REPORT
WRITING
Introduction
• The term “report” refers to a nonfiction work that presents and/or paraphrases the facts on a
specific occasion, subject, or problem.
• The notion is that a good report will contain all the information that someone who is not familiar
with the subject needs to know.
• Reports make it simple to bring someone up to speed on a subject, but actually writing a report is
far from simple.
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What is a Report?
“
• A report is a short document written for a particular purpose or audience.
• It usually sets out and analyses a problem often recommended for future purposes.
• Requirements for the precise form of the report depend on the department and
organization.
• Technically, a report is defined as “any account, verbal or written, of the matters
pertaining to a given topic.” This could be used to describe anything, from a witness’s
evidence in court to a student’s book report.
• Actually, when people use the word “report,” they usually mean official documents that
lay out the details of a subject.
• These documents are typically written by an authority on the subject or someone who
has been tasked with conducting research on it.
What is a Report?
“
What information does reporting contain? All facts are appreciated, but reports, in particular,
frequently contain the following kinds of information:
Information about a circumstance or event
The aftereffects or ongoing impact of an incident or occurrence
Analytical or statistical data evaluation
Interpretations based on the report’s data
Based on the report’s information, make predictions or suggestions
Relationships between the information and other reports or events
• Although there are some fundamental differences, producing reports and essays share many
similarities.
• Both rely on facts, but essays also include the authors’ personal viewpoints and justifications.
• Reports normally stick to the facts only, however they could include some of the author’s
interpretation in the conclusion.
• Reports are also quite well ordered, frequently with tables of contents of headers and
subheadings.
• This makes it simpler for readers to quickly scan reports for the data they need.
• Essays, on the other hand, should be read from beginning to end rather than being perused for
Reporting Format:
“
Depending on the objective and audience for your report, there are a few distinct types of reports.
The most typical report types are listed briefly below:
Identifies data from
Academic report
company reports, such
examines a student’s Shares research findings
as marketing reports,
knowledge of the in the form of case
internal memoranda,
subject; examples studies and research
SWOT analyses, and
include book reports, articles, usually in
feasibility reports, that is
historical event reports, scientific publications.
useful in corporate
and biographies.
planning.
• A report, for instance, could be professional or casual, brief or lengthy, and internal or external.
• A lateral report is for persons on the author’s level but in separate departments, whereas a
vertical report is for those on the author’s level but with different levels of the hierarchy (i.e.,
people who work above you and below you).
• Report formats can be as varied as writing styles, but in this manual, we’ll concentrate on
academic reports, which are often formal and informational.
MAJOR TYPES OF REPORTS
NEWSPAPER OR MAGAZINE BUSINESS REPORTS TECHNICAL REPORTS
REPORTS
The main purpose of Business reports aim to The main purpose of the
newspaper or magazine analyze a situation or case technical report is to
reports is to cover a study by implementing provide an empirical
particular event or business theories and explanation of research-
happening. suggest improvements based material.
accordingly.
They generally elaborate Technical report writing is
upon the 4Ws and 1H, i.e. In business report writing, generally carried out by a
What, Where, When, Why, you must adhere to a researcher for scientific
and How. formal style of writing and journals or product
these reports are usually development and
lengthier than news reports presentation, etc.
since they aim to assess a
particular issue in detail
and provide solutions.
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9+ Newspaper Report Templates
[Link]
/design-templates/print/newspaper-repor
emplate/
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8 Annual Review
35+ Business Report Examples
[Link]
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10 July 11, 2025
50 Professional Technical Report Examples
[Link]
10+ Technical Report Writing Examples
[Link]
/business/technical-report-writing-s
amples-
[Link]
11 Annual Review
ANNUAL REPORT
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PROJECT REPORT
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RESEARCH REPORT
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ACADEMIC REPORT
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WHAT IS REPORT WRITING?
