To: Nancy Myers

From: Dane Rogers

Date: 5/15/20
Subject: APLED 121-Chapter 9 Summary

Chapter 9
Short, Informal Reports
Report Definition

 Reports do a wide variety of things:

o Keep a record of work or complex information
o Give information to people at different skill levels
o Shows procedures

Online Reports

 Travel reports allow employees of companies while traveling and waiting before
meetings
 Police reports allow incidents to be recorded where it occurred or at a later time
 Police, universities, and government bodies all use these online reports

Types of Reports

 Incident reports
 Investigative reports
 Lab/research reports
 Progress reports
Criteria for Writing Reports
 Organization
o Identification lines
 Shows the time the report was written, who wrote it, who it will
be forwarded too, and the subject
o Headings
 Use phrases like introduction, conclusion, or give a section a
title to ease reference for readers to come back to
o Introduction
 State the purpose, who is involved, and the date/time
 Use headings to aid in organization
o Discussion
 Summarize topics
 Include issues encountered, costs, and other necessary
information
o Conclusion
 Sum up the report and reflect on what was learned
 Recommendations can be made but aren’t always necessary
 Development
 o Who: who is involved, who needs to be involved?
o What: what steps should be taken?
o When: when did the documented activities occur?
o Where: where did the incident happen?
o Why: why is the report being made?
 Audience
o Because reports can be sent internally and externally, audiences will
vary greatly between high and low tech
o Determine the main audience and base terminology off of it
o Tone will vary off of the audience too
 Style
o Prioritize conciseness
o Headings should be used
o Use charts, graphs or other infographics

Incident Reports

 Documents when a problem occurs

o Purpose and examples
 Record when equipment goes faulty
 Record when an incident occurs and how it could be avoided
 Criteria
o Introduction
 Who, what, when, where, and why?
 The purpose of the report
o Discussions
 Use headings to organize
 Makes and models
 Witnesses
 Damage
 Graphics (sketches and graphs)
o Conclusions
 Why the problem occurred?
 Recommendations?

Investigative Reports

 Security for banks for looking into theft, fraud and other illegalities
 For engineering its used for structural investigations
 Investigating server issues for teacher grading
 Criteria
o Intro
 Who, what, when, where, why?
o Discussion
 Findings of the investigation
  Challenges of the investigation
o Conclusion
 What was determined from the investigation?

Trip Reports

 Purpose and examples

o For information technology, travelling to conferences is common, so
reports need to be on the move
o In HVAC systems installation travel is necessary to report plans back to
home office while on site
 Criteria
o Intro
 Who, what, when, where, why?
o Discussion
 Findings of the investigation
 Challenges of the investigation
o Conclusion
 What was determined from the investigation?

Progress Reports

 Purpose and examples

o Used to keep track of deadlines in hospitality needs
o Helps determine what steps should be made next
 Criteria
o Intro
 Who, what, when, where, why?
o Discussion
 Findings of the investigation
 Challenges of the investigation
 What else needs to be done to finish the work?
o Conclusion
 What was determined from the investigation?
 What else could be done?

Lab Reports

 Purpose and examples

o Used to study and report scientific findings
o In GPS systems, position is reported compared to time to show distance
from destinations
o Lab reports can also be used to help with server issues and find
solutions to those issues
 Criteria
o Intro
  Purpose of the report (is it for scientific research or data
analytics)
 What problem dos the report hope to address?
o Discussion
 How was the investigation covered?
 What procedures were followed?
o Conclusion
 What was determined from the investigation?
 What else could be done?

Feasibility/Recommendation Reports

 Purpose and examples

o In manufacturing, it can be used to research a product to determine
whether it will work for the factory’s needs and physical constraints
o In accounting, it takes interest into account and whether is will
profitable
o And in web design, a report can be made to assess ease of use of web
sites and other online products
 Criteria
o Intro
 Who, what, when, where, why?
 What is the main objective to be handled?
 What problem makes this report worth it?
o Discussion
 Establish the needed criteria
 Analyze the findings of the investigation
 Challenges of the investigation?
 What else needs to be done to finish the work?
o Conclusion
 What was determined from the investigation?
 What else could be done?
The Writing Process at Work
 Prewriting
o Use a simple outline to plot out what needs to be addressed and
established in the report
 Writing
o Formulate a draft from the prewriting ideas to flesh out the report
 Rewriting
o Ask colleges for suggestions on the report and then submit