, it is time
to undertake research or investigation as appropriate according to the agenda. Enough
relevant information is required to flesh out the skeleton that was previously planned. The
stages of research are:

● Locate sources of relevant information: To create a list of sources bearing in

mind the purpose of the report, needs of the readers, objective(s), resources, and
skeletal framework. There are four sources of information available: people, books
and other publications, information technology, and events and places.
● Obtaining the information: information can be gathered by one or more of these
methods: experimentation, reading, listening, observation, interview, letter,
questionnaire, and research on the internet.
 ● Sorting and grouping the findings: To use the headings and sub-headings
of the skeletal framework and categorize and fill each section and subsection
with enough relevant information.
● Evaluating the findings: After sorting and categorizing the gathered
information, they need to be evaluated according to reliability and
significance.
● Prioritizing the findings: In this step, the job is to highlight the most
significant findings and prepare those to be explained carefully. It might also
require amending the skeletal framework so that these key findings do not
get lost within the main body of the report or in an appendix.
● Checking the findings: Before concluding the investigation or research, it
must be ensured that enough required information has been collected and
that they are accurate and reliable.

IS IT NECESSARY TO TEST AND REVISE THE SKELETAL FRAMEWORKS

OF REPORTS?

Without testing and revising, many mistakes go unnoticed, and it can't be determined
whether the report is accurately formed or not. So, before publishing the report, it is
necessary to revise and test the piece.

WAYS OF TESTING AND REVISING THE SKELETAL FRAMEWORK

Several kinds of tests are necessary for testing and revising the skeletal frameworks, such
as:

● Necessity test: It should be determined if the component is really necessary or

not. For example: Is the title necessary? The answer must be 'Yes' because it
identifies the report to the reader. If it weren’t relevant, in that case, it should be
removed from the skeletal framework since it would serve no useful purpose.
 ● Inclusion test: In the given heading of the module it should be determined if all
appropriate items are included or not. If not, the scope of the heading should be
restricted to fit the items that are present or add the missing items.

● Exclusion test: In the given heading of the module it should be determined if all
inappropriate items are excluded or not. If not, the inappropriate items should be
deleted or expanded the heading to fit all the items in the module.

● Hierarchy test: Headings of similar rank should represent topics of roughly equal
importance. If they are not, the problem items should be moved to the appropriate
level.

● Sequence test: Whether the module is of the verb or noun type should be
determined, and then decide whether the sequence is most appropriate for each
module.

● Language test: Are the items in the module grammatically parallel? If not,
change the wording to achieve consistency.

These tests collectively provide a comprehensive, yet relatively simple writing tool for
the reports.

TYPES OF REPORTS

Various types of reports are written and published daily. Some of the major types of
reports are discussed here:

Formal reports: Formal reports follow a strict method. They require the writer to write
them in a manner that avoids elements like personal pronouns and sights a greater
emphasis on objectivity and organization. They also contain more detail. It is an official
report that contains detailed information, research, and data necessary to make business
decisions.

Informal reports: Informal reports are brief written messages that are circulated within a
company. Informal reports typically consist of brief communications with unstructured,
informal language. Informal reports might be progress reports, analytical reports, or
informational reports. There are numerous formats, such as letters and memoranda.
Informal reports in the marketing context typically contain fewer components and a
shorter length than formal reports. In the majority of businesses, employees produce and
utilize informal reports. Most informal reports are only intended for internal usage.

Informal reports fall into one of two broad groups:

1. Analytical report: The content in an analytical report is similar to that in an

informational report, but it also includes an assessment or recommendation. These
papers could contain proposals, justification reports, and feasibility studies.
2. Informative report: An informative report gives context and facts without
making a judgment. Simple reports like meeting minutes, expense reports, and
progress or status updates fall under this category.

Even for the most straightforward reports, like a mileage reimbursement report, the
majority of firms have specialized forms and procedures. Other straightforward reports
are not as constrained.

Vertical report: The direction of a report is represented by the vertical kind of report.
Vertical reports are those that move either up or down the hierarchy. The vertical report
can be used on financial statements, balance sheets, or income statements to recognize
the percentages of each line item to the total, key trends that happen over time, evaluate
multiple companies of varying sizes, or evaluate a company’s financial statements to
industry averages.

Lateral report: The movement of lateral reports within the same organizational level,
such as between the accounting and finance departments, aids in the synchronization of
activity inside an organization. The dissemination of information between several
departments within a company is facilitated via lateral reports. Example: The finance
team receives a marketing strategy with budget details, including marketing expenditures
and anticipated incoming revenue.

Periodic report: Companies produce periodic reports to give regular updates on their
corporate operations, projects, departments, client work, etc. It provides to give the
audience the information they need to comprehend the present state of an ongoing project
or business. Typically, a periodic report has a standard format or a template that is
developed to meet the needs and requirements of that particular project, department, or
company.

Proposal Report: A proposal report is a piece of writing that seeks to persuade the
audience to take a particular action. In its simplest form, a proposal is a document that
seeks to persuade the reader to accept or implement a proposal for a plan.

Internal report: An internal report is a written document that conveys vital information
to employees within the business. Only those who are employed by the institution are
allowed to see and assess these papers. Examples of the information included in internal
reports are expense trends, failure rates, detailed sales data, and employee turnover.

External report: Any organizational report that is written with the general public in
mind is referred to as an "external report".

Long report: In most cases, a business or government organization commissions a long

report to investigate a topic involving people, places, money, safety, or equipment and to
provide detailed documentation.

Short report: Regular duties frequently involve writing a short report with little to no
warning to the writer.

Informational report: One of the most common types of reports is the informational
type. Even though all kinds of reports provide pieces of information in various ways,
however, an informational report’s sole purpose is to provide information. This kind of
report tries to provide accurate information on a certain subject. There are various kinds
of informational reports, such as:

● News report: Newspapers often provide news reports that serve as a way to keep
readers up to date on events in their community. Finding all pertinent information,
choosing and presenting the most crucial information, and crafting a thorough
narrative are all parts of news reporting. Labor ethic and patience are necessary for
reporting, which in turn requires hard work. News reporting is the primary
responsibility of a journalist.
There are different types of news reporting which are as under:
 1. Investigative Reporting
2. Court Reporting
3. Accidence Reporting
4. Political Reporting
5. Fashion Reporting
6. Business Reporting
7. Sports Reporting
8. Specialized Reporting

● Analytical report: This report type combines real-time and historical data with
qualitative information to provide helpful information to aid in decision-making.

● Progress Report: Progress reports are a vital source of information among the
plethora of informational reports about the state of a project. To monitor
performance and optimize duties for the smoother progress of the project, staff or
managers can prepare these reports on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis

Operational Report: These reports keep tabs on every crucial aspect of the business'
operational tasks, including its production procedures. Since they want to preserve the
moment, they are frequently brief reports. This kind of report is used by businesses to
identify problems, define solutions, or find ways to improve in order to maximize
operational effectiveness.

Department Reports: Each department or business function is covered by a separate

report. They act as a means of communication between team members and management
who must remain connected and collaborate to achieve shared objectives.
Hence, considering all the methods above, a report should be written from a firm,
factual, and non-biased point of view. Besides Keeping the structure simple and
elegant, another important aspect that must be considered is editing and
proofreading. It is paramount for writing a good report regardless of what subject it
might be dealing with. As a report writer, one must think about the objectives and
see what kind of formatting must be used to fit within the particular paper type