16 Annual Review July 11, 2025
Report writing : Things to keep
in mind
Before writing a report, there are certain things you must know to ensure
that you draft a precise and structured report, and these points to
remember are listed below:
• Write a concise and clear title of the report.
• Always use the past tense.
• Don’t explain the issue in the first person, i.e. ‘I’ or ‘Me’. Always write
in the third person.
• Put the date, name of the place as well as the reporter’s name after the
heading.
• Structure the report by dividing it into paragraphs.
• Stick to the facts and keep it descriptive.
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Structure of Report Writing
Title: A clear and concise report title.
Table of Contents: A page dedicated to the contents
of your report.
Summary: An overview of your entire report — you'll
need to wait until you've completed the full report to
write this section.
Introduction: Introduce your report topic and what
readers will find throughout the pages.
Body: The longest section of your report — compile all
of your information and use data visualization to help
present it.
Conclusion: Different from the summary, this
concludes the report body and summarizes all of your
findings.
Recommendations: A set of recommended goals or
steps to complete with the information provided in this
report.
Appendices:
18 A list of your sources used to compile the
information in your report.
1. Title
On your title or cover page, be sure to
include the following:
• Report title
• Report subtitle (if necessary)
• Author of the report
• Who the report is meant for
• Date the report was written
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2. Table of Contents
• Always leave the Table of Contents page
until the end.
• After all, you can’t write a table of contents
if you don’t know all of your page numbers
yet.
• Having a Table of Content pages makes it
easy for your readers to find the
information they're most interested in
quickly and easily, improving overall
readability.
• So you absolutely do not want to skip this
step.
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3. Summary
• The summary (also known as the abstract)
of the report is best done after you’ve
finished writing the report.
• You can draft a summary at the beginning
to help you continue with the work, but
you’ll definitely want to revisit it at the
end.
• A summary is a blurb of the entire report.
• It must include the purpose, the process
and a snippet of the resolution.
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4. Introduction
• In the introduction, state what the report is
about and why it has been created.
• Depending on the length of your report,
the introduction could range from one
single paragraph to an entire page long.
• Take this time to introduce why your topic
is so important, especially if it's a research
report.
• You need to focus on why your readers
should care about what you have
uncovered.
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• The body of your report is where all the information is put together
and will be the longest section of your report.
• This will likely span several (anywhere from 5-50) pages. Follow your
5. Body initial outline to maintain consistent flow in the content creation.
• Write the body content as sections and subsections.
• Furthermore, use bullet points and data visualization as visual cues.
• These will help your audience to better understand the content of
your report.
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6. Conclusion
• Close your report with
a well-crafted conclusion.
• Formulate it as a brief summary of what
was covered within the report, and be sure
to include a mention to the
recommendations section and the
resources in the appendix.
• This section should never bring new
information to the table — instead, it
should simply summarize all of the findings
you've already mentioned into one concise
final section.
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7. Recommendations
• Craft the recommendations section as a
set of actionable steps
with smart goals associated along with
possible solutions.
• This section is irrelevant for school reports
or book reports, but is essential for
business reports or corporate settings.
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8. Appendices
• This is the section where you list all your
sources if it’s a research report.
• You should also add any links that are
relevant to the report — or previous
reports about the same topic.
• A good rule of thumb when creating your
appendices is to only add information that
is relevant to the report or that you
referenced when writing your report.
• Use reference annotations inside the report
to link to the content in the appendix.
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Report Writing in 7 steps:
“
1. Choose a topic based on the assignment
2. Conduct research
3. Write a thesis statement
4. Prepare an outline
5. Write a rough draft
6. Revise and edit your report
7. Proofread and check for mistakes
• Make sure that every piece of information you have supplied is pertinent.
• Remember to double-check your grammar, spelling, tenses, and the person
you are writing in.
• A final inspection against any structural criteria is also important.
• You have appropriately and completely referenced for an academic work.
• Check to make sure you haven’t unintentionally, purposefully, or both
duplicated something without giving credit.
Thank you
