Report Writing: What, How & Why

Background

Report refers to tell, inform, and communicate any information or content. Many people believe that report is a formal written document that communicates something objectively and systematically about any subject matter. There is no problem if you also understand in a similar way but report should be understood and perceived in a broader way. It is theoretically the one of the important forms/types of communication. Report is a systematically organized document addressed to the particular audience about any specified subject matter to achieve the determined goals. It is better to consider the following queries to comprehend the report (writing).

Are reports other than in writing form?

Yes. Because of the development of technology and very busy schedule of everyday life people prepared and communicate through oral report as well. Report can be in oral and written form. Nowadays, people also required and prepared audio repots, video reports, graphic and other pictograph report as well.

What is the Importance of Report?

Reports are essential for both professional and personal life, however they play very significant role in professional or business communication. Many scholars take report is one of the major components of formal or business communication. The university students often assume report in case of its drafting process a complex tasks but it is not the case if you actually go through the process of writing.

Is report writing easy?

Obviously everything formal or professional is not difficult and complex but it with no doubt requires your passion, practice, continuation and creative and critical ways of moving ahead. Writing what every you write should go with its process because it is popularly defined as a process rather than a product. The basic process of any kind of formal and academic writing is referred as Invention, Arrangement, Drafting and Editing (IADE). Report writing cannot be the exception. Lets see what you do in IADE.

What is IADE and how do you apply it?

Invention
Arrangement
Drafting
Editing

IADE as mentioned above is a short form of I=Invention, A=Arrangement, D=Drafting and E=Editing. This is one of the best processes and approaches of any professional writing. Majority of the problems and shortcomings of your writing automatically resolved if the process is adopted.

I=Invention: First of all you have to brainstorm the ideas, information, opinions, examples, loing or you can say the subject matter of your writing. Here the writer collects the subject matter in either in his mind or paper.

A= Arrangement: After you brainstorm the idea and subject matter, as a professional writer all those content should be arranged in proper order. The general and common ways of arrangement and organization are handled by chronological order, coherence, cohesion and spatial order etc.

Here chronological order refers to the sequencing of your subject matter based on time order for example, 2025, 2017, 2019 and 2021 or morning, day and evening or Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday etc.

Cohesion requires the logical and grammatical/syntactical organization. Here, logical order/organization/arrangement means the information of your subject matter should be logically compatible. For example, look at the following paragraph where logical cohesion is violated.

My mother is a very busy person. She wakes up at 7.00 in the morning. She takes her breakfast at 9.30 then spends her time in social media for about one hour. She takes her lunch at 11.45. She watches some serials on TV for some times and goes for a short sleep. In the evening, she goes with her relatives and friends for a short evening walk. She prepares dinner for the family and finally she serves food for the family and eat the dinner.

This paragraph violates the logical/semantic cohesion because the topic sentence 'My mother is a very busy person' is not justified by the following sentences.

Similarly, grammatical or structural cohesion requires that your sentences and clauses should be grammatically compatible.

John is an American. She visits the many Indian places every year.

Here the pronoun 'She' in the second sentence is used for the male subject 'John'. This is wrong, as we know! Thus, grammatical cohesion requires grammatically correct sentences.

Spatial order is another requirement of writing arrangement and organization; here the writer places his subject matter in physical or psychological space. For example,

While describing about Aanand Bihar Buspark you have to talk about Aanand Bihar to New Delhi, New Delhi to Delhi, Delhi to India, India to SAARC, SAARC to Asia, Asia to the world. Or you can go opposite way but in order. That is to say to maintain spatial order writer can follow smaller to bigger or near to far. Thus both of the following ways of arrangement are possible.

Bagbazar<Kathamandu<Nepal<Asia<World

World>Asia>Nepal>Kathmandu>Bagbazar

Report writing more specifically requires 3-step process of writing.

Planning Report

Writing Report

Completing Report

a. Planning Report

Planning Report is the first and very important step of report writing. As it is said, one hour in planning saves 3 hours in execution. It is exactly applicable in the process of writing. Planning step of report writing also includes four other sub steps such as:

Analyzing the Situation: Specify your objective and purpose, Develop the audience Profile

Gathering the Information: You go to the field or collect data from other various secondary sources.

Organizing the Information: The organization of the subject matter should be based on the coherence, cohesion. The report writer also makes plan about organization based on the type of report. For example, information report versus analytical report; short report versus long report etc.

