REPORT WRITNG SKILLS

Definition of a report:-

A report is a document or oral presentation whether formal or informal, in which a given problem
is examined for the purpose of conveying information, reporting findings, putting forward ideas
or making recommendations.

- A report may be either oral or written

TYPES OF REPORTS

1. ROUTINE REPORTS

Routine reports are produced on regular basis e.g. weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual, performance
appraisal, recruits parade state, occasional reports.

SPECIAL REPORTS

These are usually commissions report. They include investigator reports e.g Tana Delta, Baragoi
incidence e.t.c

OCCASIONAL REPORTS

Types of report written when the need arises e.g a report which is made on the events leading to
the accident. They are non recurrent and deal with unique situations e.g accident, disciplinary and
status reports.

THE IMPORTANCE OF REPORTS

❖ A report is a basic management tool used in decision making.

❖ Provision of information about incidents and accidents.
 ❖ A manager cannot keep a personal watch over all the activities, so one has to depend on
reports coming from the heads of the various departments.
❖ Organizations that want to diversify their production, explore new markets potentials, set
up new agencies, enter into collaboration projects, have to depend upon relevant reports.
❖ Examination of a problem.
❖ Feedback on activities
❖ Giving progress on job assignments
❖ Record purpose and future reference
❖ Legal purposes.
❖ It helps implement policies and procedures
❖ Monitor and control operation
❖ To put forward ideas
❖ Analyze facts
❖ To record a source of action
❖ For advocacy – to obtain new business or funding.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD REPORT

a) Precision: writer must be clear about the purpose of the report.

b) Accuracy: should be factual as possible to assist in decision making.
c) Relevance: facts should have a bearing on the central purpose of the report.
d) Reader focused: always keep in mind the person who is going t read the report.
e) Objectivity: conclusions to follow findings and recommendations to be based on the
conclusions.
f) Clarity: easy to understand, simple in language.
g) Comprehensiveness: must contain all necessary information.
h) Presentable: good and attractive to look at by use of good font (size and type), line
spacing, margins.
i) Concise: Short but complete.
PREPARATION FOR REPORT WRITING

Before writing a report, you should consider the following steps.

• Identify the audience, purpose and due date.

• Decide what the report will cover.
• Determine how long each part of the report will take to prepare and in what order the parts
must be completed.
• Decide on the report style (layouts and writing style. You will choose a writing style based
on your audience, the level of formality of the report and the report’s purpose, among other
things.
• Begin your research and collect your source list for the final report.
• Organize your findings and write your report introduction.
• Include your results in the body of your report.
• Form conclusions (and recommendations if appropriate).
• Enhance your report with graphics.
• Write the preliminary pages of your report (summary, table of contents, title page).
• Revise for most effective layout design and writing style.

Layout/format

Most reports contain the following sections:

1. Title page – it is the first page of a report. It includes:-

• Name of the authorizer or the person to who it is being submitted.
• Name of the writer.
• Department from the originator
• Date of submission.

2. Acknowledgements – (usually only in wrong reports). A list of people or organizations

from within or outside.
3. Contents page – (always included in a report of more than four pages). It is clear well
formatted list of all sections and sub-sections of the report. Don’t forget to put the page
numbers. Make sure the headings on the list correspondence with those on the long
body.
4. Executive summary – usually in long reports. – it is very brief outline of the report to
give the potential reader of general idea of what its about
5. Introduction – always included. You include a little background and indicate the
reasons of writing the report.
6. Terms of reference/purpose and scope– a definition of the task; your specific objective
and purpose of writing.
7. Procedure – sometimes included.
8. Methods included if applicable.
9. Main body – always included. It is the substance of the report.
10. Findings/Results – (possibly included in scientific report). This section records the
observation and would normally use statistics, tables or graphs.
11. Conclusion – always included. Your conclusion should draw out the implication of
your findings with deductions of facts described in the main body. Don’t include any
new material here.
12. Recommendation - they should follow all logically from conclusion. They should be
specific, measurable and achievable. They should propose how the situation or problem
could be improved by suggesting action to be taken.
13. References – always included. A list giving the full details of all the sources to which
you have made reference without text.
14. Appendices – sometimes include, e.g questionnaires, tables, letters, charts. It is
supplementary information which you consider to be too long to include in the main
body.
15. Glossary – occasionally included. Include a glossary if the report includes a lot of
specialized vocabulary or acronyms which may not be familiar to the reader.

Editing
 Check ;

a. General layout
b. text organization
c. Coherence
d. grammar, spelling and punctuation
e. Referencing
f. Style
g. Make sure your discussion flows logically.
h. Read what you have written.

Dissemination

• Presentation
• Produce copies and distribute them to the relevant authority.

Referencing styles

Referencing is acknowledging the sources of information that you have used in your written work.
The various parts that constitute a reference are called bibliographic details. These details concern
the publication, distribution and ownership (authorship of the book or place of publication).

They include:

• Author
• Title/edition statement
• Publisher
 There are several different styles of referencing:

• APA
• MLA
• Oxford
• Harvard
• Chicago

Each style has its own rules for properly citing sources.

• Author-date styles (e.g. APA, MLA, and Harvard) put the author's name inside the text of the
assignment

• Documentary-note styles (e.g. Chicago and Oxford) put the author's name in a footnote at the
bottom of each page, or in an endnote at the end of the assignment

All of the most common styles list every source used in a document at the end, in a reference list
or bibliography (see reference list vs. bibliography for the difference between these).
The styles differ in format. For example, an APA in-text citation incorporates the author's name,
the year of publication, and sometimes the page number, separated by a comma:
(Lazar, 2006, p. 52)

An MLA in-text citation, on the other hand, does not include the year or commas:
(Lazar 52)

Likewise, an APA reference list entry puts the year in brackets after the author's name:
Lazar, J. (2006). Web usability: A user-centered design approach. Boston, MA: Pearson
Addison Wesley.

An MLA works cited entry puts the year at the end of the entry:
Lazar, Jonathan. Web Usability: A User-Centered Design Approach. Boston: Pearson
Addison Wesley, 2006.

There are other differences between these two styles: APA uses italics for book titles, whereas
MLA commonly underlines. APA gives first initials whereas MLA uses full first names. When
formatting a reference, follow the style you have been set closely.
• APA style is commonly used in Education, Business, and some Social Sciences and Humanities
disciplines.

• MLA style is often used in English and Media Studies.

• Oxford style is often used in History, Philosophy, and Classics.

• Harvard and Chicago styles are used by some individual disciplines.

If you are unsure what referencing style you are required to use, check your introductory course
materials. If a style is not specifically mentioned, ask your course coordinator.

Other styles
There are several styles that are not covered on OWLL. These are rarely used, but some
assignments will require you to follow styles such as the Australian Guide to Legal Citation or
styles specific to a print journal.
Vancouver style is sometimes used in science journals, for example. This style uses a number to
represent each source, and lists the sources in the reference list in the order they were used.