Choosing the Right Medium: Medium of the report also should be confirmed and decided at the planning step.

b. Writing Report

This is the actual step of writing. This is also called drafting process. For many immature/unprofessional writer, it is the only step of report writing process. It is said that in the developing countries, people write and prepare their reports at once. Even though, report writing is highlighted with the three step process, writing is the main step. Here, you consider two things/aspects.

i. You Attitude: The report writer should be guided by 'You Attitude' approach. 'You Attitude' gives the priority to your audience; their background, need, feeling and so on. In sum up you respect your audience.

ii. Adapting appropriate words and sentences: The subject matter and language structure should be appropriate.

c. Completing Report

After drafting report, the writer should go from the various steps that come under completing report.

i. Revising the Report: The revising report refers to the addition and omission of the content based on the need. Obviously, during revision, the writer adds or deletes particular items. After drafting the report, the writer has to revise the report. No writing is final at the very first step. Many students and professionals make rush at the time of revision which contributes to disqualify the standard of your repot. If you always work hard during revision of your repot, you will not have any suspicion.

ii. Producing the Final Report: After the revision, your report is almost done. Here you will produce it based on the report form and medium. For example, audio reports are broadcasted from the Radio and Internet, Printed and written report are produced in paper.

iii. Proofreading the Report: Here the writer just checks if there are some minor mistakes like the error in number, percentages, spelling, punctuation as well as some smaller problems of grammar like subject verb agreement etc are checked and give the final form of the document. More importantly, many people are confused on revision and proofreading. In a very simple word revision is a bigger change in the document whereas proof reading is a smaller or in letter and number only.

Types of Report

Report can be categorized into various types based on different criteria. Lets see some of the types of report.

Reports on the basis of subject matter:

a. Informational Reports

Informational reports offer data, information, statistics etc with or without analysis. They do not recommend the suggestions and recombination at the end of report. The informational report have the following features:

i. Informational reports are more scientific in nature.

ii. They are known as basic reports.

iii. If a researcher just one to collect information and data then he chooses this type of reports.

iv. Informational reports are comparatively shorter in length.

v. Informational reports choose objective writing.

vi. It is more useful for generalization.

b. Analytical Reports

Analytical reports simply incorporate the data, statistics, facts and other information along with the details analysis and proper recommendation to the organization or people. The analytical reports have following features:

i. Analytical report are detail and more comprehensive in nature.

ii. They are more subjective in the subject matter.

iii. Researcher/Writer becomes dominant in analytical reports.

iv. Analysis and recommendations are the inevitable in analytical reports.

v. The main purpose of analytical report is to find out the solution or provide recommendation.

vi. It is more advanced type of report.

Reports based on length

Reports are categorized into short, medium and long

Short Reports

They are very short in length. Those report most of the time is adjusted within 3-5 pages. For example, medical/clinical reports of lab such as blood test/ urine test/stool test reports.

Medium Reports

The medium reports include the weekly and monthly reports of any organizations, the students project reports are the examples of medium reports. In a simple word, medium reports are prepared within 5-20 pages in general.

Long Reports

They are longer type of reports. They contain more that 20 pages and may go up to thousand pages. Some of the examples of long repots are the annual progress reports of any organization, feasibility reports and so on.

Note: the report types based on length do not have water tight distinction.

Reports based on Data (Method)

Quantitative reports and Qualitative Reports

The data and information about the subject matter also plays vital role to categorize the report as quantitative or qualitative.

Quantitative Reports: The quantitative reports use the quantitative data and information as well as the quantitative analysis of data. For example, survey report, descriptive report, experimental report, correlation report, casual-comparative report etc.

Qualitative Reports: Qualitative reports use the qualitative data and qualitative method of analysis. Some examples of qualitative reports are case study reports, ethnographic reports etc.

Importance of Report

The importance of report can be listed as follows:

i. Report communicate the information and ideas.

ii. They provide solutions and recommendation to the problems.

iii. Report can be the tool for decision making in the organization.

iv. Reports are the forms and product of investigation for new update and solutions.

v. Reports are the final documents of any evaluation.

vi. Reports provides knowledge, skills and attitude to the concerned subject matters.

vii. Reports also prepare the organization and people for potential opportunities and threats in future.

viii. Reports support in controlling environment and circumstances during the professional and personal journey of life.

ix. Reports (feasibility reports) generate the birth of organization.

x. Reports remain even after you or your organizations achieve the goals and destinations.

Conclusion

Reports are very important documents and forms of communication. They are of various types and useful for both personal and professional life. The type and importance may rely on the purpose of the writer, the subject matter of reports, profile of audience etc. More importantly report writing should be practice and done by adopting 3-step process of writing.